Our friends Angel and Brandon got married on June 6, and Mio was asked to be a flower girl at their beautiful wedding at Zion Springs Bed & Breakfast in Hamilton, Virginia! It was a laid-back but gorgeous wedding full of lovely DIY details, and was full of fun, just like the couple! Thank you Angel and Brandon for letting us be a part of your big day!
The wedding festivities started with the rehearsal dinner on Friday night. It was Mio’s second time being a flower girl in the span of two weeks!
Saturday was the wedding day, and it was a beautifully sunny day, perfect for an outdoor ceremony and reception at the tranquil bed & breakfast venue.Â
There were so many lovely details at the wedding, as you’ll see from the photos…
Mio wasn’t afraid to kick off her heels and join in the dancing!
Thank you Angel & Brandon for letting us be a part of one of the most memorable days of your lives! It was such a fun and classy celebration, and we were thrilled to be there. 🙂
On our last full day in the Bay Area, we got to take the girls to Children’s Fairyland in Oakland! I had heard about Fairyland while we lived in the area and that it was a really great place to take kids, but we had moved away before Mio reached the age where she could really enjoy a mini-amusement park like that. It was the first time going to Fairyland for all of us (even Dan!), so it was a new experience for all of us, and we fell in love with the quaint and charming mini-amusement park from the 1950’s, with its whimsical storybook sets, gentle rides, and friendly animals.
Mirei crawling through a tunnel:
Clothesline and windmill:
Mio looking into the Japanese tea garden:
Looks like Miss Mirei is going to be a little bookworm, too!
Fairyland was truly magical, and the girls had such a fun-filled day there! Our trip to California had been fairly grownup-centric with all the people and sights we wanted to see and places we wanted to eat, so I’m glad that we could set aside a day to dedicate to doing something that was all about our girls enjoying themselves. It’s too bad we no longer live in the area anymore, as Fairyland is definitely the type of place we would love to take the girls often!
Wednesday, May 20 was the last day of our vacation within a vacation, and we packed up at the beach house in the morning and spent the earlier part of the day at nearby Moss Landing before starting the drive back to the East Bay.
Mirei was imitating the sea lions she saw earlier in the morning by barking like them:
We’re so glad that we could spend this time with Dan’s side of the family, seeing the beauty of the Monterey Bay and Big Sur and enjoying each other’s company. They will be memories we’ll cherish for years to come!
Tuesday, May 19th was the highlight of our family getaway with Dan’s family, as we explored our main destination of the trip — Big Sur! We got to go to Point Lobos, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, and Pfeiffer Beach. Dan and I had gone to Big Sur three years ago and we fell in love with the gorgeous sights there, especially the waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We have been talking about coming back to see Big Sur for a while now, so we were thrilled to be able to return, and to get to show our girls the sights there, too.
Our first stop in the morning was Whaler’s Cove at Point Lobos. It was pretty cloudy and overcast in the morning (typical of Northern California), which only intensified the unsettling aura of the cove.
We then took a walk around the cliffs of Point Lobos, and took in some of the prettier sights there. It was my first time at Point Lobos, but I observed that it has a very rugged beauty to it.
After eating lunch, we drove over to my favorite part of Big Sur — Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park! It was a bit of a drive from Point Lobos, but it gave the weather time to clear up, and by the time we arrived, the sun was completely out, making for a gorgeous day to see one of California’s most scenic locations.
Our last stop in Big Sur was Pfeiffer Beach, which looks like a beautiful beach set straight from a movie, with light shining through the Keyhole Arch rock formations and almost purple-looking sand.
The girls got to play in the sand with the beach toys that Grandma thoughtfully brought along for them.