Sunny California!

Last week we were fortunate enough to get away from the snow for a short time. Rob, Sawyer and I went to sunny Santa Barbara to see our friends TC and Kristen and enjoy some warm weather. It's official, I love Santa Barbara. What a beautiful town right on the water. We loved catching up with the Johnstones, and Sawyer was able to experience his first visit to an In and Out Burger - a monumental moment. In addition, it was perfect weather and we were able to enjoy the beach and a boat ride to one of the uninhabited islands off the coast. The boat ride was a gift to us from one of our Young Life friends who is on staff in Santa Barbara; Emily was on our assigned team at Crooked Creek last summer and we have remained friends with her and others in her region. The ride lasted about four hours and we were able to see one of the islands and some sea lions soaking up some sun. They had seen whales earlier that day, but just our luck, no whales when we went out. However, we did end up right in the middle of a pod of about 3000 dolphins. That's right - 3000. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Everywhere we looked, there were dolphins. They were swimming and jumping right next to the boat. I included some pictures but they don't do the experience justice. In a few photos, if you see splashes or bumps in the water all over the picture, those are dolphins - they were as far as the eye could see. Amazing. Sawyer was really into the boat ride and fell asleep in my arms at the very end. Too bad he won't remember the day. We'll definitely have to do it again when he's older. I wish I was still there, especially since it has snowed several days this week. Ugh.