Day 5: Solvang (Mini Horses, Hats, & Surrey)

A few years ago Ned and I took (then) baby Ella to the beautiful little town of Solvang.  Since we again were in Ventura, we decided to head through the hills above Santa Barbara to the cutest little Danish town in Santa Ynez.  We enjoy the Hans Chirstian Andersen Park, Windmills, Danish food & pastries and lots of quaint little shops.

I LOVE this little sign since it is basically my name combined.

Funny story of the picture above. I told Ella and Asher to go stand in "front" of the pretty little bushes for a picture and Asher ran over and sat "in" the bushes.  I tried to correct him but he wasn't having it, he wanted to be IN the bushes.  Many tourist saw it happen and thought he was so cute and that it was so funny they asked if they could take pictures of him.  So someone in Japan (& others) have pictures of my Asher sitting in a bush.

One of MY favorite things we did was rented a Surrey bike (4 seats) and two seats on the front of the bike for the kids to buckle in (so funny looking).  There wasn't much to see since we travelled so quickly around the tiny town, but we had fun and adventures. 


The kids played a game SCREAMING "Hi & Hello" to everyone on the street. People were entertained and amused and yelled back to us, and had fun.  HOWEVER we all were mortified though when Asher suddenly yelled "HELLO MISS PIGGY" to a portly lady.  He has never done anything like this and I have never shrank so low in humiliation in my life.  But we don't think she heard, but it still was a "moment" we most likely will never forget.

We ate at The Belgian Cafe and had lots of fun, as usual!

We visited many little boutiques and had fun at the hat store trying on various hats as well.  

Ned also planned an outing for us while in Solvang that we all just LOVED.  We went to Quicksilver Ranch.  Which is a mini horse farm.  It was so neat to see all those minis.  The best part was this little baby guy (below) which was born just a few hours earlier. He was close to him Mama the whole time, wobbling on his legs, and still has messed up hair. The kids loved knowing that the mama horse had a new baby like we did.

While visiting the Ranch we happened upon the cutest playground I have EVER seen in my life.  Everything was Danish(ly) decorated and SO cute.  The kids had a blast running around while I was enjoying the paint colors and architecture of the adorable area.

What a fun day!