Location: Southern California
Attractions: Beaches, Beautiful Weather, and doTERRA Leadership Conference

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It seems like we have been lucky enough to make it to California around once a year the last few years and every time we are there it gets harder to leave. The original reason for the trip was the doTERRA Leadership Conference in San Diego, but since we were making the trip, we decided to come a bit early and enjoy the sun and sand of SoCal and visit brother Cory for some post birthday shenanigans since his birthday was the week before.

Jill’s brother lives in San Clemente, so we asked if we could shack up with him for a few days and spend the weekend with him. He not only offered us his hospitality, but offered us his room and bed while he slept on the couch. What a guy!

Along with the great place to stay, we had the pleasure of meeting his sweet black lab, Bandit. We instantly fell in love as both of us grew up with labs and had just put our very own lab to rest about a year ago. Bandit is a rescue dog but one of the most well behaved dogs that I have ever met. He listens well, has a great temperament, and genuinely loves people.

Since we left Iowa with around 2 feet of snow and cold and rainy conditions, we spent most of our time just walking around enjoying the sunshine. Bandit accompanied us on most of our walks and we were glad to have him with us. We kept joking that we were going to bring him back with us.

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When Cory was at work, we stole his truck and drove to Dana Point. We hiked along the cliffs and boulders for quite a while, stopping to look at different sea life in the shallow water. We found some sort of sea life in the water that would fold in on itself. We called them sea urchins, but I have no idea what they really area. Comment below if you know! They were squishy but had a rock like exterior when it was folded up. The picture I took had 3 of them and it illustrates the progression pretty well.

As we were turning around to head back, we saw a couple of kids coming out of a crevice in the cliff that we hadn’t seen the first time through. We asked where they came from and they told us about the cave. I believe his words were, “It’s the coolest place in Dana Point”. I’m really glad we asked because it was breath taking. There was a narrow path leading to a wide open cave that had been washed out from the waves during high tide. We spent a good amount of time just hanging out, enjoying the serene sights and sounds.

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Every night we were there we made an escape to make sure we caught the sunset. There is nothing quite like the sun setting over the ocean. And no sunset was like the one before. There were always different clouds or more mist from the salty water crashing against the beach. One of the sunsets seemed to set Catalina Island on fire.

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Now for the whole reason that we were in the San Diego area. The doTERRA conference. I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the conference. I’ve been to conferences like this before (so I thought), where you get force fed some opinions and it just seems to increase any skepticism that you already have about a certain company or industry, but I told myself I was going to go into it with an open mind.

I’m really glad that I did. Call it “buying in” or “drinking the Kool-Aid” or whatever you want to call it, but I had a great time. The speakers were all very informative and the messages many of them were giving were all about improving yourself, being the best you you can be. Yeah they talked about their essential oils and how doTERRA changed their lives, but the overall resounding message was, be you. “Do you” and show up for yourself and your team and good things will happen. I found it very helpful for my own confidence and applicable to my job as a Project Manager in addition to helping Jill with her doTERRA business.

The company seems genuinely concerned with all people in every facet. From the farmers who produce the crops that they make the oils out of, to the wellness advocates that help get the oils to the masses, to the people using the oils to help better their lives. Every step of the process, the founders oversee and want to make sure they are improving people’s lives. I’m really excited to see where this company goes and am thankful to be along for the ride.

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