Santa Barbara

This year, Josh's Activision Summit was held at the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara again. I jumped at the chance to tag along, get to stay in a fancy hotel and enjoy some me time.

It. Was. Amazing...Amazing.

Oma and Opa kindly came down from Revelstoke and stayed with the kids. Such FREEDOM. Even the taxi ride to the airport was relaxing and carefree. On the plane, I got to watch a movie. Uninterrupted. We drove to Santa Monica to some shopping before heading to Santa Barbara in the evening. I was able to shop for a swimsuit AND underwear. Uninterrupted. I even took a soak in the tub (Uninterrupted) before crawling into bed.

You get the point. The second day, I woke and headed to the gym and then sat at the beach for a bit. Josh was going to be busy for the whole day, so I had all the time in the world to do whatever I wanted. When I got hungry, I treated myself to breakfast in the hotel and promptly headed straight for the pool. Heaven. In the afternoon, I drove to downtown Santa Barbara and went shopping until the evening. A dream day, that ended with another bath before crawling into the comfy bed with my book and waiting for Josh to come back.

The three days were wonderful and I made sure to enjoy every last minute of it. As the taxi pulled up to the house, Ethan popped his head out the window and the look on his face when he realized it was us, was priceless. It made coming home just as sweet.

DIDO Ski Trip

Before all the kids came along, our DIDO group used to go on a few ski trips. Such fun times. Since then, well since the kids have come along, the Blommesteins have been on one ski trip. I think Maddy was only about 3 or 4 months old, so only Josh went skiing. This year was our first trip with friends and the kids. It was such a great time to be skiing at Big White with the kids and our friends. We are now free of the bunny hill and the kids are really loving it. The kids didn't even bat an eye on their first chair lift ride. They took it all in stride and it's such fun to be skiing longer runs.

Yvette found us a great place that fit all four families (Each family even had our own bathroom!) The kids loved hanging out in the hot tub, playing pool, and watching movies in the evenings together and the adults had lots of time to hang out after the kids went to bed.

Sorry, I only have two pictures and even those two, I stole from Liezel (Sorry Tita!) Both Josh and I were not very good at remembering to take pictures on this trip. The first one is of most of our group. We were able to get a few run with all the kids and all the adults, except for Ed and Sophia, on our last afternoon. It reminded me of herding cattle, but it was super cool to know that we can do this now. (Not the herding cattle part, but the whole 'have fun skiing with our friends AND the kids' part)

I had to include this photo of Ethan. I've noticed in all the ski pictures, he has the most beautiful smiles. Usually he loves to be a ham and stick out his tongue or make a face. When we ski, we always get beautiful "I'm in heaven" smiles from him.

Looking forward to next year already. Thanks for a great time!

***Just for my own memory, as it seems to be failing me more and more often***

Big Josh: She's a fox!
Yvette (with her back to the TV): Just the fact that you used the word 'fox' to describe her, really dates you.
Big Josh: Um, no really, she's an actual fox.

Oh god, the memories!!!!