Well, a lot of things have happened in the last 2 months to account for my dissappearance...For once, and the most important Jamie's mum from Australia came over to stay for about 5 weeks.
So we did a lot of things with the kids. We had the Thanksgiving Break during Mum's stay, so we decided to take a road trip down to San Diego to take mum on a real holiday! Without cooking and cleaning! (babysittting was compulsory though on the occasional night :-). And she said she did not mind.....well judging by the fact that she was asleep along with the kids when we got home - at a reasonable hour might I add, remember we are not used to being let out of the house on our own anymore- i kind of believed she didn't mind :-) ).
When we decided which way to take down to San Diego, there were 2 routes considered:
-the I5 which takes a reasonable 9 hours (if LA traffic is normal, but it never really is, so you never actually know how long it will take!)
-and the crazy scenic Highway 1 route, proposed by yours truly, which takes a brain stopping 12 hrs (of actual driving, not really accounting for breaks, which you must when you travel with kids that have bladders the size of an ant)
Well, you can imagine that husband dearest was not at all impressed with the thought of being in the car for longer than neccessary; after all he's an engineer, so in his head, is like, San Diego=9 hrs of driving. Who in their right mind wants to be in a car with 2 kids for 12 hrs??? I mean seriously?
My arguments? Pretty good I thought:
-Mum has never and probably - most likely- will never do Highway 1 again!
-Highway 1 is one of the most scenic drives in the US (or so I've been told)
-Jamie was not driving anyway, it was going to be me (that vertigo still persists so yours trully has clocked some crazy driving hours recently. Don't even really want to know how much my car's selling price has decreased after all the miles I've put on it in the last 2 years).
-His Ipad was loaded up with movies, as were the kids.
So, in the end he gave up and made me happy and we took the crazy 12+ hrs route down! Anyway, LONG day, we finally arrived in San Diego ready to hit the parks the next few days! (poor Jamie, that's all I can say. I had the tickets, and they were for a full week, so they needed to be used to the max!)
Sea World
The pools view from our room at the Hyatt
View from the room
Safari Park
Jamie and Alina on the wettest ride at Sea World! She was soaking!!!
(we brought a change of clothes after last time)
While down in San Diego we also had a lovely surprise, we caught up with good friends from CT Ray and Michelee and their 3 beautiful girls. We had not seen these guys since we moved from the US in 2005! It was really nice and totally unplanned! I babysat Tea, their oldest back in 2003....Such a beautiful young lady!
After San Diego Jamie and I were off to Florida for a week for a trade show. This was the first time we ever left the kids with anyone else! I have never been without the kids for even one night, let alone a whole week! I knew I could trust Mum with them, but was it really doable? Would I really be ok? I knew the kids would be ok without me (maybe Jacob would miss me a little, he's the clingy lovey one), but would I without them?? I was told by friends that I would seriously miss them.....
Well, you know what? I have NOT really missed them! It was great to be away, even though it was mainly work, and travel and trade show, it was a break and I really enjoyed it! I might have felt guilty a few times for not missing them, but that thought really dissappeared quickly! I had not had a break in 5.5 years! So it was really needed!
And so Mum was left with the kids for a whole week, a new schedule, a new car, driving on the OTHER side of the road and having to navigate and remember how to get to school and the shops.... and she did great! Bring on the next trade show!
We had a lovely Christmas break that was full of relaxing and more relaxing! Basically we just vegged for the first week! And vegged some more! Jamie's favourite passtime, so he was really happy.
The second week we braved the cold and went to Yosemite National Park with friends for 4 days to snowboard (we are really not cold weather people! That's the reason we have not been to the snow in 4 years!).
We couldn't have asked for better weather! Just above freezing, clear blue skies every day and no wind! Perfect snow and perfect weather made for a really good snow trip! And we got the kids on snowboards for the first time, which was awesome! They took to it like ducks to water, which makes me a little jealous! Seeing as I kind of had to re-learn it after not snowboarding for the last 4 years!
Yosemite falls
And this is why crafting was put on hold for a while. Well, not entirely, I did quite a few things, but not as I normally do. I will put up some pictures in the next few days of some of the projects I have been busy with.
Hope all is well with all of you and hope you have had a blessed Christmas break with the family!
Hugs,
Renate
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