Ojai Part I

With only one year excluded because they were closed for renovation, we haven’t missed a November here in 21 years. Crazy, huh? But let me tell you, I love it. We love it. And it just gets better every year as the kids get older. We have tweaked and perfected our routine pretty well through the years. For instance, we prefer heading up on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, less traffic, and the week is that much longer. And then we used to come home every other year on Saturday because of the USC and Notre Dame game. Well now we come home on Saturdays no matter what and spend Sundays unpacking and doing laundry and becoming a normal person again. 

My sister and I have also perfected the spa. We know which providers are best for certain services, along with the times of day that are ideal for the most relaxation. And if you ask my sis, it’s from 11am-5pm, that’s pretty much the time each day that Tati is nowhere to be found. Well, she can be found but only if you are donning a robe and slippers. 

As a family we even know the rooms to request each year. Yeah, we’ve been going there awhile.

It was pouring rain when we arrived Tuesday and it rained all day Wednesday. So rain and 3 small children along with a hotel room, just don’t mesh well. So we took the opportunity to go see a late morning showing of the new movie Bolt. The kids enjoyed it, and so did Aaron and I, it was cute. Although Miley Cyrus’ voice irked me to no end.

That left Thursday and the rest of the week with the most gorgeous weather. It’s really chilly at night there, sometimes it dips into the 30s and 40s, but I don’t think it got below 50 this time. And the days ranged between 60-65. The resort has some of the most gorgeous backdrops for photos. 

Click here for some pics from our last trip there. Gunnar is loving the whole golf aspect of the vacation now. And the kids just spent hours walking around the grounds and hiking trails. I have a ton of photos to share so I will divide them up a little. Here is part I. They have the best benches and gorgeous trees all over the property. It just screams FAMILY PORTRAITS. I only wish it were closer to where we lived, or we would be all over that!

There are more photos to come of our day at the Santa Barbara Zoo with our good friends, Jane, David, and Alissa. 

 

apparently. . .

my children are much more computer literate than I am. In fact, they know how to do things that I have no clue how to do. For instance, they had the giggles one night and they were hovering around the computer as I was folding laundry. After about 10 minutes I came into the kitchen to see what could possibly be so funny. Well, Macs have this photobooth program apparently and the kids have known how to do it for a really long time. 

They showed me the program and these were in the archive. Tanya, when did you take this?! Literally, there are hundreds of photos. Mainly of Sawyer all by himself. Now I know how he stays busy while I put Greta down for her naps. Here are my faves.

And then they showed me how to work it. 

We are HERE right now, so I’m going to take another little break and enjoy some massages, time with my family, and the Santa Barbara Zoo. Be back next week.

favorite

I don’t think I have another set of photos of the boys that can compare to these. I absolutely adore these photos of the boys. I love their expressions and faces, and hair, and just everything.

a small trip down memory lane

I believe this is going to be the week of nostalgia. I have been going through older photos and cannot get over how big my kids are. It literally hurts inside to look at how little they once were and now they are reading and writing and going to school, well, almost for Greta. Here’s an oldie of Gunnar. I cannot believe he will be seven years old next week.

And Sawyer.

And Greta. She is contemplating how she can get that leaf and put it in her mouth.

scanning

I have embarked on a little scanning project of old photos. I figure there is no time like the present to preserve these memories that I have no negatives or backup copies of. Nana gave me a whole box of stuff that she gathered when decluttering her house and told me not to give them back to her. The treasures of what was in this box! Check out this photo of my mom! Total babe! 

And here is a photo of my sis and me. Check out the matching tongues, and our beautiful eye bags; one of the side effects of having big eyes. Fortunately, my sister’s eye bags have always been bigger than mine.  he he he

facebook

Like I needed one more thing to log on to and remember my password for. I didn’t even know I really signed up for Facebook when I did. I got some email from a friend and when I clicked the link it took me to the homepage and asked for my email and password, so I plugged it in. Then nothing happened.

 I realize now that I was joining. And then I got an email from an old friend in Chicago, what’s the word, “friending”? Aaron called up to me from the kitchen, “Deborah, when did you join Facebook?” “I didn’t. What are you talking about?” “What am I talking about? What are you talking about? Come check your email.”

Yep, that’s how I guess it started. So if random people start getting friend requests, it’s intentional, I think I am doing it correctly. Aaron sat there typing in like everyone’s name he could remember from kindergarten, and with first and last names that amounted to like, . . . 8 people.  He told me to watch out, you never know when an old girlfriend from Barnum High might find him! he he he

my little indian

How cute and proud is Soso in his Indian costume!? They were learning all about the Pilgrims this week. He has worn it all day since he brought it home yesterday.

And check out the perfect pattern on the vest. Every single triangle apparently had to have 3 dots in them.

cereal

Greta could eat cereal and milk morning, noon, and night if I let her. She is a cereal nut. And she insists on a particular routine for cereal. You have to bring over a step ladder and set it by the island, place a kitchen towel down and put the cereal and milk bowl on top of the towel, then you must place 2 spoons next to the bowl, one toddler spoon and one regular spoon. She likes to alternate between the two. I think I may have another OCD child developing. And then I think, maybe they aren’t born OCD, but I MAKE them OCD! Oh, no. It’s all my fault! Anyways, here she is feeding herself her most favorite meal. 

keeping us busy

I bought this book and had no idea how BIG of a hit this was going to be with the boys. Gunnar used to draw for hours, and then kind of lost interest for awhile. Well. . . not anymore. He is back to drawing for entire afternoons, and his little brother has followed in his footsteps as well. I love that this book, although it may revolve around Star Wars, has inspired their inner artist.

Another thing that Gunnar and I can do for hours is play chess together. On Mondays he takes a chess class in the after school enrichment program and today I walked in to pick him up near the end of class and I was able to watch him play chess with a 2nd grader. These two boys just went back and forth, Gunnar was a little disheartened when he lost his queen, but 3 moves later, Gunnar had him in checkmate. For me to beat him I have to really concentrate of what I’m doing, otherwise he will just walk all over me. And he’s 6! I think I learned to play chess sometime last year. . .

Here is out sad chess board, well, the board is awesome, our pathetic plastic pieces are another story. Fortunately our wood pieces should be here sometime this week. 

recovering

My little “no voice” mishap turned into a raging sinus and upper respiratory infection. I finally went in to the doctor on Thursday, and he knows it’s bad when I am sobbing as soon as he asks me what’s wrong. He put me on 3 different antibiotics and told me it was pretty bad. I was afraid it was pneumonia since I could not breathe for the life of me. But it wasn’t. The great thing was that he prescribed me a cough syrup with codeine. That is the stuff! I took it at 11am on Thursday and can’t tell you what happened until 9pm that night. Unfortunately I think there were a few hours that day where the kids were home with me alone. Gunnar was here, so don’t think I am totally neglectful, but there was a lot of roaming through the house and climbing in bed with mama and attempting to pry her eyelids open to make sure she was still alive. 

The lovely part was that Wednesday Aaron started his new job, so he was unavailable Wed-Fri, and then on Saturday he had an 8 hour training day. But we have watched a lot of movies, read a lot of books, broke open our new Diego and Princess Wii games, played a lot of Chess, and my mom and sister came to the rescue throughout the days as well. I am on the mend, thank goodness although my friend’s tell me I still sound like a man. So much for the sexy voice, huh?

This will teach me to listen more carefully to my body and go to the doctor sooner rather than later.