Santa Cruz Girls' Weekend

We were way too busy having fun to take a lot of pictures, but it was an excellent weekend in Santa Cruz with the friends who helped me survive the pandemic shut down. We hung out at the beach, ate good food, stayed up way too late talking and laughing and sharing hard things.

We even snuck in a few hours at the Refuge spa which might be my new favorite place. We didn't do all of the treatments, but just hung out at the hot and cold pool section where there were four temperatures of pools to move between, a sauna, and a steam room. It was incredibly relaxing.

Celebrating in Syle

It's not every day that you get to celebrate a big birthday with an old roommate while hanging out at a spa in Vegas.

Chris' husband really went all out planning this weekend for her (and all of us!).

  Amazing suite in the Four Seasons, massages and pedicures at their spa,

and the J-Lo concert that night! 

We squeezed in plenty of pool time and good food and hanging out, too. It was so fun to catch up with old friends, make a couple new ones, and have a weekend of pampering.

Divide and Conquer

This weekend was the church Father/Son campout, so we got to divide the troops. Daddy-o took these two boys camping Friday night (this is the after picture.)

This is only the second year that Peanut has gotten to go, and this year, a lot of his friends also came. I guess the fact that he HAS several friends this year is kind of big.

 If the dirty faces are any indication, they had a great time! They didn't sleep much, and as Daddy-o says, it's a lot of work for less than 24 hours of camping, but the boys absolutely love it. Peanut especially can't stop talking about it. He asks multiple times a day, "I want to go on that same trip again with." And he absolutely doesn't want me or Bean to come along.

But that is okay with us because while the boys  were gone, we had a lot of fun. Friday eveing, we read in the hammock for a bit and ate pizza and ice cream while binge watching Once Upon a Time. Saturday morning, Bean slept in (and I got a crazy amount of stuff done during those couple hours) and then we went for a run on the greenway and came home to make French toast with fresh strawberries and whipped cream.

When Daddy-o heard about our time, he remarked that it sounded really relaxing. I think at the stage we're now at, I get the easier end of the Father/Son campout. I used to be left with a baby who woke up all night and a daughter who really wanted to have girl time, but was being thwarted by her little brother. But we paid our dues and now get girl time galore.  Bean is old enough for us to do things that are really fun for me, too, and only having one of the kids makes it so easy, and quiet. Totally different experience for Daddy-o as he tried to keep a 4 year old from drowning in the river, got kids to bed hours past their bedtimes, set up and cleaned up camp (including someone else's kids' pee who had an accident while playing on Daddy-o's bed), and has to function on 4 hours of sleep the next day. Yeah, I'll stay home with my girl.

Weekend Away

This weekend I took a total of 5 flights, 21 or so hours in airports or on planes, to spend a couple days at home. But it was so worth it. Largely because those flights were kid-free (there weren't even any kids I could hear on the planes!). It makes a big difference when you can walk on carrying only a small backpack(and that was all my luggage), instead of my normal 6 bags full of toys, snacks, diapers, blankets, and emergency clothing, and I was able to read two books in the course of those flights. It makes the travel part almost fun.



One of my friends from high school got married this last week (and the pictures I took of the happy couple didn't turn out very well, but they are the ones in the top right corner) and since everyone else was making the trip back, I couldn't be the only one to not show up. And I am so glad I went. It was such a great day spent with old friends. It started with a wedding party,


and ended with an impromptu post-dinner gathering so we could all see our very pregnant friend who should have two new babies in the family any day now.


These girls were my friends in high school. And junior high. Actually, a couple of them go back a lot farther than that. I love that we can get together, 15 years later, and still have a great time. It's like things never changed. Except there are husbands now. And a few babies. And we live all over the country.



I also got to go back to my old church. Every time I walk into that chapel, I look around and feel like I don't know anyone anymore. But then, I keep finding more and more people I want to say hi to and end up chatting in the hallways for much of the last 2 hours of church. Most of my mom's friends are still there and I look around at these women who probably don't even realize what an influence they have had on my life and am just so grateful to know them (and I'm so glad that my mom has such an awesome group of friends as well.) There is just something special about people you have known your whole life.



I was able to stay with my brother and his wife (no pictures, but they still look a lot like this)and we had a very lazy Sunday afternoon and a delicious tri-tip dinner.