California Dreamin'

It's official, we're booking our first family Disneyland trip!! Hubbyman and I have a love affair with Disneyland - it's where we honeymooned, and it's where we went for our first anniversary. We never thought it'd be this long (6 and a half years) until we'd go again, and we can't wait any longer!

We're going in just about 8 months from today. Princess will be 5 and a half, Tobes will be 2 and a half, and we are so excited! (Except shhh! I have to stop talking about it in front of them - it's a surprise! Thankfully neither have caught on yet...)

We've gotten some flack about their ages, and have heard that we should wait. I know that Tobes might not remember anything, and that Princess will only remember some (she's the same age I was when I first went), but the reality is this won't be their last trip, and they're both young enough to fully believe in the magic of it all :) They're also both tall enough now to ride almost all the rides, which is also important. We'll take them again when they're older, and THOSE can be the trips they remember. This trip is for Hubby and I, and we get to share all the magic of the park with our babies. Princess will FLIP when she meets "real" Princesses, and I know Tobes will love going on some of the rides (he's my adrenaline junkie). We'll take them to Toontown to meet Micky and Minne, and all their friends, and we'll check out the new land that's opening up this summer.

We're staying IN the park at one of the hotels this time (for the experience, as well as for the convenience if we need a mid-day rest), and we're going "for Christmas", which means we'll be in my favorite place at my favorite time of the year, and just the thought of that overwhelms me a little! The lights, the music, the decorations, I super-duper can't wait!

This week I've started to fill out our passport information. Princess and I both had passports from when we went to Ireland when she was a year old, but I accidentally let both lapse. Tobes will need one as well, and as for Hubbyman, well, I just hope he has space left in his by that point! That also means new passport pictures, which should be nothing short of interesting when it comes to Tobes. Princess was less than a year when we got hers done, so she just stared at the camera and all was fine. Tobes is my Mr. Funnyface! I'm not too worried, it should just be... interesting ;) That's on my to-do list for next week.

I'm also checking out as many forums and boards as I can, including disboards.com, micechat.com, and mouseplanet.com. If there's any I'm missing, please feel free to comment below!

I know I'll post more on this later. I'm just so freaking excited. SO. FREAKING. EXCITED!!!

Getaway!

Last weekend was a milestone for my family. Hubby and I had a getaway, just the two of us. We've done overnight dates before, usually selecting a nice hotel within our city and opting for a stay-cation. This time was drastically different.

I visited Vancouver, BC in October for a conference for work. I was excited - I love flying, the conference was wonderful, and it was so weird being on my own (I NEVER travel alone!) But shortly before my trip, it was announced that the airline I booked through was potentially facing strikes starting on the day I was due to leave. The hotel was booked up, and we had carefully figured out flights versus my husband's work schedule versus the conference schedule, and I had no room to rebook or miss my flight. So we opted to cancel, I booked on another airline, and kept the credit for future use (minus a whole bunch of fees, thankfully! Part of their apologies for the "inconvenience")

Hubby had a conference in Vancouver in March, and so we started planning a getaway. It would be the first time Tobes was ever without either me OR Hubbyman overnight. It was the first time since he was born that we were away from Princess overnight too. We arranged a special Grammie-sleepover with my mom, and started to look at hotels, restaurants, and activities for us to fill our time with on our special getaway!

Fast-forward to Saturday morning. We're packed and ready to go. We kissed our babies goodbye and headed to the airport. It was weird not to worry about unpacking kids, and to have so little luggage to boot! We had uninterrupted breakfast in the airport (a theme for the weekend!) and then boarded the plane!

The whole weekend was magical! We went to the aquarium (I used to have an annual pass to it! Back when Tara was younger we used to travel to Vancouver often enough that it was cheaper just to have the pass), walked around Stanley Park, and ate seafood to our heart's content. We stayed in an amazing hotel downtown, went shopping, and went to Grandville Island. All the while it was just the 2 of us. There were definitely moments where we missed the kids, especially at the aquarium (so many little ones running around!) and it was hard to hang up with them on the phone when we checked-in (hard for us, but they were eager to get back to play with Grammie!), but I've got to say there were moments when we really relished our alone time together (uninterrupted meals, and we were able to keep a much faster pace overall). We "struggled" a bit in the beginning trying to think of non-kid-related things to talk about (and if you know me, you know that I NEVER struggle with coming up with conversations!) It was actually pretty funny - we kept having awkward lulls in the conversation and then both burst out in laughter over it. But the goal wasn't to keep the weekend kid-free, it was just time that Hubby and I needed to spend together. Between all his trips (5 in 6 months), my work (which involves a few evenings and weekends here and there) and the general business of life I mentioned in my last post, we needed the time to just have together, and do whatever we pleased whenever we pleased. It was an amazing time for hubs and I, and it's something we're contemplating turning into an annual tradition!

The conference Hubbyman attended is annually held either in Vancouver or Victoria (both beautiful places to visit), but even if I don't join him for those, we live just hours away from the mountains. Either way, it'd be nice to have that time for just the 2 of us to reconnect and recharge. It's funny because I'm still up in the air about it all. I hate being away from my babies, and I am a FIRM believer that time for myself doesn't have to be by myself, or sans kids, but it really was a fantastic weekend. Please know, I'm not feeling guilty about being away from my babies, I just genuinely enjoy the time we have when we travel to fun places together. But at the end of the day, my relationship with Hubs deserves time and attention too, and the uninterrupted night's sleep is also a pretty awesome bonus ;)

Under a Rock...

Couldn't find a cute picture to represent "under a rock", so here's a cute picture of my kids from last summer instead!

Wow! It's been over a month since I last updated here, and I also have 4 posts in the queue for my other blog as well. There's been no real rhyme or reason, just the busyness of life, I suppose?

Work has been growing steadily which is awesome, especially when opportunities present themselves to me without warning. I've got some awesome projects coming up, awesome collaborations, and in the end, because I'm actually working on my own projects that I love (not that I don't love hospital work, because I do, but it's so different when I get to call the shots, know what I mean?) it's a little overwhelmingly awesome at times ;) And a little busy as well!

Kidlets are keeping me super busy as well, and I'm coming to the realization that in 5 short months major change is coming. Princess will start school, and in the fall I'll be shuttling her off to her French Immersion school every afternoon. We finally made our decision and it was a tough one - it came down to a 3-way tie, and Princess got a pretty good say in which school she liked the best as well. I'm insanely proud of the little girl she's become, and I'm really excited for her and hope she loves school as much as I did, but it's one more step in her growing up, and if any of you know anything about me, this is not one area I deal well with ;)

I do have an awesome post to write soon as well, but I'm going to make it separate from this one - one other thing I've been busy with is a little getaway Hubbyman and I were able to take this weekend, but more on that later!

Here's my clumsy little attempt at an update - thanks for reading!

<3