I bought a groupon during the summer for one of our favorite place up near Parksville. We had been there a couple times before. Once the girls and I went up for Canada day with my parents when Adessa was a baby and again with mom, dad, Linsey and Adam when they all came for a visit. It is a pretty special place. We were fortunate enough to book it for New years and went up for 2 nights. Once again we filled the back of Steves truck... babies come with a lot of baggage!!! Stroller, playpen, high chair, food for 3 days, clothes, life jackets, floaty toys. The list is extensive. We were all a little stressed when we finally got up there, even though it is only a couple hours. But we had to stop for groceries and to pick up our traditional New years eve feast that we are carrying on from my childhood!
We got there, set everything up and sat back and treated ourselves to a bit of cable television as we haven't had cable in our house for about a year. The girls were fascinated by commercials and I was quickly reminded why we decided to get rid of it!!!
Amara has been sick for about a month, fighting one thing after another... its been a hard month in that regard, we have found since she turned about 9 months that things have become a bit tricky! The first 2 girls are so big and independent and we were at the point of just packing up and going, and now Amara needs her 2 naps a day or else she is GRUMPY and it kind of wrecks the rest of everyone's day! But we love her to bits and wouldn't trade her for anything... its just a bit tough! We went out for a walk around the resort and the weather was so balmy the entire time we were there. Around 10 degrees and shoots were coming up all over and the cherry blossoms were starting to bloom!
Amara and I dropped Steve and the girls off at the pool and headed back to the room for nap time. Amara slept and I prepped dinner then talked to my mom for awhile. My parents were just getting back from their annual ski trip... I was very sad to miss it, we sure missed our family this Christmas! It was so nice to catch up! I was getting a bit worried about Steve and the girls though as they had been gone for 3 hours! But it was nice to enjoy some quiet with Amara and just enjoy my quickly growing little babe.
The night was rough and no one slept very good at all, so the next morning we all slept in a bit, watched a lot of TV, made french toast, then slowly got ready and went out to explore the beaches. We came back, ate lunch, watched more TV then went to the pool for a couple hours. We took Amara this time and she had a blast... she loves the water!!
We went out to the outdoor hot tub and had the place to ourselves...it felt like we were somewhere tropical, as it was so warm outside and there were palm trees and waterfalls!
When we got back to our room, we were surprised by a good friend visiting from Ucluelet. She also has 3 kids. Her youngest is 1 week younger than Amara. We had a drink together and nice visit. Her daughter, Charlotte has been crawling for a few months and then something funny happened. I was saying how Amara cant crawl yet, just scoots herself around and we look at her and she is slowly crawling toward the kitchen table! So AMARA CRAWLS!
Then I prepared our yummy chicken cordon bleu dinner and twice baked potatoes with Martinellis. We had a big plan for the night with treats, movies and games. But right after dinner Adessa said she wanted to go to bed, so we put Amara and Adessa to bed at the same time- 6:50pm... the lack of sleep the night before and all the swimming wore them out.
Oh and Adessa and Danika are pretty awesome little swimmers. Danika swims across the pool no problem and Adessa has no fear which is kind of terrifying. She jumps in and dives under... taught herself how to do somersaults underwater and sit on the bottom of the pool with her big sister! They are going to be ready for MEXICO... which we are leaving for in 17 more sleeps! Excitement is running pretty high in this household!
The day we had to pack up and leave there was a little party for Heather's daughter, Natalie who was turning 4, so a few girlfriends and their daughters came up from Crofton and we had a little party with lots of giggling girls! There was snacks in the resort room and then a pool party where we had the whole place to ourselves!
