Girl Talk At The Four Seasons Silicon Valley

I’ve been doing hotel sleepover getaways since I was pregnant with my second child. It started at The Four Seasons in Westlake Village who has a “Let It Snow” package they do in December that includes a night in after their annual winter event that includes s’mores, ice skating, and a visit to see Santa.

Usually our sleepovers are all about a day of swimming, ordering dessert for room service, and falling asleep coloring in bed. This is the first time we traveled alone together so it was fun to pick a place I’ve never been and see a place for the first time though her eyes.

I’ve been in Los Angeles ten years now, but whenever my husband and I think about going to San Fran, it’s usually cold and after moving from the east coast.....that usually makes it a hard pass. Usually we go to San Diego after her birthday for “Kids Free October,” but this was the perfect time of year to head up here and explore by foot. We took the day slow with time to stop for good food (no we didn’t try the ice cream with chocolate covered crickets in my stories!) and playground breaks.

I remember when my husband and I did our first weekend away as parents at Bacara in Santa Barbara, I met a couple with two kids in high school. At this point, Alaia was just a few months old and I was getting ready to “retire in the room for the night” before fussy time hit while they were getting ready to start their night and go grab a table downstairs for dinner. It felt like I was a world away before I could see the world at nighttime again, but in our brief meeting, I loved seeing how close their kids seemed to their mom even though they were teenagers. I remember the dad saying their one tip was to take the kids off on their own sometimes to make time together alone with each parent. I never would have thought of that before (probably because of the massive mom guilt I feel when I do things with one child and not the other).

He said the special bonding that happens (when there’s no competition from the other sibling) created great memories for both of us. And after some of our time together away as she’s gotten older, I am glad I listened to that bit of advice. Even just the small ice cream dates or movie nights with her or her brother seem to strengthen our bonds. While we were cuddling in bed yesterday, Alaia said “I miss my brother today, but think I know why you wanted to go on a trip with just me. I’m important to you, aren’t I?”

Talk about melting my heart.

Moving forward I think what I want to do is make a travel scrap book for the two of them. I still have one of mine from high school. I’ll take something from the day like a ticket stub to tape to the page and at the end of the night, write out three things that stood out from that day that we did together. As a child, traveling with my family is some of my best memories growing up and probably part of the reason that the first thing I did when I graduated and moved to NY was start looking to see where I could book a tip overseas to. As a parent, I’m hoping these trips will not only make great memories for us, but make my kids feel special as individuals and let them know the world is a place full of adventure and experiences waiting to happen.

Summer School - Learning A New Skill For The Summer

School is out this week and although both kids will be enrolled in camps while my husband and I are working, it still feels like we will have some downtime because we will be light of the sports and extra activities. With my oldest being an early reader and my youngest starting, I’m going to do my best to go to the library each week so they can pick a new book for us to read together. I remember being part of summer book clubs like Book It (free pizza at Pizza Hut!) and 600 Minutes (Free ticket to six flags!) which I loved, but while I think these programs helped me start an early love of devouring books, I wanted to try my own twist to it.

In college, I never really had a summer “off”, but whether I was taking summer classes or working at an internship, while it felt great to have a break from the demands of the school year, that didn’t mean I needed to take a break from learning. For me, the best part about the slow days of summer is that you have a chance to learn on your own terms. So while in school I would pick a class I was really interested in that had nothing to do with my major, and even while away on internship I would enroll in something that excited me like a commercial acting class or art class.

For myself and my kids, I want us to each pick a skill that we want to learn and use books that we check out at the library, YouTube videos, and a lot of trial and error to work on it to continuously get better over the summer. For me it will probably center around shooting and editing video and for my daughter around art. I’m not sure what my son will pick, but I know he’s always been into helping in the kitchen so I may start him out with snacks and smoothies he can make after school. We haven’t picked it out exactly, but we have a few days together at a hotel when school is out to try and figure it out!