Thinking of Ojai...

Last weekend, my husband Jim, surprised me with a weekend away for my Birthday/Valentines Day. He didn't tell me any of the details until the morning before we left and I had to pack quickly. {I did know that we weren't flying anywhere, as I really don't enjoy travelling by air when I'm pregnant!} Even when we were packing our SUV, for our adventure he still didn't mention anything. But after almost 2hrs of driving we pulled into the beautiful, quaint little Town of Ojai. It's located about 1.45hrs from LA and is on the way to Santa Barbara. We drove up the PCH and it doesn't matter how many times I do that drive, I still marvel at its beauty.

Once we pulled into Ojai it wasn't long before we turned into Ojai Valley Inn & Spa {http://www.ojairesort.com/} and I was taken away by how breathtaking the resort was. It was a deceivingly large Spanish style resort/hotel nestled into the countryside and mountains that had so much character and wonder. There was everything that a person, couple, family count want in a getaway and I quickly learned that it was a place frequented my many celebrities and residents of LA.

We got settled into our suite and started exploring right away. I didn't have much time because Jim informed me that I had a spa appt for a "Mothers Massage" within the hour and he was going to take Mikaella for a hike and then cuddle and nap with her while I got pampered.

The spa was spectacular! The therapist I had for my treatment was excellent. She was Japanese and had to ask me why I had a Japanese last name {I am getting more and more used to this, as I know I do not look Japanese whatsoever} She continued to give me one of the best massages I've ever had and went on to say that she always takes care of Julia Roberts and Anthony Hopkins whenever they visit the resort. After my massage I made my way to the pool and was surrounded by every latest magazine you could imagine and enjoyed relaxing with my cucumber -infused water and took on a pseudo-celebrity persona for the next hour. 

The funny thing about having time to yourself is that when my days are so busy and I fantasize about having a solo moment when the time comes when I do have a time to relax, I just miss my family and want to race to be with them. So, instead of leisurely laying by the pool and ordering food and drinks for the rest of the afternoon, I basically ran to our suite to join in the cuddling that I was certain was going on.

That night, we went to this small but delicious Italian spot in town and stuffed ourselves silly. Mikaella was in fine form for the evening. Her latest thing is blowing on anything that she thinks is hot. But she hasn't quite picked up on nuances and even though I will say to her, "oh sweetie, it's hot outside we don't need your jacket on" she will continue to blow into the air to try and get it to cool down :) oh, how I love her! After attempting to eat the obscene amount of food that we had ordered, which included a personal kids size pizza as pizza is M's favourite food, we made our way through the restaurant but M had to personally say bye to every table first. She is such a friendly little muffin. I always wonder how much of her sweetness comes with just who we were blessed with, or how much of it is what she picks up from us. We are constantly inundating her with our love and affection and I wonder back to high school when I first learned about the "Nature vs Nurture" debate and now have my own little mini-me where that lecture now takes on a whole new meaning.

The weekend was wonderful and I felt so blessed to have such an amazing husband that would go so out of his way to do something so kind, thoughtful and generous for me. The original plan was to go away with friends of ours for the weekend to Mammoth as my friend also shares a February 14th birthday but since there has been so little snow in the mountains we decided to push it off till March. So Jim concocted this plan in addition to the other weekend that we will enjoy next month. I could go on for many more paragraphs about my love for this man, but I will save that story for another day.

xo