So Not in Charge

I just got back from Sunny California-a long weekend with the girls in my family: my mom, sister, cousin, and her mom. A weekend where I adamantly refused to be in charge. Somehow that role kept getting dumped in my lap though! Next time I will be much more convincing! :) I have to say-we had a blast! My cousin, Gena, is the PR Director at the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara, so we pretended to be fancy shmancy while we stayed...

The hotel was beyond amazing. We had our own suite with adjoining courtyard, champagne delivered to our room, wonderful shampoos and soaps, heated tile in the bathroom...the list is endless. Todd just thought I was high maintenance before-this experience has brought my expectations to an entirely new level. (this pic was taken in our "living room" by the way.) Now I know I need 3 ice cubes in a glass for my dcoke, while I lounge in a fluffy robe with my toes in a mineral spa...

We hung in our luxurious accomodations on Thursday night, and headed for wine country on Friday. Can I just say that there might not be a better hobby than hopping all over Santa Barbara County and sipping lovely wine for free? My own piece of heaven involves living on a winery and floating the river-go figure how that is going to work out.

While we were tasting, my sister began wondering the differences between the 'wine trees', blah, blah, blah. I corrected her and my mother many times in that they were grapevines not wine trees; I'm pretty sure they weren't interested in my botany lesson at this point. We began buying wine in earnest, and looking forward to future wine consumption back at the resort. Which we did. That night we had a good old fashioned slumber party. Complete with snacks, beverages, stories, laughter, and some good bonding.

Saturday we recovered from Friday by shopping in Santa Barbara and heading to the beach. It was a winter beach to us Texans, so we wrapped up in our beach towels as we watched the ocean. We checked into a different hotel that night-one that was not quite as wonderful as what we are now accustomed to. Patti was certain a murder had taken place at one point-there seemed to be evidence still on the bathroom door, or perhaps it was the torn screen. We'll never know. It didn't matter though-we hung at Gena's beautiful apartment and bonded even more.

Sadly, we had to part on Sunday just as we were settling into a routine. I so wish California and Arizona were as close as Bridgeport and Chico!! My family seems to be at the edges of my grasp, and I just want to squeeze them in a little closer so we can live our memories day to day. I want to build on our history-from hanging at Thelma's house in Lubbock, to camping in Colorado-and sharing holidays in between. I'm already looking forward to the next visit; I'm already looking forward to sharing more of my history with my little hoodlums-maybe we'll find out where they grow beer trees or something?