Like Streams of Water in the Desert

For the last several years, my mom, sisters and I have spent a long weekend together each Spring as a Mother/Daughter retreat. This year, my mom and sisters invited Sarah and Katie to join us. We decided to meet in Palm Springs for a few days during Spring Break. 

The day before we left, Sarah got a text from her friend Brooke (from Cypress) who was visiting Los Angeles over her Spring Break. Since the drive to Palm Springs skirts the east side of LA, we were able to meet up with Brooke and her mom in Burbank on our way down. Sarah and Brooke immediately reverted into their silly, crazy ways, and it was fun to watch! I'm so glad it worked out for them to see each other on such short notice. What a blessing for Sarah!!

We left Burbank on an emotional high at about 4:15 and were immediately stopped in LA traffic. It took 90 minutes to go 17 miles! Talk about a mood buster! The girls did great in the car, reading, playing on their phones/itouches, and napping. We arrived in Palm Springs at about 8:00 and got settled in our cute Airbnb. The rest of the crew didn't arrive until about 11PM so the girls went to sleep and I settled down to read and wait.

The next morning, we went to the Palm Springs farmer's market, which was lovely. We came home with oranges and lemons, strawberries, a variety of veggies for roasting, several different delicious cheeses, and my girls each had a juice. A complete success! We spent the rest of the day cooking, eating, relaxing in the hot tub, and planning our remaining days. Very relaxing. 

Our second day we drove to Joshua Tree National Park for some hiking. It was a vast, dry, thirsty land. I felt like we were driving through the middle of nowhere just to get to the trail head! 

We did the Skull Rock Trail, which was 1.7 miles. Sunny, yes. Hot, yes. Dry, yes. Beautiful, Absolutely. It was so interesting to me. I have never really considered the beauty of the desert before, but I really enjoyed it. 

When we got back to the house, we were all tired from being in the sun. I took a little nap and then we relaxed in the hot tub for the rest of the afternoon.

The next day we went to the Living Desert Zoo, which is very impressive. My favorite exhibits were the road runner, the screech owl, the baby warthogs, and the giraffes. There were volunteers throughout the zoo that were full of interesting information to share. 

After the zoo, we found a great little Mexican restaurant (with VERY strong margaritas) for lunch. 

Our last activity was the Aerial Tramway, which took us 2 1/2 miles up the cliffs of Chino Canyon and provided breathtaking views of the dessert. 

It was quite chilly at the top, elevation 8500 ft., so we didn't stay long. By the time we got back to our house, that margarita had done me in, and I was not worth much for the rest of the evening, although I did manage to beat Sarah to the punch and win our game of Clue. We had family game time each evening with Yahtzee and/or Clue (both new games for my girls, but classic Estes family games), and that was one of my favorite parts of our trip.

As I reflect on our trip to Palm Springs, I am drawn to this verse from Isaiah 32:

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness
    and rulers will rule with justice.
2 Each one will be like a shelter from the wind
    and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
    and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

For me, spending time with my mom and sisters was like streams of water in the desert. These first few months in Bakersfield have been difficult. I have missed my community and my family. But I feel refreshed after spending that time with Mom, Ash, and Leigh. Especially since Mom came back to Bakersfield with us for the rest of the week, and Leigh came up over the weekend for Easter festivities. I feel like I've had a drink of fresh, cool water that will hopefully carry me until we go home to Houston in June. And I thank God for renewing my soul at just the right time. 

The Sweetness of a Friend

"Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel." Proverbs 27:9 (ESV)

Well, I can't attest to oil making my heart glad, but I certainly experienced the sweetness of my friendship with Aimee last weekend as we talked, encouraged, counseled and prayed together while exploring God's beautiful creation in Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands National Park. I feel like we just tried to soak in each other's presence for 2 1/2 days. It wasn't enough, but it was wonderful.

I picked her up from the Burbank airport on Friday afternoon and we tried to high-tail it out of LA and get to the coast ASAP.  Unfortunately, I kept missing my turns and having to reroute our path, so it took longer than it needed to. But, once we finally saw the ocean, we pulled off the highway and scaled down a small but quite steep hill, jumped over some railroad tracks, and ta-da---ocean!! Ahhhh (big sigh). Aimee had never been to CA and she never tired of looking at the view of mountains on one side and ocean on the other.

Aimee found a great seafood restaurant for dinner that looked out over Ventura Harbor. The view was beautiful and food was amazing, but the conversation was the best part. Aimee is a fantastic listener and she is slow to speak, usually asking questions that make me consider my situation in a different way and almost always giving advice that is more along the lines of sharing wisdom than telling me what I should do. Just one reason why I love her.

After dinner, we headed to the hotel and went to bed early, since Aimee had a long day of travel and her body was still on CST.

Saturday we spent exploring Santa Barbara. We walked and walked and walked some more! Our day included a delightful coffee shop, a farmer's market with beautiful and delicious treats, shopping for cold medicine, walking down Stern's Wharf, a wine tasting and olive oil tasting at Santa Barbara Winery, piddling around a few cute shops, some pretty delicious ice cream, and a scenic drive up to the Old Mission and then back down to the beach where we relaxed our feet waiting for the sun to set. After another great meal at a Mexican place Aimee picked out, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Sunday was Channel Islands day. A boat took us out to Santa Cruz island. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get there, and along the way, we spotted some California Grey Whales, dolphins, and a seal! The whales were truly amazing, but I love that we got to see a seal swimming freely in the ocean. I've never seen that before!

We spent about 4-5 hours on Santa Cruz Island. We did a guided hike that was very informative and then we hiked a little more on our own. The scenery was awesome, and the weather was perfect. We were so blessed to experience it. We brought a picnic lunch of some fruit and bread from the Farmer's Market and some cheese we bought at a little cheese shop in Santa Barbara. It was so delicious, we forgot to eat the Butterfingers bar I brought for dessert!!

When we returned to the mainland, we were both pretty exhausted. We decided to do an easy dinner of leftover bread and fruit, along with some wine and cheese and chocolate we picked up at Trader Joe's. We relaxed by the fire pit at the hotel and ate dinner while we shared more stories and struggles and encouragement and wisdom.

Aimee's flight left early on Monday morning so after a 2-hour drive to the airport, it was a quick goodbye.

The sweetness of a friend...that is the best way I can describe my weekend. I'm so thankful, for all of it.

Mammoth Mountain Adventure

The girls had a long weekend due to the President's Day holiday, so we took advantage of it and went skiing at Mammoth Mountain. Brian's friend from work let us use her condo for free which was awesome! We drove up on Friday as soon as the girls got out of school. We went straight to the ski rental shop when we pulled into town, only to find a line a mile long and no more kids' skis in stock. Arrgh! Apparently, President's Day weekend is the busiest of the year for Mammoth. Fortunately, "busy" for Mammoth is actually not that bad. It was not even close to the busyness of Breckenridge at Christmas time. Anyway, Brian took off to another ski rental shop to secure some kids' skis while I waited in the line to get the adult skis. After about 1 hr and 45 min, we finally had everything we needed and headed to the condo to bed.

Unfortunately, Sarah brought a really bad preteen attitude with us to Mammoth, so we decided to leave her back at the condo on Saturday while Katie, Brian and I went skiing. The scenery was so beautiful! Katie did a great job skiing for a while, but after lunch, her courage peetered out and fear took over. We were about 4/5 of the way down the mountain when she decided she couldn't go any further. She took off her skis and slid down the rest of the way on her bottom.

After Sarah's bad attitude and Katie's paralyzing fear, we almost decided to pack it up and go back to Bakersfield on Saturday afternoon, but I was able to convince Brian to stay and give it another try on Sunday, and I am so glad I did. I prayed like crazy on Saturday night that we would enjoy skiing together on Sunday, and God answered my prayer!

Sunday skiing was great. It was another beautiful day, about 45 degrees and partly cloudy. Sarah had a good attitude the whole day (miracle!!) and Katie was very courageous. I reminded her of the verse Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." She repeated that verse to herself all day long, and she did great. Sarah was also courageous, or should I say fearless! She and Brian tackled some blue-black runs with lots of moguls. I'm just glad she finished the day without any injuries!

After skiing, we spent the rest of the day playing in the snow, making a snowman, and piddling around the town. Then we had a nice early dinner. We played Boggle back at the condo and watched Frozen before bed. It was exactly the enjoyable family time that I had hoped for.

Here is a video of Katie cautiously skiing down a blue slope:

More Paint!!

My time last week was focused on more painting, but this time I did the work instead of paying someone else to do it! I started by painting Katie's ceiling white because it was previously painted yellow, the same color as the walls in her room. Then I painted her walls in a light-ish blue. Brian calls it "Bibbety-Bobbety Blue". I think it looks great with the quilt on her bed. After a couple of days rest, I got to work on Sarah's room. I painted it the same color that I had painted her room in our former home in Cypress. It is a light, bright turquoise called "Tahitian Breeze". These colors in the pictures don't look that much different, but in real life, they are definitely different. We still haven't hung anything on their walls, but that will be on the to-do list next weekend, and then we should be done with their rooms. 

Brian did hang my family portrait wall last weekend, and it makes the house feel much more like home! We also went through the rest of the boxes in the office and I finished loading all our books onto the bookshelf in the playroom, which means we are pretty much done unpacking. The only boxes left are things that need to be sorted through and possibly donated, so they are currently stacked in the closet for "later".

The big event of the weekend was Sarah and Katie's first playdate. Sarah's friend had invited her to go to the movies with herself and another friend of theirs. When I dropped Sarah off at her friend's house, I found out that the girl's little sister and Katie are friends as well. So, I offered to bring the little sister back to our house to play while the older girls were at the movies. It worked out so nicely! The little girls played for several hours, making robots out of boxes. I see many future playdates and sleepovers with this family.

Paint!!

The painting in the main part of the house is done and I absolutely love it!! It's even better that I didn't have to paint it myself. We've never hired painters before because I don't think it's that hard to do and I can do a pretty good job myself, but there was so much painting that needed to be done, it would have taken me weeks! It took three guys 2 days. Here are the before and after pictures:

We spent much of the weekend figuring out where to hang things on our newly painted walls. We hung a few things but didn't make much progress. Oh well.

We also had the pool heater replaced last week, a pretty large expense that we weren't planning on. Turns out there were a couple of mice that had built a nest in the old one, and their waste ruined it. Imagine that! So, now we have a nice new mouse-free pool heater that works like a charm. And Brian set a mouse motel next to it to make sure it stays that way!

Friday night, Brian and I went on our first date since moving to Bakersfield. We went to a Bakersfield establishment, Buck Owens Crystal Palace. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was pretty darn cool. It's a restaurant, dance hall, and museum all in one! The Buckaroos (Buck Owens's band from when he was on Hee-Haw) still play there regularly. Some of those guys have been in the band for over 40 years! We ate dinner and danced a little and listened to the band play, while Sarah babysat Katie for the first time and did a really good job. We were quite impressed with her.

Saturday we heated up the hot tub and soaked for a while. It was very relaxing! We also used the outdoor kitchen for the first time on Saturday. Brian grilled a pork tenderloin and zucchini that I bought at the farmer's market. It was delicious! A pretty good day in my book.

Santa Barbara

Last week began uneventfully, but then Sarah woke up on Wednesday with a stomach bug. Thankfully, it was only a one-day deal and she was back to her normal self by Thursday!

The rest of the week was a little...boring. We are still doing all the little things to get settled here. Like changing our address on our accounts, having the pool heater serviced, deciding on paint colors, etc. Speaking of paint colors, I thought we had decided on them last week, but the more I looked at the samples we had painted on the walls, the more I was unsure. So we decided to get some help. We had the Color Rep from Sherwin Williams come out on Friday to help us decide, and she was fantastic! I am so excited about what we chose. The common areas are going to be Balanced Beige, which is a cross between beige and gray. I think it is going to look great with our brick fireplace and brown granite countertops. The kitchen color I am really excited about. It is called Underseas, a dark blue-green. I plan to buy a few accessories for the living and dining rooms in that same color to give some unity to the space. It should really lighten up the house and make the kitchen pop. I can't wait to get rid of the monotone butterscotch that is currently covering most of our home!!

Here are some "before" pictures:

We decided to go on a little weekend vacay to Santa Barbara. It only took 2 1/2 hours to get there. We went up Saturday morning and came back Sunday evening. When we arrived in SB, we stopped for lunch at a delicious little pastrami deli called Norton's and then headed to the beach, where Katie went right to work on a sand castle and Sarah ran around in the water. 

Santa Barbara is really beautiful with the mountains on one side and the beach on the other.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel in the heated pool and relaxing around the fire pit. Burgers for dinner and a family game of marbles  (Brian and Sarah were the victors) rounded out the evening.

Sunday morning we toured the Santa Barbara Mission. It was very cool. I learned a bit about California history and architecture. It is still a working mission and they had a mass while we were there, so we were able to hear the beautiful organ music.

Then we went down to Stearn's Wharf and discovered an art street fair. We spent the next hour looking at a lot of beautiful and creative art (some not-so-beautiful) and we ended up purchasing some rings for the girls and one for me too! I was very happy to buy a souvenir that supports a local artist rather than some little trinket at a tourist shop!

After lunch at another DDD restaurant (Mac's Fish & Chips) we headed out of town, stopping at Rincon Beach on our way to watch a surfing competition, the Rincon Beach Classic. There were so many surfers in the water, I don't know how they kept from seriously injuring one another! The waves were huge and the surfers were amazing! Sarah decided she wants to learn how to surf. Except she's terrified of sharks in the water! It was a pretty cool ending to a nice weekend away.

 

Next week is painting week!! I'm so excited to see what the finished product looks like!

Once the painters finish with the main part of the house, I will start on the girls' bedrooms and the hall bathroom. I see a lot of work in my future...