Well, this last week, we had our last week of holidays. The kiddies had been out at Radium with my parents and they all arrived home yesterday evening and my parents left 15 minutes ago. Now everything can get back to normal around here. One more week and then the munchkins are back in school and life kicks into high gear. Why does the summer always go so fast?

Anyway, Josh and I had a wonderful week together. We joined the gang at Radium for a few days and had a couple of days alone at home after. Radium was fabulous. We spent time with my parents and the kids but we also had some time alone as well. I initially thought it was nuts to go to a hot springs place in the summer (we usually go in October when the weather's already turned cold). Turned out that the air was quite cool while we were there so the hot pool was lovely. It was so relaxing - especially the first evening when Josh and I were there on our own.

The second day we were there, we celebrated our oldest girl's 13th birthday. Yes, Josh and I are now the parents of an honest-to-goodness

teenager!!!!!

We spent most of her birthday at Fairmont - it is absolutely gorgeous there. It was a good day and we all got burned to a crisp. I'm thinking the sunscreen that I bought for the kids is totally awful cuz it didn't work at all. The poor kiddos are all so burned. Anyway, the next day Josh and I had an amazing day at the golf course. It was wonderful golfing in the mountains and I actually didn't do too bad. Practise is really helping and I now feel like I am starting to have some control of my swing. We stayed there three days and then came home late Wednesday night. The last couple of days we have been relaxing and golfing some more. I had an amazing round yesterday at a new course we had never been to called Goldenwest. I'm guessing it's going to be my favorite. I actually beat Josh by 9 strokes on the front nine!!!!! That is so awesome for me as I'm usually nowhere near his score. Unfortunately, the back nine didn't go so well. I got pretty mad at Josh for something he did and then my game went downhill from there. I ended up losing it all in the end. Lesson for all who golf: don't let anything get to you or you will suck!

So today is going to be a nice, relaxed day - I hope. I'm going to basically hang out here with the kids - other than a quick trip to the salon. Here's a lovely quote from my dad from the other day: Helen, I didn't know you had a moustache! So I better go and get that taken care of. Oh, and then tonight I have a girls' night out. Dinner and a movie, last I heard. Really looking forward to that.

Oh, one thing I didn't write about yet: The day after we arrived back, I finally made use of my birthday gift from last September. Josh had gotten me a gift certificate for a full-hour massage and a manicure and I'd never gone and used it. After a year they expire and seeing as my bday is coming up soon, I decided to finally get-r-done.

IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!! The massage therapist explained to me that I could choose a nice, relaxing, fall-asleep kind of massage - that would be relaxing but would not actually help my body much. OR we could do some real work and really whip those muscles into shape. Well, I've actually never been into this whimpy kind of massage so I chose the work out. AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!! Yup, there was some pain involved. At times it was even excruciating. But, oh, was it GOOD!!! I really felt great after and I'm really hoping I can do it again soon. Too bad it's so expensive. Oh - when I filled out my little form at the beginning that tells about all the different problems your body is going through, I had written that I have psoriasis on my feet. I won't go into what that is but he said that some of their clients have experienced some success with the mud bath. So he wrapped my feet in mud. Yes, I thought it sounded crazy too but I gotta tell you, after an hour in mud, my feet haven't looked this good since - well I can't remember when. Weird, eh? The manicure was nice too, although the girl barely said a word to me the entire hour and I find that very awkward when you're sitting so close to someone and they're working on your hands. But she did a very good job. So after all this, I have decided that pampering yourself is definitely NOT overrated!!!
Well, I guess that's enough of an update for now. I better go have some breakfast. I'm famished.

God bless.