I'm back! All about our anniversary trip to British Columbia!

(Joffre Lakes)

This has definitely been my longest hiatus from writing. I've had well meaning plans to get back to this every week, and then life happens. Again...and again...and again. So much has gone on. Ava turned 3 years old, lot's of family activities and the biggest event yet, H and I's 10 year anniversary trip! 

Guys, I had the time of my life on our trip. I really did. I welled up with tears the day before coming back because I was just so happy. It had been 5 years since our last vacation alone with no kids! The reason it had been that long was a combination of things. For one, in 2015 we moved to Florida with no family here, not even a second cousin haha! Also we found out we were expecting baby #4. That will definitely make it hard to travel alone--especially if baby won't take a bottle. Moving close to the beach for the first time is also pretty cool and we love it here. We've spent the last 3 years exploring south Florida and there's still much we haven't seen in Florida. 

The mountains were calling us back though. The pacific northwest will always be special to us. We first fell in love with Washington back when we were dating and H proposed to me in Seattle. We've been to Washington 3 times and on the 3rd trip we took a fairy over to Victoria in British Colombia, It's so gorgeous there and we loved it. A few months ago H mentioned checking out Vancouver which is the capital of B.C and then a surrounding city, I really wanted to visit Victoria again but it was going to take up a large portion of our time to get there. Instead he mentioned Whistler and I'm so glad he did. Whistler was amazing in every way!  Before I get ahead of myself, I'm going to backtrack to Vancouver where we spent 2 nights. Vancouver is great but probably a city I'm ok with just seeing once or twice. We stayed at the Sheraton Wall Center which has these amazing floor to ceiling windows so the view was awesome and the area was great, but I was really surprised to see a lot of homelessness in the downtown area. There's also a big problem with drug abuse. The locals say that there is a big homeless population there because it's on the west side of Canada which is the warmest part. We loved walking all around downtown but we'd literally see some guy coming out from behind the dumpster looking and acting like a zombie! The locals pay them no mind. They just keep walking like they don't even notice. I suppose they are used to them. I would say my favorite place to visit in Vancouver was Stanley Park. It's huge and beautiful. My favorite place to eat was Jam Cafe. If you go, you must eat there and get there early enough or else the line starts backing up all the way down the street. 

(The most delicious breakfast place in Vancouver! Jam Cafe)

(Delicious food from Bauhaus restaurant)

Whereas Vancouver is like the Miami of South Florida, Whistler is definitely the Boca. The city is super clean, quaint, charming and well to do. One of the reasons I would say to visit Vancouver is so you can drive the sea to sky highway route. It's a 2 hour drive from Vancouver to Whistler and the whole drive is scenic. It's absolutely beautiful! My jaw was literally dropping every few miles. I just couldn't believe how beautiful it was. When we arrived to Whistler we went straight to check in at the Four Seasons to put our stuff away and make another 1 hour drive to Joffre Lakes for a hike. Upon check in, the attendant came around and gave me a red rose for our anniversary and later when we went out and came back, they had left us a delicious desert and card in our room. They also upgraded us to an executive suite which was huge with a view of a mountain. The Four seasons was excellent. Wine tasting every night, along with s'more bars and hot cocoa. Their breakfast buffet was also delicious and had everything you could think of. The spa was excellent Everyone was amazing there.

So on our first day in Whistler as I mentioned we drove to Joffre Lakes for a hike. The hour drive there was also very scenic and at times a little intimidating because you're driving on a mountain. We had researched a head of time in Florida for a great place to hike and decided on this one. It was a 6 mile hike and completely worth it. So beautiful!

 
 

On our 4th day in Canada the rain set in and the temperature dropped. We were at least blessed to have had great weather (low 70's) for most of our trip. So with the rain it was a little challenging on figuring out what to do and we decided on riding the gondola up the mountains, and later checking out the rest of the city. The gondola went from the whistler mountain to blackcomb and it was so cool. The best thing is it was snowing up there! It was freezing and we weren't really dressed in warm clothes, but we ran out for some photos here and there. They actually have restaurants, lookout areas, lounges, restrooms, and shops up there on the mountains.

We had such a great time. Just being able to spend uninterrupted time with my husband, sleep in, have fun and no responsibilities was amazing. We had flown my mom in from Texas to watch the kids so they were in excellent hands. Put Whistler on your bucket list, or at the very least British Columbia. You'll absolutely fall in love with it like we did! I can't wait to go back and we'd like to take the kids too. 

Summer lemonade stand & we survived the first week of school!

With the craziness of back to school, I haven't had a chance to write about our first lemonade stand! Mariam and Layla had been asking me all summer and I kept pushing it back until I realized summer vacation was about to be over. We did it the Saturday before school started and they killed it. Sold out of everything! It wasn't just fresh squeezed lemonade, homemade chocolate chip cookies were also sold.

We were out there for a few hours and the weather seemed questionable at times, and Ava made me carry her a lot, but it was worth it. At night when I peeled off my shirt to shower and my arms were sore and I realized how physically tired I was, I thought about how we as mother's sacrifice so much for their children. It was me who squeezed all the lemons and baked all the cookies, but all the glory went to them and it was 100% worth it. The pride they had when they sold everything and the excitement of reaching their goal was a great feeling for me. With their earnings they bought something quite special that they are soooo excited about and have been wanting for awhile. I'll be sharing what it is soon!

How cute are these treat bags from Target!

We had a cooler with ice under the table and more cookies that we would refill. So fun!

Onto school this week. It was a great first week! I'm so relieved Mariam who started kindergarten didn't give me a hard time at all! 

2nd grade

10th grade

Kindergarten

Have a great weekend!

Thoughts on mothering

The girls and H are coming back from Texas tonight. Spending the past 5 days with just Ava here was really good for me. Sure I had to be her all day entertainer but there was a lot of down time to just breathe, to be, to reflect on mothering. Parenting 4 children is harder than I ever imagined! I don't always know what I'm doing, but I try my best and I work myself to the ground for them. Case in point, that sometimes is the problem and I have to remember to not drown in my own storm.

The initial reason I decided to stay back with Ava because I know the progress she had made with sleep could regress. All of my friends tell me that when they've gone on vacation with their toddlers and come back, they've needed to re-sleep train them a bit again. The second reason I stayed back even though I did want to see all the family is because I needed to be a little bit selfish....if it's even considered selfish. I needed to take care of me and I needed this break. I do think I have a healthy balance of getting out with H, or my friends and the junior league and I have a community of wonderful neighbors, and my identity isn't just wrapped up into being a mom, because I'm also a creative and an entrepreneur, but still. I was getting pretty burnt-out. It is some consolation that it's summer and most stay at home moms are literally losing their minds. Ha! 

The issue these days has been that I've been doing and doing...and doing, going through all the motions of what a good mother is supposed to do, but my attitude towards it--my mood, left much to be desired. I was plain tired and overworked. I was getting easily irritated, impatient and short with the girls, and it wasn't good. I even felt bad because I remember there was a time when this was all I ever wanted in life. "God, if I could just be H's wife and have children." How could I be so frustrated when this was all I ever wanted? My neighbor and I were recently talking about happiness in life and she made an interesting point when she mentioned that life isn't always going to bring happiness. It can, but in the ordinary days, it's up to you to create your own happiness.

Contrary to what some people might think, I don't always have it together all the time--nobody does. Life can be hard, messy, disappointing, and stressful. This goes for everyone, and if you're a mother, it's even harder because you not only have to worry about yourself, that worry is doubled, quadrupled, or more. Children don't come with a handbook and I'm a work in progress. I may have 4 children, but I'm no expert because every personality is different! I've gone through the same milestones with my girls, yes I have some experience with children, but my girls are all different! Their moods are different, their way of thinking is different than the other. What I think I may have figured out for one may not necessarily work for the other. The important thing is that I try my best and it's always good to vent to a few caring friends or family. I'm so thankful I also have my faith to see me through and I'm never alone. I truly am blessed with my 4 girls and a loving husband. 

Hello August!

Summer

At this point it's been like almost a month since I've blogged. Every week I have all these intentions to jot down some thoughts, and every week it doesn't happen. I remember at the end of the school year right before summer started I was like, "I'm going to have so much more time to dedicate to my business, and to also find time to relax a bit, blog more." Errr yeahhhh.....that hasn't quite happened. If anything I've had less time to dedicate to my business. I've pretty much just been able to fit in the bare minimum, but it is what it is. I'm still happy with the way things are and I trust in God's timing. Right now my kids need me most, and we've been busy most of the summer working on our sunroom renovation which turned out to be a much bigger project than anticipated. 

My nephew and my brother were also here in July, Serena's been busy with her volunteering and I've had a few Junior League commitments. I've been trying to keep the girl's busy with fun activities outside the house and also trying to stay sane while in the house if you know what I mean. I've pretty much reached that "end of the summer" breaking point where I need some of these kids to get back to school. Haha! With that being said Hank and the girls (minus Ava) just left to Texas this morning. It's just going to be me and miss Ava for the next 5 days! A rambunctious 2 year old can be tough sometimes, but I'm so excited about relaxing more, having the house stay neat, and not cook for 6 people! Also looking forward to getting some quality one on one time with Ava.

Sunroom Renovation

Here is the most current picture as of yesterday and a few from before. So before we started this project the whole point of it was just to change the floor because we had leftover flooring in the attic, and scrape the popcorn off the ceiling because of an old leak. Two things. That was supposed to be it! It turned into sooooo much more than that, and I will explain everything in a separate post because it's a long laundry list of things that had to be done and still need to be done. 

I've been sharing a lot of updates on my instagram stories @itsapinklifefj if this is your sort of thing. H and I are very much DIY people so it's been fun, but also a little frustrating at times. We found a handyman who has been doing the custom millwork to fit the doors and sidelights in. Who would of thought it would be so complicated and it's getting a little expensive, but it looks like we only need him to come twice more some time next week, though there is still a lot to be done. He'll help Hank with some finishing touches on the doors and rewire the electricity so we can put a nice light in. 

Have a great weekend!

Blue & white living room with a touch of gold

I've been trying to blog for the past two weeks but summer. What can I say? My nephew flew in from Houston last week and I've been keeping the kids busy. We're also in the midst of renovating the Florida room. I was able to steal some time right now and I've been meaning to share our completed living room. It's finally complete!

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the past  but when I first was thinking of how to decorate the living room, I didn't really have a plan. I knew I wanted this particular type of TV credenza so that was the first thing I found and I just built on that and the paint color I chose for it. The experts say that's a good starting point. Find a statement piece for the room and just go from there. The credenza I found used and ugly on Craigslist. Here is how it looked when I bought it. I believe it was around $200. It's solid wood.

Here are some before pictures. Our house was built in 1979 and when we bought it two years ago, let's just say it needed lot's of love. Everything seemed to be original in the house except a few things like the showers and toilets. Thank goodness the previous owners splurged on luxurious showers! Oh they also put in hurricane impact windows and sliding doors. Love that!

It was very much a family affair. When we bought the house we only had 9 days to get it move in ready. H is in banking but he's also super handy and talented. He can figure out how to do anything. Between him and my brother they were able to get the house ready in time. Serena and I also did our part and one of her friends helped a bit. I have a lot more before pics too of the rest of the house that I'll be sharing once I get to the corresponding post. 

Even baby Ava helped...

and the girls were troopers with all the Home Depot trips

I did my best to source everything here below, though a lot of the decor was from HomeGoods which doesn't have their products online. HomeGoods is life!

Coffee table: {Joss & Main}

Decor on coffee table: See my previous post here

Sofa: {City Furniture}

Loveseat: {City Furniture}

Chair: {City Furniture}

French gold & crystal 6 light chandelier: I first found this light on Joss & Main, but it's sold at different sites like Wayfair, Overstock and Amazon. You can do a reverse image of a product and it can show you the site that has it cheapest. I believe we bought it from Amazon. Overstock}

Art on walls: Slava Brodinsky custom framed at Hobby Lobby

Rug: HomeGoods

Faux fur blanket: HomeGoods

Weave basket: HomeGoods

Gold vase and faux flowers on TV credenza: Hobby Lobby

Blue and white pillows on large sofa: {Burlington}

White crochet pillows on loveseat: {Bed bath & beyond}

Paint color in living room: Glidden whitecliff beige

TV credenza paint color: Glidden Sea spray

For the most part I think everything is done in here though I have been on the hunt for a small end table to either fit between the sofas or at the corner of the living room by the family picture. You don't have to spend a ton to get your house the way you want it. My best advice for doing things on a budget is patience. Don't buy on impulse. I went to several different stores looking for what I had in mind and often times I'd walk out with nothing and just go back weeks later, or continue scouring the internet. My first place online for wood pieces is always Offer up. I am a decent painter now, but it took practice and mistakes.

Have a great Monday!