Mission Inn, Riverside

Over the weekend Jess and I visited the Mission Inn, Riverside for the first time.

We received a gift certificate for our birthdays (Thanks Marlene & Sam). The price of the rooms are pretty steep so we decided to use it towards food. (Yea baby) What a pleasant surprise. This place is AMAZING, and maybe one of my newest favorite places to hang. I love love Spanish architecture and there's plenty of it to be had. The hotel itself (or what we saw of it) was gorgeous. Out of the threee hotel restaurants, the one with the shortest wait was the Italian cuisine.

(Bella Trattoria). 

There was a 45 minute wait so we decided to stroll around. This hotel is right downtown so there are shops everywhere. Our first stop was Casey's Cupcakes. It's another Sprinkles. Overpriced cupcakes, cutsie decor, but I have to admit, the cupcakes were pretty good. (Yes, we ate dessert first). Then we walked around "people watching" one my favorite past times, and just sat in the sun on this gorgeous afternoon and talked.. Yes, to each other..lol.
While sitting there a man came about with a cage full of the cutest kittens EVER. I'm highly allergic to cats, but was drawn in by their cuteness. I pick out my favorite and held it for about 10 minutes. Apparently this man found these kittens, near death about 2 months ago, and only wanted to find these littles a good home.
I fell in love and begged and pleaded for Jess to let me bring one home for Kristen. He stood his ground and we left kitten-less. To his defense, Ethan is just as allergic as I am, or even more so. It was a good decision.
It's was our turn to eat. (BTW, it was fancy. when you check in they take your cell number and CALL you when your table is ready... hahah) Jess loved his pasta, spicy penne and I got a margharita  pizza (eh). Lunch was fine, nothing fabulous.. but all in all it was a great day and I plan to go back and visit the architecture very soon. Our next adventure we hope to actually get a room and see the inside of this amazing, historic hotel. Until next time Riverside...

Confessions

I just wrote an entire blog, edited it for print, then deleted it. That's not how this is supposed to work.
Frustrated.

Good Night

Each night before the kids go to bed I tuck them in and talk about their day. I ask the same few questions every night to get the conversation started. How was your day? Anything exciting happen? Did you find yourself frustrated for any reason? Did you eat all your lunch?, etc etc. Usually I hear about the new kid in school, who dominated the handball court or who has a crush on who (which I'm sworn to secrecy on BTW)
But last night, while laying with Kristen I learned much much more, I learned that that my baby girl, all of 7, is so grown up and has the heart and soul of a mature adult. She's so in touch with her (and others emotions) it's amazing.
As we were discussing her day she told me" Mom, I was really sad today at lunch", naturally I asked her why. She then told me about one of her friends (in another class, that I do not know). She told me that her friend seemed really sad so she asked her what was wrong. This friend then proceeded to tell my daughter that her mommy is pregnant and last night (a few days ago now) she got into a car accident. She said "my baby sister died". This alone breaks my heart, but the capacity at which these two 7 year olds discussed this traumatic event is what amazed me. Kristen told me "I'm very sad for her, can we bring her flowers"... We layed there and cried together.

 Words can't express how much these night time chats with my kids mean to me.