Another year, another decade

So, I'm 30.  Somehow it went and crept up on me.  One minute I am 21 and looking forward to birth of my first child, then BAM! I'm 30.  With said child now a lanky boy who walks to school by himself, a  girl of 7 (going 17) and an 18 month old who has discovered the art of the tantrum.  Where did this last decade go?

All that being said, I am really excited about what the next ten years will bring.  They sure have a lot of living up to do, because when I look back over the last decade (with its ups and downs), I know that I would do it all again with pleasure.

So, how did I celebrate?  We went as a family to stay in the most beautiful, luxurious log cabin ever, up in the Laurentian Mountains of southern Quebec.  On my actual birthday I was surprised in bed with a breakfast of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, tomatoes, fresh bread and fresh coffee mmm, mmm,  mmmmmm.  Well, I say surprised, but I did put my order in.  The surprise was that it was ready before I even woke up (as opposed to me hanging on in bed until I get up out of sheer hunger and frustration to find out what's going on and where the hell my breakfast is).  After breakfast I got to stay in the huge four poster bed all by myself and read with not an ounce of guilt.  Or thoughts of washing up, cleaning, sorting out the kids infiltrating my mind and ruining the peace.  Then we went to some stables nearby, and me and the kids went on a horse ride through the hills.  Lucky me, I got the horse that decided to bolt just minutes after I mounted it.  I spent the first 20 minutes of the ride with a rising sense of panic I as kept having to slow my horse down and prevent it from headbutting Ben's horse just in front.  Just as my horse calmed down, and me too with it, the horse behind (ridden by one of the stable hands) starts acting up.  It was like having a bucking bronco behind me.  So I spent the rest of the ride looking nervously over my shoulder in case the horse scared my horse or charged us all.  Somehow despite all this, I managed to take in the breathtaking scenery all around.  It really was idyllic.  I got a little chuckle at Ben riding his horse like a sack of potatoes - a horse which kept stopping to munch on the vegetation all around.

The next day I visited a nordic spa where I got to lounge outside in the forest in hot pools, followed by taking plunges in ice-water pools, sit in an aromatherapy steam room, relax near the waterfalls around a fire on a lounger, under the trees in a hammock.  Zzzzzzz, I feel sleepy just remembering it all.  I then had a wonderful aromatherapy massage followed by more steam room and relaxing.  Bliss.  I couldn't have asked for a better way to welcome in my 30's.