Monday, August 13, 2012

A Weekend Without Kids

Travis and I were married for nearly 8 years before we had kids.  Life was quite different back then.  There was more freedom, fewer responsibilities, and significantly more recreation time.  Then along came this little beauty...
...and before you know it, another one...
...and things, well, they changed.  Priorities shifted.  We were parents!  And while we would not trade that privileged role for the world, we do have our moments when we miss the freedom we once had.

That's why we were abundantly grateful to YaYa and Papa for flying into town last weekend to keep the girls so Travis and I could take a little trip to celebrate our 10th anniversary.  Leaving one's children is never easy (even in the loving arms of wonderful grandparents), so I implemented rigid parameters so I could feel more comfortable with the arrangement.  I wanted to go someplace where I wouldn't be surrounded by kids so I wouldn't be constantly reminded of how much I missed them, and I wanted to be within a very short drive so I could return quickly if need be. 

In our little corner of the world, this rigid criteria limited our options significantly.  So for the first night, we chose to enjoy dinner and live music at a rural winery, which is how we ended up here, in "The Victorian Suite":
Now I won't mention the hotel chain but suffice to say, it was not the Ritz Carlton...nor the W...nor the Hilton...nor the Holiday Inn...but with a couple of glasses of wine under my belt, I found the surroundings quite amusing.  I even joked about stealing that lamp.  However, in the sober light of morning, the idea of being trapped in a Charles Dickens novel quickly lost it's appeal and I longed to return to the latter part of the 21st century...so we headed off to a casino and golf resort where we traded the flicker of an antique lantern for the glowing lights of the slot machines!

We spent a whopping 10 minutes gambling (at the rate we were losing, that was plenty of time) and the rest of the time lounging by the kid-free pool, dining in the kid-free restaurants, and shopping in the kid-free boutiques.  My desire to not be reminded of how much I missed my children was easily fulfilled in this environment where Travis and I were among a small minority who is not currently collecting a social security check. 

While the initial "I can't stand to leave my babies" tears threatened to put a damper on our romantic weekend getaway, I pulled myself together; and Papa lost his bet that I would return home before the 24 hour mark!  Everyone had a great time - especially YaYa, Papa, and the girls.  I can speak from personal experience that time spent bonding with one's grandparents is absolutely priceless.
We rounded up our fun weekend by returning home, gathering the family and heading out to watch Travis pitch (and win!) at his softball game.  To quote Josie's enthusiastic cheer at the game, "Go Travis!"


Stay tuned because we have so much more funny stuff to catch you up on!

3 comments:

  1. Happy 10th, we spent ours last year in Ukraine! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  2. Go Travis, don't you just love it when kiddos call their parents by their real name, they're so cheeky.

    ReplyDelete