To Us.

"I have a surprise," Nate announced earlier in the week. He had booked us a hotel for our anniversary that weekend and taken care of babysitting for the 2 older ones. We were looking forward to it all week, but when Friday came, Joe had watery eyes, green snot and a nasty cough. No way could I bring him to a babysitter like that--especially considering that it was my sister-in-law who has 5 kids of her own.

 We considered cancelling the reservations and doing it the next weekend when I suggested just bringing the kids with us. 

 Romantic, no, but a fun family getaway? Yes.

 And so we celebrated our 6th anniversary with 3 kids in tow and had the time of our lives. 

(Because of all the bags I would be carrying around, I decided to leave the big camera home and use only my iphone for pictures.)

We started out the evening at a favorite pizza place. There was a lot of, "don't touch that," "stop doing that", and "sit down", along with a spilled cup of ice water, but mostly it was spent soaking up every minute of time together as a family.

After that, we walked  into the gorgeous lobby of our fancy hotel looking like the Beverly Hillbillies. I laughed and said I was embarrassed, so Nate checked in alone while we waited on the side and blended in with the scenery. You can't spot us, can you?

After that it was down to the pool right away. We forgot the floaties and I forgot something to swim in, so I sat outside of the pool with the baby and watched Nate play with the kids.

 The hotel was downtown surrounded by the beautiful city, but my favorite view was watching the father to my children hold them tight, laughing and having a good time. I never thought when we got married that 6 years later our arms would be full with three beautiful babies and we would be more in love than ever.

After we got in our room and everyone dried off and changed, I put the baby to bed (practically in the bathroom :) and we all piled on the bed to cuddle and watch a movie.

By the time the movie finished, it was late and the kids crashed out within a few minutes of settling down.

We ordered room service--an amazing mousse cake for me and apple tart with vanilla ice cream for him. We sat eating, sharing bites, laughing softly and whispering so that we wouldn't wake up our beautiful sleeping babies. That part? Was Romantic.

 The kids were all up before 8:00 the next morning, so we didn't get to sleep in too late, but cuddling and laughing on the big soft bed together and talking about the days' plans was better than a little extra sleep. 

 When we left Saturday morning we tried to be super cool and all city-like and find a trailer downtown to eat out of, but after driving around for a while, we ended up at our all time favorite diner. It was perfect.

After that it was a trip to the mall, where I have not been in months. Taking all three to the mall for several hours was actually way more fun than it sounds. They behaved great and all got rewarded with new sunglasses. Joe scratched his within a few minutes, and by the next day they were bent beyond repair. Thankfully they were less that $2.00!

When we got home I put on my wedding dress (that I can still zip up but definitely would pass out if I had to wear it all day) and got a few pictures. Brookie was so excited to see me in the dress and Buddy settled down on the train, ready for a nap.

 The kids went to bed by 7pm because they had no naps, and Nate went and bought us a cake to cut. It had layers of chocolate mousse and custard and was the perfect size for two.

 We cut it with the same knives we used for our wedding, fed each other a piece and kissed. And then we sat in silence as we stuffed our face with the rest of the cake that was a little taste of Heaven.

We are living proof that you can find romance even after kids come along. Even though we had them with us all weekend, we still found plenty of moments for smooches, eye gazes, hugs and "I love you's". No, we will never be as focused on just each other as we were 6 years ago, but now it's even better and our love is stronger than ever.

Happy Anniversary. To Us.