My Summer So Far...

I've spent a few weeks at my parents house this summer. My dad is in the hospital with severe back pain that has put him flat on his back, so I ended up staying longer than anticipated. I MISS my hubby something fierce, but we are having such a great time together.....

...swinging...

...celebrating my parents 26th anniversary with a special surprise ceremony and reception... (more of this to come)

...spending time with great-grandparents...

....and spending time with friends...

...taking walks and reliving memories of the bike rides and rollerblading we did on that road all growing up...

...getting to spend time with my beautiful little sisters...

....and eating NY pizza! Of course! This one was buffalo chicken wing pizza. Wow...

When I get home I will be able to post more of what we did, but for now I just wanted to give you a little taste. No pun intended. How's your summer going?

A Post About Us

On June 30th, we celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. I can't believe how wonderful these past 4 years have been! It's so worth it to do it right and marry God's way. God is the center of our marriage and with him we can make it through anything! Over July 4th weekend, we went away again and honestly it was about the best time we have ever had together. Our love is so strong and so sweet. We are learning how to love unselfishly and it makes our relationship so much sweeter!

This is the room we stayed in the first night. After that, we were supposed to go stay on the beach, but the weather wouldn't allow so we just booked another hotel in the area.

There are so many things I did this past weekend that I have not done in YEARS......

• Slept until AFTER 10am, with not a soul to disturb me. :) That won't happen again until probably next year so I enjoyed that A LOT. Sleeping until 8:30 is considered sleeping in for me, and that rarely happens, so TEN? Miracle!
• Shopped in a 3 story mall for an entire afternoon without feeling rushed or looking at the time. We had all day. We shopped and talked and laughed and spent money....I got some new clothes and shoes! Yay for me!
• Sat in Starbucks in the mall with my man for almost an hour, enjoying a doughnut and Starbucks triple-filtered water, and the best company in the world. (It is the best. If you are a water lover like me, you must try it!)

• Got all dressed up to go to a nice restaurant. The ones that they pull out the chairs for you and place the napkins on your lap. We were way out of our league, but it was so fun to act rich and dignified for one evening. :)

• Sat in the restaurant with my man and enjoyed being waited on hand and foot. Not once did, "what are the kids going to eat?" cross my mind. I didn't have to cut up any food or stuff any cheerios in any ones mouth to get them to stop screaming and terrorizing the entire place.

• Enjoyed the best steak I've ever eaten...all 6 ounces of it! (Hubby ate the rest :)

• Sat at the pool for several hours, not worrying about anyone drowning or screaming or needing snacks. Sat right in my chair and basked in the sun. It was hot, so it didn't take long and we were back in the pool, enjoying the cool water...heaven!

• Ate several things that were not good for me (strike 1) late at night (strike 2). Like this beautiful Blondie from Applebees. On previous nights it was a snickers bar at 11pm, chocolate cake with oozing dark chocolate sauce from the middle another night.....well, I'll just stop there. We don't all need to know what a glutton I was all weekend! ;)

• Held hands with my lover wherever we went. No children to carry or diaper bags to tote! Free hands!!!

It's so important for couples to take time to focus on just them, especially after children are in the picture! We have gone away over night every year (1-4 nights, depending on what we could do) since we've been married, including when Brookie was 6 weeks old. It is so important to us to have that time away to focus on each other and our love without any kiddos around. We love them, but they take a ton of time and energy and it's hard to find that time for just us when they are tugging on us all the time.

On our last day, we started out with fruit and a work out. We pigged out at the restaurant on the way home for lunch, but at least we had good intentions! :)

We had such a relaxing time. I never thought I would say that. When I go places I always want to do something, but this time, laying around and doing nothing was plenty for us! We were talking in the pool about how we must be getting old! :) Such a special time and I'm so blessed that we were able to do it!

PS. When we got home, Brookie was bawling because she didn't want to leave Jessica's house. She would not hug me. Joe showed a little more enthusiasm. :) Special thanks to our friends Dave and Jess for watching the kids! Obviously they had a great time! We couldn't' have had such a wonderful time had we not known that they were in such good hands. Thanks guys! We love you!