10 years

As much as I don’t love to admit it, Jeff is right a lot of the time. He has a good, common sense, realistic perspective that usually makes more sense than whatever direction my emotions are tugging me at the moment. Or the next moment, which is usually an entirely different direction all together. When the idea of going away for our anniversary came up, we were both on board from the beginning. We realized that this could be our “perfect storm” to get away. Close to all the family, not pregnant, not nursing, vacation days to spare, and everyone is well adjusted and sleeping through the night. Then, I started having cold feet about leaving the children. Jeff said it would be worth it. He promised me the kids would be fine, and we would have the time of our lives. Of course, he was right.

Reasons why I’m glad Jeff was right:

1. We had an entire week of uninterrupted conversations, and even enough time together that we could simply enjoy shared silence. Who knew that could be such a treasure?

2. We both love big cities. We love places we can go and NOT drive. We love to walk and make use of whatever public transportation cities have to offer. We’ve ridden trains, buses, trolleys, and monorails in cities all over the world, and we love seeing how each city has a unique take on moving its people.

3. I mentioned walking. We walked and walked and walked. Miles and miles, hand in hand (not four hands in between us), over bad sidewalks at times even, but we didn’t notice because we had NO stroller. We love walking and exploring.

One of our discoveries while walking.

4. We visited the local market at least once each day, bought raspberries, watched them throw fish, ate delicious deli sandwiches, and enjoyed street musicians. I love street musicians. Good or bad, you gotta hand it to ‘em. That takes guts.

6. We wandered into thrift and antique stores and browsed all we wanted. We even found some amazing polyester ties to add to Jeff’s collection. We couldn’t believe our luck!

7. We visited museums and stayed as long (or as short) as we wanted. One we stayed for only 30 minutes, but our favorite (the Museum of flight) we stayed for several hours. We even walked through a retired Air Force One.

8. We went to a comedy show one evening and didn’t even need to find a sitter.

9. We didn’t stop our day for nap time, or to eat at places that serve chicken nuggets. We didn’t pack snacks, and we didn’t carry sippy cups. We ate wherever and whenever we wanted. Good food partnered by conversations with complete sentences. How do you beat that?

520 ft up

10. We lay in our hotel bed, watched movies, TV shows, ate yummy things, and went to bed late. And then, we slept in.

11. What should have been a 30 minute trip to find the temple, took us 2 hours. And we loved it.

12. We found a trail along the waterfront and ran on it. Together. Twice. In all the years we’ve enjoyed running (more years for Jeff than for me), we’ve never, ever run together. We had two very nice 10K runs that we agree are two of our favorite memories of the week. (Cue the fantasies of when our kids are old enough to leave behind, and we get to do this regularly.)

13. We were mistaken for honeymooners. That was fun, considering it’s been 10 years. And at the same time, our tour guide sang a lovely rendition of “Popcorn Popping” when he found out we were from Utah.

14. We ate breakfast in a “hole in the wall” diner. Generally, I think it’s a waste to eat out for breakfast because I’m quite happy eating simple things for breakfast, and breakfast food for lunch or dinner (a staple in our house). But, we have a very specific memory of our time in San Francisco that included a breakfast diner we all fell in love with. So, we reminisced with food, and were not disappointed.

15. We watched glass blowers. We never would have dared go past the front doors of that shop with the children.

16. We found a candy shop. We kind of like candy. We felt like two kids in a candy shop. Oh wait… We picked two of every candy that looked good and sampled them all as we walked along the pier. Fun.

I wasn’t going to blog about our trip because as we think back on it, that time feels almost sacred. That time together was so priceless. Then, after talking with our home teachers (who we adore), one of them was telling us about how he can’t get his wife to leave his children to take the 10 day trip to Rome he just won from his work. WHAT?!? Okay, I get it. It’s definitely hard to leave the children. And sometimes it felt like it would almost have been easier to take them. But, honestly, it was worth every bit of planning, coordinating, packing, and changing schedules. So, if you’re debating about taking a little time out for you and your spouse, do it. Make it happen. Because Jeff is right. It’s so worth it.

P.S. Thank you, family, for taking time out of YOUR busy schedules to make it possible. Let’s talk about our number ONE blessing: it’s YOU.

The biggest thing lacking in our trip with no kids: no pictures of kids. They are much cuter than we are, as I'm sure you've already discovered.