We went on a 4-day trip to celebrate our 5th anniversary and had an absolutely wonderful time, but I must admit, I wasn’t too happy about leaving my babies for so long.

However, we had planned to go off on a trip like this for our 5th (we just didn’t plan on having a 9 month old on our 5th anniversary!) and I knew my girls would be absolutely fine with my parents…and they were.

So off we went.

We went to the beach in Sarasota, Florida and it was heavenly!

We left on a Thursday afternoon and I found myself laughing as we walked into our hotel because we could carry every single piece of luggage in ONE trip! That does not happen when you have two children traveling with you.

Ready for 4 days of doing whatever, whenever!

We did a lot of this:

The first day we sat out in the sun for about half an hour before heading to the shops that were within walking distance to our hotel.

We found a little pizza diner and enjoyed a nice dinner there.

The next two days were basically spent here:

Thanks to Panama Jack, we rented an umbrella and a chair and spent about 3-4 hours on the beach Saturday and Sunday! That umbrella made all the difference in the world. No way we could have stayed out all day like that without it!

I finished reading a book and started another. Dave jogged and walked the beach some. And we talked and listened to music on the iPhone. It was SO relaxing.

I almost didn’t know what to do with myself! No responsibilities. No schedules to keep. No little ones to look after. Just Dave and me. It was the perfect way to celebrate 5 years of marriage.

Sunday morning (our anniversary) we went to Gillion’s Café for the second time. We had found this café earlier and wanted to go back for breakfast because it was so good and such an awesome atmosphere. Gillian’s opened in July of last year and was named after the owner’s daughter, Gillian!

We enjoyed talking to the owner and his wife. They have a world map (shown in picture below) where visitors can pin where they are from. Most every single country in the entire world has a pin!

We went back to Gillian’s for the 3rd time right before we left to come home on Monday and the owners gave us two Gillian’s coffee mugs for free! If you are ever in Sarasota, FL, look up Gillian’s Café! Such a fun place!

Sunday, after another relaxing day on the beach, we went to Five Guys for our anniversary dinner. Dave wanted a burger since he was not doing his gluten-free diet on this trip and I know he likes Five Guys so I suggested it and we went!

We got some ice cream after that and then headed to the beach for sunset. We set up our camera on Panama Jack’s stash of beach chairs that were locked up on the beach and did our own little photoshoot!

Watching sunset was a gorgeous ending to our wonderful time away.

Sunset was a beautiful reminder that the God who hung the sun in the sky and ordered the earth’s rotation around it, clearly has my life in order if He can accomplish THAT!

A nice couple on the beach offered to take our picture.

We watched the sun slip below the horizon.

Having so much “free time” on my hands those four days made me really realize how much of my time truly is devoted to my girls! I had basically forgotten what it was like to live life for “me” – which is not a bad thing at all! Motherhood truly does change your focus. I often find myself feeling guilty for having any free time I get in during naptime, but having four whole days of “free time” made me realize the little (in comparison to these 4 days) time I do take for “me” during the day is well-deserved and I’m not quite sure why I make myself feel guilty about taking it! All moms do this, I think, and we need to stop! Doing nothing for four days straight made me realize just how much I do do on a daily basis!

I wrote this in my journal while away:

Right now, my highest calling in life is wife to Dave (that will always be) and mother to Little Bug and Sweet Pea. And while I will always be their mother and be present for them in any and every way I can as they go through life, they will not always be this little and require so much of my time and energy. Right now, when they are little, I want to give them my all. These years are so fleeting because before I know it Little Bug will be in college and Sweet Pea will follow her two years later. And my carefree (as in not having to worry with their every need – mainly physically) lifestyle will resume. I’ll suddenly find myself with so much time on my hands. And once again, it will be just Dave and me.

Which is why it is so important for us to now continue to nurture our relationship. We are the core of this family, along with God, and if our relationship doesn’t stay strong through the years, our family will crumble.

I’m glad we went through with this trip. We needed this time together and we are blessed that we could have this time together.

A HUGE thank you to my mom and dad for making this trip possible! I never, for even a second, worried about my girls. I just missed them! I knew they were having a ball with their Grandma and Gramps and…they were! When we picked the girls up on Monday my parents both said they could have kept going keeping the girls. And that was after having them for four days straight!

It was “back to reality” on Tuesday, but you know? My reality is pretty awesome, so I didn’t mind leaving my dream-world at all to fall back into my role as Mommy to these two precious girls!

- Elaine