8th Anniversary

Ben and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last week.  We went out for dinner on the night of our anniversary which was fun.  We went to Carrabba’s – our favorite.

For Christmas Joseph and Julie gave us a dining gift card and coupon for one overnight babysitting session.  Wow!  Very generous offer.  So, we decided to redeem that coupon Friday night.  We stayed at the Hyatt on Clearwater Beach while J&J they took care of our children.  Sad news is their AC went out shortly after we dropped off the kids so their whole family of five plus our three kids spent the night at my parents house.  Julie says it went well, though.  She’s quite good at staying calm under pressure and multi-tasking.

Ben and I had a great time.  We went to the beach from 4:30 – 6:30 on Friday night, cleaned up, watched sunset from the room of the hotel, and then went to dinner.  The next morning was stormy so we went to breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant and then went back up to a our room and watched a movie.  It was unbelievably fun and relaxing.  The sun came out and we could have gone to the beach but we were in such a lazy state of relaxation we opted to finish our movie instead.  It was a perfect, much needed little break from reality!  I love my reality but it was nice to be free of the demands of motherhood for a little while.

We were thrilled to see the kids again!  Amazing how long 21 hours can seem – we felt like we’d been gone forever.  (It’s going to be painful to be away for 10 days when we go to India…WHAT were we thinking?!?!)  Sadly, the kids weren’t too thrilled to see me.  McKay only wanted Ben, Jax was having so much fun with his cousins he told me to go back on my trip, and Sadie was sick with a fever in bed 🙁  No one to greet me.  I went and curled up with Sadie in bed and held her for a while, though.  Good ‘ole, poor ‘ole Sadie!

Thanks a million to all those who helped care for our children!

Here are a few pictures.  The sunset was spectacular.  I helped these pictures out a little in lightroom but it was such a colorful sunset they didn’t need much.

Day Two: