international escape

On Christmas morning the first gift Phil had me open was a tour guide to Vancouver, BC. “Ok, that’s nice to have in case we ever go there.”  I thought. Then he told me to open it, where I found a printout for the Groupon deal he had purchased for a weekend away. He had thought of everything, he arranged my mom to come up and babysit, and he had scheduled it for April to give me enough time to mentally prepare for being away from the kids that long (as well as time to store up enough breast milk.) So, last weekend we set off for our getaway. We have only been on a weekend alone together once in the past 4 years, so even though it was only 3 hours away, it felt like going to Europe.

We stayed at a very cool little boutique hotel that was actually across the water from downtown Vancouver, overlooking the city. We were out on a pier that housed an indoor market (similar to Pike’s Place) and the top two floors were the hotel. Just down the pier was a water taxi that took us straight into the heart of downtown.

Highlights of the trip:

• We got lost multiple times but we didn’t care because no one was crying in the back seat.
• We ate 3 meals every day. All of them were at normal meal times. All were delicious. And none of them did we have to make, serve, or clean up. And, no one was crying while we ate.
• Within the first hour of arriving, we found the most perfect little handmade gifts for each of our kids. “So now we can just forget about them for the rest of the weekend.” Phil said. 

Well, I didn't quite forget about the kids (especially since I still had to pump every 4 hours). But we did enjoy the time away and it was just long enough to make us very glad to see them when we returned home. I am feeling very blessed.