Sugar and Cinnamon

The title of this entry brought back a memory of my childhood. We had a few cows on our farm growing up (I used to imagine they were horses since my Father would never buy me one!). My brothers and I decided to name them. Their names were Cinnamon, Buttercup, and...my personal favorite...Dead Meat. My Dad had warned us about the outcome for the lives of our beloved beasts, so it seemed like a fitting name.

I digress...

Cows are not the subject of this post.

Chris and I will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary next summer. (Woot Woot!) Quite awhile back we started planning and dreaming the vacation of all vacations for the two of us to go on and celebrate our marital survival bliss.

However, with the amazing news of our new B.G. (baby girl) coming to join our family later this year, we weren't thinking we'd be ready to embark on some grand getaway and leave her behind quite that soon....and so we will be wildly celebrating our 11th anniversary instead Lord willing!

So....all this to say, we decided to take a little mini-vacation now before I get huge as a house and life gets even more hectic with a new little bundle of loving and cuteness entering our family.

We decided to head to Washington D.C. for a four night/five day excursion. We often pass through the city in a mad rush getting to the airport and coming back home again. We had often said that if we could just have the time there is so much there that we would love to see and do....and so this time we did!

We didn't want to fill our agenda too full with tours and travels and treading. We let ourselves have most mornings to enjoy quiet time in our hotel room, eating breakfast in bed, watching the news, letting the sun pour in our room, and not doing anything that we didn't want to do! It was lovely. Just what we needed.

There is something just so good about getting away with that person that knows you better than anyone else on this Earth. When I hang out with Chris it is like I am hanging out with myself (and I love myself a whole heckuva lot!). It's just that kind of relationship where we can be completely quiet in the car and yet feel like everything that needs to be said is being said already. We are also lucky that we travel so well together. We like the same types of places, we like to do the same types of things, eat at the same types of restaurants, sleep the same length of hours...it's just nice.

It was also pretty nice to wake up this morning and be excited to get home and see our two little men! Oh my, we missed them all weekend long! We talked about them so often and talked about things they would have loved to have seen, loved to have experienced. But we also know that it's so important that we take this time for just the two of us. Uninterrupted, stress free, easy, just focusing on the two of us...it's good.

It's also good to not take for granted the amazing gift of being parents to such incredible little boys. They are a gift. A blessing. We enjoyed such a special afternoon and evening together today. Wrestling, kissing, cuddling, reading, playing. It was just what this Mama needed.


And now some pictures...

The harbor in Old Town Alexandria

Chris and I on a boat ride across the Potomac

A very handsome tourist

We were so lucky to get such a good closeup of the Red Panda (haha- couldn't resist!)

And what we came home to...

Grayson wrestling with Daddy

Grayson

Ethan snuggling


Arms full of my boys...just the way I love it

Precious Grayson John

Reading stories with Daddy