valentines and other musings

On valentine's day Joel and I drove across the Cascades to Sisters, Oregon for a night in a cabin at the Five Pines Lodge. We were celebrating our first date, 14 years ago, and the beginning of our 15th year together. It was our first night away from all three of our children in almost two years - the last was a month or so before Lucy was born. We were almost giddy with the freedom.

We lounged.

We bathed in the silly but fabulous waterfall bathtub. (We didn't realize what waterfall meant until Joel turned the faucet and water started pouring out of the ceiling above.)
We drank wine and ate cheese and read our books. We woke up late and walked into town for breakfast and coffee.

On the way back over the mountains we talked about what's so great about these kinds of moments. We talked about how we are accountable every day to a schedule dictated by our kids. We get up when they get up, eat when they are hungry, drive them around when they need to go to school, soccer, playdates. We love our life and we love them, but they demand a lot. For 24 hours we didn't have to think about them, thanks to their Nonny who stayed with them overnight.

But even more than the freedom to sleep in, our valentines night away gave us the space we needed to reconnect with each other. We got to have conversations about things other than the next day's schedule. We talked about our careers and our families. We discussed the books we're reading and quirky New Yorker articles. We talked about what's going on with us, as individuals.

And then we came home to our three lovely children and our cozy home. And we were grateful for the chaos and the noise and the messiness of our lives too.