Booked

It's not one of our birthdays or our anniversary.  It's far more important.  It's the day we officially booked Mexico.  Going to Mexico is our Honeymoon..every year.  I swear that week carries us through the year.  We never took an actual honeymoon since we paid for our own wedding and bought our house a week later.  It took us until Christian was a baby for us to take the plunge.  I have to tell you, that year Christian was born was the roughest year of my life.  Between having Victoria only being 21 months and Christian was not an 'easy' baby and I had to go back to work for a few weeks when he was 12 weeks old.  Holy shit balls, it was beyond!  Mark and I took the plunge and went to Mexico and it was life changing.  Literally, life changing.  We reconnected as a couple.  It was amazing in so many ways.  We've kept it up every year since.

It is not easy preparing to leave.  Sometimes I actually wonder if it's worth it.  Between packing up the kids.  Finding grandparents to watch them (that's the easy part - they usually fight over the time - lucky us!!). Getting them to school.  The art of dealing with breast milk.  The art of making babies sleep in a different house.  Kissing kids when they miss their Mommy and Daddy.  And a million other things that our families don't tell us so we too, don't feel sad.

Every year I print off several pages of what and where the kids need to be and every other detail.  Over the years the pages and pages have gotten shorter.  Last year it said: Keep them alive.  Just kidding.  I stretched that out to be at least a page.

But now we're back to OMG we're leaving a baby!!!!!  Brecken will be exactly the same age as Christian was the very first time we ever left.  That time was rough.  It was the year I was sick the entire last day because I wanted to see them so bad.

Missing school is a nightmare.  It takes about 50% of the time to plan for a sub as it does to actually be there and teach.  So if I'm going to miss one day of school it takes about 3 hrs to prepare.  I'm going to miss four days.  That's a part time job on the side.  Very stressful.  Plus planning for the kids who don't take to change.  It makes me sad for them.  Thank goodness I locked down the World's Best Sub!

Last year I was pregnant when we went.  A lot of people were surprised we went since I couldn't drink.  Little did they know what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico.  Ha ha.  Anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn't take a sip...of even caffeine!  Actually, I had one coffee while we were there and I promised Mark to never tell anyone.  I now apparently know that was ridiculous!

The point of us going to Mexico isn't about drinking.  It's about us.  A couple.  Man and wife.  Boyfriend and girlfriend. That's how good it is.  I'm not Mommy.  I'm not teacher.  I'm a woman who enjoys to spend time with her husband.  Daily life gets so busy and exhausting it's often we go a day or two without connecting at all.  That's not good, but it's reality.  In Mexico it's all us.  That's it.  No phones.  No interruptions.  Just us.

From the minute we actually book the trip everything changes.  We have a date.  The talk begins.  Just today we mentioned it in the car and I touched his hand because..that's what it does...draws us closer.

80+ days to go.

I promised to drink my money's worth this year - they got us last year;-)
We're looking into what activity we're going to do.
We booked the Ocean Front Suite again..even thought last year it was only because it was because I was pregnant.  Once you experience that, it's hard to go back to jungle side;-)

#cannotwait   not really sure what a hashtag does, but this totally deserved one!

Last Night at the Metro Dome

Molly and Brian invited us to a Vikings game a couple weeks ago.

We went with them a couple years ago and Molly and I talked through the entire thing.

This year was no different.

Some of my friends were there also and the next day someone said something about the game and I asked a question and he said, "Did you go to the game?  How did you miss that?" 

I only went to the game so I could hang out with Molly.

While there, I learned the Metro Dome is going to be torn down after this year. 

I had no idea.

I have so many memories there from when I was a kid.

Many many TWINS games.

That night might be the very last time I will ever be in there.

Glad it was with Molly and Brian.

Many Birthday Celebrations

We started celebrating Mark's birthday a few weeks ago.

I had a limo surprise him.

We let the kids take a ride from our house to Mama & Papa's.

They loved it.

Then we picked up Molly and Brian and Mark's brother's and spouses.

Our first stop was Admiral D's.

This was outside of Manitou Station.

As if six hours weren't enough, we added another two hours on at midnight.

We danced at P.D. Pappy's.

He was very surprised and very happy.

It was a great time.

It's nice to see him enjoying time with is brothers. :D

We started a tradition last year of going to a TWINS game for his birthday.

We went last night and had a blast. (More on that later)

It was so cute listening to Mark teach Christian about baseball.

Tonight we surprised him with a DQ cake and some gifts.

(The great idea I had for his birthday fell threw so now it will be a Christmas gift.)

Brecken's first time celebrating Daddy's birthday.

We actually did the candles before dinner so Brecken could be in the pictures because he goes to bed at 6:00.

The kids were so excited to celebrate their Daddy.

Look at their faces!

That may seem like a lot of celebrating but really he deserves a month of celebration.

I'm lucky to be celebrating his birthday for the 13th time with him.

We've been together 1/3 of his life now 

and it really gets better every year.

Happy Birthday Honey.

Love you bunches and bunches,

YW