MM Blog 2/16 - A weekend away
One of the tips in my book is to take time to get away with your spouse/partner at least once a year, even if just for a night. We didn't start doing this until after our third was born. Our children were so close in age (18 months between each of them) and I breastfed, which made a get away seem impossible. It really wasn't, but for whatever reason I didn't feel comfortable leaving. Finally when Sarah was nine months old we went away without the kids to Jamaica for 5 days, 4 nights.
The time away is important to note. We did a lot of research in talking to our friends who had gone away, and we consistently heard "don't do a full week, you will be miserable." We probed further and it seems that four nights away worked best, long enough to get away and relax, not long enough that you are homesick for the kids. The time worked great for us. It was a bit of a pain to get to Jamaica and we spent too much time traveling, but all in all a great trip.
Since then we have done a long weekend each year, the last two on Presidents weekend. Last year we had a friends wedding in Ixtapa, Mexico so that was the perfect excuse. Again we did four nights. This year we had no excuse so we had to figure out where to go. My husband voted for Vegas. I have actually never been to Vegas, and would like to go, but that just wasn't doing it for me. I just couldn't picture it being relaxing, and with the incredibly stressful and busy January and February I have had, I needed relaxing. I wanted a spa, preferably in the mountains.
I recalled an article I had ripped out of National Geographic Traveler (our favorite by the way) about four years ago. I had put it in one of my organizers and thankfully found it. It was for the Grove Park Inn Resort in Asheville, North Carolina. It looked as divine as I remembered it. That was my vote. My husband wasn't too thrilled, but I called and booked it. Given it was Valentine's weekend it was not cheap, not at all, but we work hard and it was time for a nice getaway. We asked Arnie's parents to watch the kids, so we were all set.
It took less than six hours to drive down from Cincy, a picturesque ride through the rolling hills of Kentucky and Tennessee. The hotel is great, very old charm mixed with a great spa. I had an amazing facial and massage and Arnie a massage. They get you access to the full spa so we hung out for about six hours today (given how expensive they were we wanted to get our monies worth). Indoor and outdoor waterfall hot tubs, mineral pools, lap pool, sauna, steam rooms and more, all wrapped in yummy soft robes. It was great to just spend hours relaxing, reading and pampering our bodies.
After the spa we went to play tennis for an hour. Neither one of us are really good, but again, its just something you never get to do anymore and felt great. As did ping pong, pool and the other fun activities.
Be sure to take time to get away with your spouse. You don't realize how little time you spend together as a couple, talking, "playing", relaxing until you have uninterrupted time together. Every time I leave our getaway I think "we need to do more of this at home" and we try, but a year later we very much look forward to getting away, just to "catch up" :)
The time away is important to note. We did a lot of research in talking to our friends who had gone away, and we consistently heard "don't do a full week, you will be miserable." We probed further and it seems that four nights away worked best, long enough to get away and relax, not long enough that you are homesick for the kids. The time worked great for us. It was a bit of a pain to get to Jamaica and we spent too much time traveling, but all in all a great trip.
Since then we have done a long weekend each year, the last two on Presidents weekend. Last year we had a friends wedding in Ixtapa, Mexico so that was the perfect excuse. Again we did four nights. This year we had no excuse so we had to figure out where to go. My husband voted for Vegas. I have actually never been to Vegas, and would like to go, but that just wasn't doing it for me. I just couldn't picture it being relaxing, and with the incredibly stressful and busy January and February I have had, I needed relaxing. I wanted a spa, preferably in the mountains.
I recalled an article I had ripped out of National Geographic Traveler (our favorite by the way) about four years ago. I had put it in one of my organizers and thankfully found it. It was for the Grove Park Inn Resort in Asheville, North Carolina. It looked as divine as I remembered it. That was my vote. My husband wasn't too thrilled, but I called and booked it. Given it was Valentine's weekend it was not cheap, not at all, but we work hard and it was time for a nice getaway. We asked Arnie's parents to watch the kids, so we were all set.
It took less than six hours to drive down from Cincy, a picturesque ride through the rolling hills of Kentucky and Tennessee. The hotel is great, very old charm mixed with a great spa. I had an amazing facial and massage and Arnie a massage. They get you access to the full spa so we hung out for about six hours today (given how expensive they were we wanted to get our monies worth). Indoor and outdoor waterfall hot tubs, mineral pools, lap pool, sauna, steam rooms and more, all wrapped in yummy soft robes. It was great to just spend hours relaxing, reading and pampering our bodies.
After the spa we went to play tennis for an hour. Neither one of us are really good, but again, its just something you never get to do anymore and felt great. As did ping pong, pool and the other fun activities.
Be sure to take time to get away with your spouse. You don't realize how little time you spend together as a couple, talking, "playing", relaxing until you have uninterrupted time together. Every time I leave our getaway I think "we need to do more of this at home" and we try, but a year later we very much look forward to getting away, just to "catch up" :)
posted by Millennium Mom at
5:23 PM
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