Time Away

It’s been awhile…..a little too long!  Michael and I will be celebrating 14 years of marriage this Christmas and our last (and only) getaway was to Mexico for our 10 year anniversary.  Michael has traveled a lot for work and the routine and extra strain when he’s gone has been wearing on me.  ( I know….sob, sob,  think of all those single Moms and any sympathy for me goes out the door), BUT, it’s true.  It’s so hard!  I have nothing but utmost respect for those women!

So, Michael, knowing how much I love Disneyland, agreed to take us out to Anaheim for a couple days!  We flew out last Thursday and spent half that day at Disneyland.  We stayed at the Anaheim Marriott Suites; a pretty nice place!  I told the girl at the front desk that this was our early anniversary celebration and when we came back to the room that night, we had a bottle of wine on ice and chocolate dipped strawberries waiting.  Well, we enjoyed the berries…… the wine was a nice gesture, but for obvious reasons, we passed on that one….maybe someone from housekeeping benefitted from that!  On Friday, we got into the Parks early and didn’t wait in line all morning until early afternoon!  We rode everything we wanted to – even a few times.  It was great!  By about 4pm that day, Disneyland was pretty crowded and after waiting in a couple 30 minute lines, our enthusiasm slowed!  We had reservations to eat at the Blue Bayou Restaurant in the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride.  It was fun!  You pay for the dining “experience,” not necessarily the cuisine, but we liked it nonetheless.  After dinner, we rode a few more rides (all the roller coasters, since we saved them for the end of the day because after Michael rides them, he feels like crap).  It kinda takes the fun out of having “fun” when you’re worried about your best friend not having any and not feeling well.  He was a good sport though and tried to have fun, despite his equilibrium issues with fast rides, and I’m grateful.  We went back to our room a little earlier than we had planned that night, so we could swim in the pool.  The water was cold enough we opted instead, to soak in the spa.  It was nice and relaxing.

Saturday we slept in a bit and then headed off to Huntington Beach.  There was  rip tide warning and even 11 foot swells.  The waves were incredible and some crazy people got out there for some surfing.  That was fun to watch and to walk along the shoreline with my sweetheart.  More than anything, I think I loved the most that Michael was equally as good as I was at putting all the technology away and just enjoying each others’ company.  Seems like we spend most of our days inundated with our children (despite how much we love them) and then as an “out” we bury ourselves in our laptops on Facebook and other apps on our phones.  It made me realize how much I’ve been missing my love.  We went back to our room to get ready to go to the temple and caught an afternoon session at the Los Angeles LDS Temple in Santa Monica…..with his parents.  We got to see our sealing room too, where we were married and that was fun.  Afterward, we took his parents out to dinner.  It was nice to see them and we stayed at their house that night so we could go to church with them the next morning. 

Sunday we went to Michael’s home ward for church services and left a little early so we could get out of our church clothes for the plane trip home and we made it back to Utah by 4:30 or so.  Michael’s sister Julie and her husband Hank, watched our kids for us and everyone on Michael’s side that lives in the area was going up to his other sister’s house (Maren) to celebrate his brother (David)’s birthday.  Wow that was a mouth full!  We were excited to see our kids that night and that’s exactly what I needed; to be gone long enough to want to be “Mom” again. 

So grateful for a sweet hubby and a fun weekend away with him!  I LOVE YOU MICHAEL!  XO