You can't go home again

On the weekend, Chad and I had our last hurrah before becoming parents to another little hellion. (Liam gave me a run for my money going to bed last night, and was none too helpful in getting out the door this morning, either, so pardon me if I don’t sound overly thrilled with him right now!) For Christmas Darin and Jennifer gave us a Romance Getaway package at the Elm Hurst Inn, which is where we got married. Babysitting was included in the deal. So on Saturday we packed up and headed to London, where we dropped Liam off for a little quality Aunt and Uncle time, and spent the rest of the day on our own.

It’s at times like those, that are so few and far between, that we realize just how much has changed in the past couple of years. Normally by 3 p.m. on a Saturday, we could have been to London and back. As it was, we were just hitting our first destination at that time. Efficiency is a thing of the past. Still, we did manage to pick up our new double stroller, get some shoes for Chad, stop in at Funky Monkey Baby Boutique and then go for an awesome meal – at a restaurant with tablecloths, even! We also went to a movie – not a movie we were desperate to see, but by golly we had the opportunity to do it, and so we did. To be fair, Liam did come up as the topic of conversation a few times, and we stopped in at Old Navy to pick him up some new clothes. But by and large it was an adults-only event.

We had talked about how great it would be to be able to sleep in all morning, but I guess our internal clocks have been permanently reset, and we woke up early. We tried snoozing for a bit, but it was ridiculously futile. We’re early birds now, like it or not. We enjoyed a big brunch, and then spent some time checking the place out. By and large it looks the same as it did when we got married there 5.5 years ago, but it seems that their target market has changed: rather than hosting weddings in the Grand Ballroom on Saturday nights, there are now dinner shows featuring cover bands: it was Creedance Clearwater Revival when we were there, and I think Neil Diamond is next weekend. Good thing we got in when we did.

Liam seemed to enjoy his weekend, too; Darin and Jennifer have 2 kittens that he probably tormented the whole time, Jennifer catered to all his culinary whims, and we hear that he finally found something to say to his Aunt and Uncle. Normally they get the silent treatment (along with the rest of the world), but I think they know now that we’re not making it up when we say he can talk.

So here we are now, with our last solid night’s sleep and our last adults-only getaway behind us for the foreseeable future. We are somewhat well rested and ready to face Phase II of Our Life With Kiddos. It remains to be seen whether Darin and Jennifer will ever volunteer for another weekend adventure!