Just the 2 of us

This was the first summer that Josh and I took a REAL vacation with just the two of us!  Since having kids our only vacations away from kids was usually for weddings, which we would merge into a getaway weekend/wedding weekend.  This year we booked a condo on the beach in Destin, Florida for 5 days with nothing to do except relax...and I can honestly say it was the best vacation I've had since our honeymoon!

 View from our condo.  We stayed at The Beach House and it was fabulous!  No kids (when you don't have your own kids with you, you don't want to be around other peoples kids either!), on the beach, free chairs & umbrella rentals, free movie rentals, near outlet mall and tons of restaurants, and our condo was perfect :)

 I loved walking down to the beach.  There's something about putting your feet in the sand and hearing the ocean that instantly relaxes you.

Fun facts:

First date: Josh was 18 & I was 15

Got back to together and really started "dating": Josh was 20 and I was 17

Got engaged: Josh was 24 and I was 21

Got married: Josh was 25 and I was 22

Had Aidan: Josh was 27 and I was 24

Had Roman: Josh was 28 and I was 25

Had Saylor: Josh was 30 and I was 27

Pregnant with baby #4: Josh is 32 and I am 29

FIRST BEACH VACATION WITH NO KIDS (except the one currently residing in me): Josh is 32 and I am 29

 I think I'm 22 weeks here

 We had perfect weather, which was an answered prayer because it rained every day this summer.  The ocean was beautiful and clear...and we saw a shark!

 Our cute, one bedroom condo

We ate breakfast and did Bible study IN PEACE on our balcony every morning.  It was amazing. We also ate out more than we have in a year, saw 2 movies, went shopping, and basically laid on the beach all day.  It felt soo nice, and soo foreign not to be chasing kids or playing referee!

First off, we couldn't have gone on this trip if we didn't have really awesome parents and siblings!  My mom, dad and Shelley watched the kids the first 2 days, and then Cathy, Mike and Emily watched the kids the last 3 days.  We owe them.  A lot.  We know watching all 3 kids is not easy, so it meant the world to us that we got a week off.  We are definitely blessed with parents and family, and we don't take that lightly.  I couldn't even imagine life without their help. (I need to also do a shout out to my cousins Kyle & Bethany, who watched our 90 lb yellow lab Herschel for the week WITH a newborn baby.  I would say Herschel is about as easy to watch as 2 out of the the 3 kids ;)

Now that we're adding another human being to our family I'm not sure if this trip will happen again, but it was so amazing and so nice and so relaxing and so NEEDED.  I would say that Josh and I have been through some intense fires and the Lord has molded us (by the way, the process of being "molded" is not fun...at all...but the finished product is worth it!), so we know how important it is to #1 have a deep, connected and glorifying relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ and #2 by us both doing #1 we get a healthy, beautiful marriage that the Lord created for us.  So this trip was a great way for us to refresh, relax and refocus.  It was a blessing.