Date #4

Towards the end of March I told Jason that he might want to open up his April envelope early because it required some planning. He did so and found this note,

"You know how we always talk about having an overnight away from the children? Well, this is it! On April 6-7th Chelsea Allen will be staying here so we can go somewhere. We have a few different options to choose from, but where ever we go it will be fun!" 

Well, it took us a few days to figure out a hotel. I truly wanted to go to the 21 C hotel, but the cheapest room I could find was around 200 dollars a night and I knew Jason wouldn't want to pay that much... I was right because when I asked him if he would consider it he said no. We looked at other hotels downtown, but we had either already stayed there years ago or read some "fishy" reviews about the others. We even thought about cancelling the overnight and just having a date night... it caused a few disagreements. 

Talking it over one night Jason said, "this is all new to me. I never watched my parents date. I never babysat for other people so that they could go on dates. Us staying with the Sites children (something we did when we were first married) so they could stay in a hotel was the first I had ever heard of anyone doing it and I thought it was just them." I really appreciated him saying that because it helped me realize more in where he was coming  from. He then also said, "I've been told by enough people to know that these dates nights are good and are an investment in our marriage and so I'm willing to do it if you are still up for it." With that sweet conversation I said yes and he proposed us going up to Columbus, IN for the night. It is about an hour and fifteen minutes north of us and there is a hotel up there called the Hotel Indigo which is supposed to be pretty famous and "where all the stars stay when they come to Columbus" -- that last sentence made me laugh, but apparently for the Super Bowl certain celebs stayed there.

The price was reasonable and it had a hot tub (something I really wanted since the last three or four vacations we have been on I have been pregnant and so could not get in the hot tub... so I was excited to actually sit in one again). The date was on! Chelsea and Chloe showed up around 5pm and it took me about an hour to show them everything and then we hit the road. The children didn't seem to be phased in the least that we were leaving. As I kissed Selah goodbye I kind of laughed at how I would have never left Havana with a babysitter at 8 months old - more or less for an overnight! Wow, how times have changed!

Our complimentary apple juice! ha!

Notice how H has to join in all the photos? :) 

Back home!

the upper two are taken in the hotel lobby, the bottom left taken in the hot tub, and bottom right take upon returning home! Great date collage. :)

On our drive up, we received a phone call from the hotel saying that they were sorry, but because of a technical issue the room we booked actually wasn't available. It wasn't a big deal to us, but the hotel was apologetic and said that there would be a special surprise waiting for us in our new room. Once we checked in we noticed two small bottles of wine chilling in the ice box and there was very relaxing music playing. The "down graded" room was still super nice! We were both hungry and so we went to get some dinner, but on the way out we told the hotel staff that while we appreciated the special surprise, we did not drink alcohol.

We went to a little Italian place for dinner and worked our way back to the hotel around 9pm. We went back into our rooms and found that our wine was replaced with Apple juice, snacks, and coupons for two free breakfasts and two free drinks of our choice. That was sweet. We made our way down to the pool and hung out there for an hour or so. While sitting in the hot tub we received this text from Chelsea, "Everyone went down just as planned- no tears (Selah for a minute) they were perfect!!! Enjoy your night!!!" We are so blessed with awesome babysitters!

I think we slept in on Saturday until about 10am... simply because we could! Ha. We enjoyed our nice free (really tasty) breakfast and then started packing up. We left the hotel around 11:15am and made it back down shortly after noon! The kids were happy and excited to see us, but we could tell they had an awesome time without us. Later that night our babysitter sent us this text, "Was just thinking about them and had to tell you - you have great kids."

My heart is happy, my emotional well being is refreshed, and my heart is still 100% in love with my husband! What a great date! Something we have decided should happen a little more regularly.  :)