Jeff and I got married 10 years ago on June 26, 1999. We were able to get away for a 4-day-weekend BY OURSELEVES for the first time since we become parents five and a half years ago. Well, we've gone away for a night or two, but the only significant getaway was when I was pregnant with Ava. Does not count.
We escaped to Portland, Oregon, but actually did not stay there much. We took a driving tour and just decided where to go each day - Timberline Lodge at Mt. Hood where I relived my Easter childhood trip there by looking for eggs in the stairwell, Eagle Rock Lodge outside of Eugene on the McKenzie River where we hiked and drank wine by the river, Sylvia Beach Hotel on the Oregon Coast where we played 2 truths and a lie, the Portland Rose Testing Gardens and Japanese Gardens where we spent out last couple of hours of freedom before heading home to the kids. We read a lot to each other (one of our favorite pasttimes - this trip our book of choice was Outliers by Malcolm Gladwel, purchased at the famous Powell's Books, the largest independent bookstore in the world, located on a city block in Portland). It was very nice, very necessary to get away without the kids. We drank a lot of wine and had long, (COMPLETED!) conversations. When we arrived back home, my parents said that 3 days was perfect...4 days got to be a little much. I'll take 3 days, 3 days is just fine!
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WHILE WE WERE GONE...
We missed a Silicon Valley Moms Blog event with Bill Nye the Science Guy (Jeff was a huge fan back in the day). Since we started forgoing our house cleaners and cleaning our house ourselves, we have felt very satisfied with ourselves. Or...we did the first few times. Frankly, the process has gotten a bit tired. The kids were very happy, therefore, when we got to try out the ActiveIon, courtesy of this event. The little green little - futuristic. The fun bzz-ing sound - pleasing. The clean windows and counters and bathrooms and floors - hmmm, quite nice. The best part is that the kids are SO excited about cleaning. Think we can keep this up?
