I Know, You're Jealous

So, I pretty well have the best mom in the entire world. She flew all the way to see us just so she could be stuck in rainy weather watching my girls for five full days while Bryan and I spent those days lounging on the beach in beautiful...
Florida. That's right. A trip by ourselves. We haven't been on a trip by ourselves EVER. We never were able to go on a honeymoon and because of my husband's career choice we have been in school for a very long time and the funds for a trip were non-existant. This time around the kids were the perfect age for us to get away for a little while and let me tell you, it was wonderful.

We spent our days lounging on the beach and throwing a ball around.

We went boogie boarding until we were so tired we had to take a nap in the afternoon. We would go back to the hotel and sit around watching Swamp People and Pawn Stars (yes this giving wife let Bryan watch whatever he wanted). Then we would go out to eat. By ourselves! We even ordered dessert once! We EVEN went to a movie! Oh the simple things in life you take for granted. It was heaven.

We laid on the sand and didn't have to listen to one single whiney request nor have a constant eye on a child to make sure they didn't get too close to the water.

Do you see that bug on my leg? They had a love bug hatch while we were there and unfortunately we had to deal with the little varments. It was the only negative of the trip. They didn't bite. They just bugged. Dang love bugs.

We drove out to a nature preseve and tried to see some alligators and manatees but were unable to see either. To be honest though, it was so nice to drive in a car and be able to have a conversation with just the two of us. Even the few moments of silence were refreshing. I had almost forgotten how much I love this guy. He is so funny! So much of who we are has been defined by our children. It was so refreshing to remember that we are pretty dang awesome as a couple too.

I had to take a picture of Bryan being a good samaritan. There was a family visiting for the day that wanted to know how to boogie board. I selfishly hoarded my boogie board to myself while Bryan loaned his to this family and went to give them some pointers.

Bryan hates it when I ask random strangers to take our picture but I needed a few with the two of us so he had to deal with the awkwardness of it all.

Two words for you: stud muffin. That's right.

We finally did find a little park where the manatees were swimming around. We've seen them in the zoo but it's always more exciting to see them in the wild.

The dark mass behind Bryan is the manatees. There was a while little family of them.

So apparently after the love bugs hatch, a few days later they literally all drop dead. We saw some jellyfish on the beach and took a picture. You can also see the love bug carnage that occured as well. Good riddance to the nasty little things.

We walked on the beach every single evening. It was so so beautiful. The weather was perfect and the beach was so nice. The trip refreshed me, reminded me of how much I love my husband and allowed me to return a better mother to the children I missed. Thank you so much mom for this wonderful gift. We are very much indebted to you.

Thankfully my mom stuck around for a few days after we returned and we were able to do a few things. We headed to Hocking Hills. It was beyond beautiful. The waterfalls were full of water after what a wet spring it has been. I must admit we were pretty excited to get back to these two little stinkers and to see how happy they were to see us.

You cannot imagine how attached my girls became to their Nana while we were gone.

Audrey wanted desperately to wade in the water and Bryan cannot say no to her. Yes we did remove her pants.

Group shot after a wonderful day.