Away We Go {Adriatic: Day 1}

We booked this trip five months ago, and it still feels a little surreal that we are "really doing this."  I looked at the clock at 10:15 this morning and could. not. believe that we were leaving our home to venture to the other side of the world. In an hour. 

There have been so many times over the last two weeks that I have thought to myself, "What on earth are we thinking?" Don't get me wrong. Five years ago, I would have signed up for this trip without a second thought. The venturing out doesn't scare me. But add in two precious girls who call me "mom," and the anxiety has at times been paralyzing. What if something happens to one of them and we are, at best, 24 hours of travel away?  What if something happens to us, and we've left behind two girls who don't get to grow up with mama and daddy?  See. It's terrifying to let yourself think about. 

But, there's also this tipping point. The realization that it is worth that minuscule likelihood of the catastrophic (and really it's more likely, statistically speaking, for one of those what if scenarios to happen within our mundane) to reap the benefits of exploration-- for both us and our girls. I want them to have a bit of wanderlust. For them to know that the world is so much bigger than Roanoke, Virginia. For them to see that their parents love each other so much they're willing to travel together. Seriously. If you've traveled before, you understand just how much you learn about someone when you add in some stressful transit conditions. It can be prettttty scary to see what someone looks like when they're competing for a cab, trying to track down lost luggage, nearly losing each other in a foreign country. When the girls are older, they will go on their first "big trip" with another and say, "wow, they must have truly loved each other."  ;)

And boy, did this trip have plenty of those moments.  We gave ourselves a headstart on the Saturday-departing cruise by leaving out of Roanoke on Wednesday.  Flights were insane from anywhere I looked, so I finally settled on a crazy flight out of Roanoke.  And I mean it.  Crazy.  We had a total of four flights, and no connection had more than an hour and ten minutes between flights. Read: we are going to have to run for every. single. flight.  Oh, and we did.  The first connection in Dulles was easy breezy, but after that, it was time to tighten up the laces, because we were making the mad dash.  When I booked these crazy flights, I thought-- meh, no big deal.  We haven't been to Montreal, we haven't been to Brussels, so if we get stuck in one of those places, it will be a little unplanned day trip, since we would have plenty of time to make it to Venice and to our ship.  But, when you know that your flight is right there, and that you could potentially be sitting in an airport for six hours, not traipsing the streets of a new country, that proposition doesn't look as appealing.  So, as rushed as it felt, our flight over was quite charmed, in that despite being late on two of the flights' arrival times, we made every connection and arrived in Venice on time.  On our flight from Montreal to Brussels, we were literally the last ones on the plane.  Last ones.  And that was after absolute running through the terminal.  I kinda wish I had turned on Map My Run for that connection, because it was surely better than any of my 5k times.  ;)

Our luck ran out when we got to Venice, and Sam's luggage apparently did not.  As soon as I booked our flights, I knew I would be trying to pack for the eleven days in carry on luggage only.  In case you weren't sure that miracles do happen, behold.  I present my 100% carry on travel packing.  

I actually even had enough room to pack two of Sam's outfits in the pretty likely event that our checked bag did not make the same running effort that we did at those connections.  :)  Sam didn't really have the option of doing carry on only, since he wears a size 13 shoe (and packed three pairs) and doesn't have the luxury of wearing sundresses everyday.  :)  He did manage to keep it to a single suitcase, but that one sole piece of luggage containing his entire packing list didn't make it.  So, alas, we went to the Lost and Found desk at the airport and filed a report with a nice Italian lady, who was even more annoyed than we were that I couldn't find the luggage tag receipt they gave us in Roanoke, but filled out the report anyway.  When she asked for our home address, I really wanted to panic.  A we'll-find-it-in-the-next-two-weeks-and-ship-it-to-you timeline was not going to work.  I felt especially bad that it was entirely Sam's clothes.  A huge line built up behind us in the time we were filling out the report (apparently lots of people coming in from Rome didn't get their luggage), so we finished up and went over to a seating area nearby and repacked the new paperwork we received.  And then, of course, I found the luggage tag.  Oops.  So, I managed to run back up to the window to give a newer, nicer lady our tag, and she was able to pull up the tracking and tell us that it was in Brussels, and would be on the next flight arriving in four hours, and would be delivered to our hotel.  Shew!  But, in those "oh no.." moments, it is so easy to remember why I chose Sam as my forever travel friend.  It was his luggage, his clothes. I couldn't find the luggage tag.  Despite the fact that he could have been forced to wear the same three (dirty) outfits on repeat, he was cool as a cucumber.  

It felt so strange to be starting a vacation without Harper and Willa. Precious children, know that we will miss you tremendously over the next week and a half!  (Except for maybe when we are standing in line for an hour at a missing baggage claim counter. Ha!)   We will come back as a stronger couple and better parents, and be ready for more snuggles than you can imagine. See you soon!

Check out the rest of our trip by clicking here.

Mr. & Mrs. Chris McCoy

Congratulations and best wishes to the new Mr. and Mrs. Chris McCoy!  What a fun evening of celebrating with friends at the Pulaski Country Club.

Despite the warm weather earlier in the week, it was realllyyy chilly on their wedding day.  But, that didn't stop me from throwing on a winter white coat and still wearing the "Cinderella dress" Harper picked out for me to wear.  And Sam wore his blue blazer and suspenders we picked out during our family date night a few weeks ago.  He looked so handsome.  One of my favorite things about getting to be his date at a wedding is the chance we have to hear our vows again.  To take a minute and reaffirm the choice we made 8.5 years ago.  To say "I do, I will" again.  To kiss my groom.  It was a short ceremony, but long enough for me to get teary eyed thinking of the blessing I have in Sam.  He's a good man, and I'm glad he's mine.  Even if he is a crazy dancer.

8 Years Strong

I almost don't want to write a blog post on this because I just don't feel like I can do the last two days justice with my measly words. But, my heart is overflowing.  And though this month only marks our 8th anniversary, eight years has been long enough to know that there are seasons to marriage-- easy, happy, comfortable seasons, and ones that maybe...aren't.  So, I want to make sure to capture this sweet adventure of ours because it has truly been one of my most favorite memories with Sam.  Ever.  And I'm praying that at some point down the road, on a day when choosing love isn't easy, I can look back on this little, amazing blip on our marriage radar, and remember how much fun we have together.  How taking time to invest in our marriage is worth it.  And, how good I am at planning surprises.  ha!

Incidentally, all this fun began with a nonchalant comment from Sam and a post on a Facebook yard sale page.  Romantic, I know.  A few weeks ago when we were watching a Sunday night football game, Sam mentioned that it would be fun to go to a NFL game.  We have been to a few NBA games, we've been to a several MLB games, but never a football game.  I agreed it would be fun to catch a Panthers or Redskins game sometime.  I didn't think much else about it until I saw a post for two Monday Night Football tickets for sale-- for the night before our anniversary.  With Sam's crazy work schedule right now (like 80-hours-a-week crazy) and things a bit unsettled at my job, we decided to postpone our annual anniversary trip.  But, who says we couldn't get away just for the night?

 

After I saw that post, I started looking at tickets on eBay, to get an idea if that was a good deal or not.  I knew that NFL tickets could be expensive, but once I started looking around, I found that they were actually very reasonable for the Redskins vs. Seahawks matchup (probably because Washington's QB is out for the season.  and they're horrible.).  After I saw what good seats we could get, Operation Anny-Moon was born.  :)

I scoured my email inbox for anything that may have Sam's boss David's address on it.  Finally I found an email that Sam forwarded me last year that his boss had been copied on, so I sent him an email to ask if Sam could have off a half day for Monday, and the full day for Tuesday.  I let him know that Sam had no idea I was asking, but I wanted to surprise him, but I knew how busy things had been at work, so that I understood if it wasn't possible for him to have off.  I was so excited when he emailed back a few hours later saying that he would make it work for Sam to go, and that he would just block his schedule instead of marking it as vacation so that it wouldn't tip off Sam.

 

The other tricky part to this equation was that baby Alston was due on our anniversary.  Sue and Dave have been so nice to keep our girls a lot over the last few weeks, but I knew it could be pushing it for Sue to have them so close to Alston's arrival, since obviously she would want to be there with Corrie and Jeremy for his birth.  So, I asked Tabatha if she would mind to be a back up in the event that Corrie went into labor, and she was so kind to agree, which meant I could put a big check mark next to the "Girls" action item!

  

I got the best tickets I could-- the 14th row.  I found a nice hotel-- a cute boutique hotel on Capitol Hill.  I ordered a cute Redskins shirt.  I notified my boss and coworker about my time off.  It was a stressful two days putting this little getaway together, but it was so. much. fun.  It was so hard to keep it a secret from Sam, especially on Saturday, when he spilled the beans that he had been hoping to surprise me with a weekend away for our anniversary.  Oh My Gift of the Magi.  As hard as it was not to tell him then, I just responded with how sweet that was and that we would look into it. Sneaky me.

I didn't mention my plans to our girls until Monday morning, and it turned Harper into a super cling-on.  A really sweet one.  She was pouting about my leaving, so I was trying to distract her by asking what she thought she would do at preschool, and she replied, "I'll just be missing you so bad." Pitiful girl!  Though after she found out she'd be headed to Mimi's, the idea wasn't so bad.  The weather was beautiful, and I happily drove out to the Appalachian Power SML Dam (which I had never been to, and that showed in the number of gravel roads I traveled in error), and I pulled up, nervous to surprise Sam.  It is not your average workplace, so I couldn't really plan what my "ta-da!" moment was going to be like, so it was funny to me that when I arrived, he was stuck on the top of the dam.  His boss called him and asked him to look over the back of the dam, where he then saw me waving obnoxiously from the parking area below.

We took backroads through central Virginia, making our way through delightful farm towns, and drove the four and a half hours with no cell phones, no radio, no DVD player.  Just daydreaming, laughing, talking.  It was beyond nice.  We found our way to our hotel, checked in and changed, walked around the block for dinner at The Dubliner (as in the Dublin-er, not to be confused with the Dub-liner.  Inside joke.).  After waiting for-ev-er in parking traffic, we made it into FedEx Field just after kick off.  And it was fun from beginning to end.  Though expected to be a blowout, it was a competitive game, and Sam and I had a blast cheering together (Go Alfred Morris!)  and meeting some fun Seattle fans.  

A little clip of "Hail to the Redskins" after a Washington touchdown.  

As fun and loud and fast as Monday was, Tuesday was just the opposite.  We slept in, leisurely strolled through the National Mall, taking in monuments and museums along the way.  I have always wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum, but knew it would be a somber, saddening time, so I didn't know if I really wanted to do that on our anniversary.  But, we did.  Our three hours there after lunch were not fun-filled and carefree, but mindblowing.  I have been unsettled ever since.  And though it was probably not a conventional anniversary date, it was heart-changing.  Viewing the disgusting truth of the Holocaust helped put our lives and love in perspective.  How fortunate we are, and how responsible we are to teach our precious girls differently.

Our time in D.C. was so short, but oh so sweet.  I came home exhausted, but in love.  And that's a pretty great way to ring in a new year of marriage.