This overnighter was much needed! I had such a hard time leaving the baby, but I knew that spending time with my hubby was very important. I knew before having kids that I wanted to make sure that spending time with my hubby was always a priority. And I don't mean time you spend scarfing down a meal together at the kitchen table (or coffee table) in between the baby crying & pooping, while you're in spit up soaked mom sweatpants and a tank, hair all looking a hot mess! Our marriage is so important to me. I guess it's already wired into who I am as a person because I am definitely a person who shows love through quality time. If we don't have quality time spent connecting as a couple then I feel like a huge piece is missing and everything feels off balance. If you are married and have kids and don't make it a priority to get out of the house for a date night or overnighter I strongly recommend you do! I know so many moms who don't make it a priority. I'm sure a lot of it is our strong emotional attachment to our children. Which is totally normal! I had moments when I felt guilt for not being home with my son, but I knew he was totally fine! Our husbands need to know that they are just as important to us as our children and their role is above mother & child. I believe my relationship with Todd should come before my relationship with my kids. I'm not saying one is more important than the other but there needs to be a distinction of roles, bonds, and a natural order to things. How can I raise my son to the best of my ability if my relationship with my husband is not in line? There has to be an emotional, physical and spiritual connection in our marriages in order for them to work. I'm not saying that it is impossible to connect at home, but there is something about getting away, even for a couple hours, with no distractions, that can really benefit a marriage!
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed just 1 night away with my hubby!! Todd took me to a hotel that I had been wanting to do some boudoir shoots in. He surprised me and booked it for the night. After stalling and taking forever to kiss and hug on the baby, and get out the door, we headed into the city around 5pm on Saturday night. We moved our reservations to 9 and had plenty of time for the drive in and time for me to actually curl my hair and put on makeup...and fake eyelashes! Fancy, right? We then walked 4 blocks to dinner. We went to a fancy Mexican restaurant. It was so funny because on our way to dinner, both of us totally starving, we walked by a pizza by the slice place. It smelled soooo amazing. For some reason we couldn't get pizza out of our mind all night....or maybe it was just me. So fast forward, we're at our restaurant, which was amazing, but the portions were so small! Which.... I know is totally normal for a nice restaurant where you pay big $$ for delicious food. It seriously was so good! I had fillet Mignon. I am not a big steak person but it was the best I've ever had!!! I am still craving it. Dinner left us somewhat hungry still so we went on the hunt for some great dessert. We walked 2 blocks and found a lounge/cafe/nightclub place that had good reviews on yelp for dessert. We went in and ordered a few drinks. Todd went up to order dessert but was told the cook had the flu so he didn't come in! Haha. Gotta love the city. So we just hung out and talked then took a cab to North Beach and walked around and found a little cafe and had cheesecake and some other chocolate type dessert and coffee! We stayed and chatted until the workers kicked us and another couple out around 1am. We then tried catching a cab (which took FOREVER) and finally headed back to our hotel.
When we got out the cab driver dropped us right in front of that pizza by the slice.... sooooo we got pizza! We took it up to our hotel room and sat in bed and ate pizza at 2am! It was such a great night!! I had a few drinks and was super chatty and we talked about random things! It was fun. =)
The next day we slept in. I only had 3 drinks the night before but.... my head was hurting!! We got up and ready, packed up our stuff and headed to fisherman's wharf. We had lunch and drove around taking pictures for a little while, then we headed home!
I am still thinking about how much fun we had a few days later. I am so thankful to have been married for 4 years, to an amazing man. Our marriage has had good and bad times and God has brought us through so much. I am more in love with my husband than I have ever been. He is an amazing husband and father, provider, protector and companion. My life would be dull without him in it. I love you babe!!!
HUGE thanks to my mom for watching Jax so we could have that time together!!! <3 When Todd planned the weekend, he didn't realize it was her birthday on Sunday. She insisted on watching Jax and that it would be a birthday treat. We surprised her when we got home and had the Dunn's, Carlos, Peter, Cristian and Austin come out for a taco dinner! It was fun!
I can't tell you how much I enjoyed just 1 night away with my hubby!! Todd took me to a hotel that I had been wanting to do some boudoir shoots in. He surprised me and booked it for the night. After stalling and taking forever to kiss and hug on the baby, and get out the door, we headed into the city around 5pm on Saturday night. We moved our reservations to 9 and had plenty of time for the drive in and time for me to actually curl my hair and put on makeup...and fake eyelashes! Fancy, right? We then walked 4 blocks to dinner. We went to a fancy Mexican restaurant. It was so funny because on our way to dinner, both of us totally starving, we walked by a pizza by the slice place. It smelled soooo amazing. For some reason we couldn't get pizza out of our mind all night....or maybe it was just me. So fast forward, we're at our restaurant, which was amazing, but the portions were so small! Which.... I know is totally normal for a nice restaurant where you pay big $$ for delicious food. It seriously was so good! I had fillet Mignon. I am not a big steak person but it was the best I've ever had!!! I am still craving it. Dinner left us somewhat hungry still so we went on the hunt for some great dessert. We walked 2 blocks and found a lounge/cafe/nightclub place that had good reviews on yelp for dessert. We went in and ordered a few drinks. Todd went up to order dessert but was told the cook had the flu so he didn't come in! Haha. Gotta love the city. So we just hung out and talked then took a cab to North Beach and walked around and found a little cafe and had cheesecake and some other chocolate type dessert and coffee! We stayed and chatted until the workers kicked us and another couple out around 1am. We then tried catching a cab (which took FOREVER) and finally headed back to our hotel.
Whenever I find myself sinking into a dark mood, I try to surround myself with things that feed my soul. Spending time with God, and my two boys is always my first go to but something that always moves me and lifts my spirits is art and beauty. I know I've mentioned this before. Last night I found myself slipping into a funk. We had gone out to take some photos of Jax at sunset and I really wanted to be in some of the photos. This is REALLY hard for me. I hate being on the other side of the camera and always have, especially post pregnancy but I really want to be in photos with my son. As I had feared, the result had me in a sour mood. I tried really hard not to get snippy with Todd or be too hard on myself. I can be very self judging and sink into very self destructive and hateful thoughts towards myself. It usually just spirals down from there. I think I did ok for the most part though. I was a little quiet for the rest of the evening but tried not to allow myself to worry so much about my weight or the way I looked.
I stayed up until 7am having a blast just looking at things online for inspiration. It made my heart happy. I have so many dreams that I feel are just stuck. I want so badly to be one of those photographers that has the amazing lil boutique studio and takes dozens of photos of cute lil faces and families and then have my boudoir studio as well. It's so frustrating to know exactly what you want but be unable to make it happen. Hmmmm. I sense God is trying to teach me something. While it would be wonderful to be more financially stable than we are right now, money is not what drives me to do photography. So I've decided to just let go and do what I love even if the business isn't booming. Don't get me wrong... we do have business! It's just not enough to support us fully... yet.
