A stay-cation

I recently experienced a stay cation. I understand this is a new word in the dictionary (or however that works) and also one of the most used words this past year. What is it? (my mom had never heard of the word - AND SHE'S AN ENGLISH PROFESSOR - COME ON MOM!) A stay cation is a vacation where you stay at home or in your hometown to save money! Pretty exciting huh?

Well, Nate and I had planned to save up some extra money we made through a surprise job this summer and go away for the weekend. Perhaps a bed and breakfast close by or a short weekend trip while the kids were taken care of. We decided to use that money for something else and just stay at home for the weekend WITHOUT THE KIDS, besides the fact that I had to factor in a baby that I had to stock up some milk for.

It was all lined up. The boys went to "camp Curve" in West Tn. with my parents for 4 days and Elizabeth stayed sporadically at Nate's parents' house in the near by town. We enjoyed eating out mostly (I refused to cook!) and shopping for school supplies for the kids (that in it self was a treat - no kids and shopping for crayons and notebooks!)

The one big surprise was that Nate had secretly packed an overnight bag for us (don't ask me what was in it - let's just say he did pack my contact case and well that's it...) and gotten us a room at a new hotel in town. I was a little tweaked about the 'spending money' on our stay cation but it wasn't too much and hey, this was my anniversary present for goodness sake Sarah! So we spent a lot of time just being together, watching t.v. in bed, eating a long breakfast (provided by the hotel) and being silly. (I am a lot sillier when my kids aren't around for some reason - and Nate...well Nate is a silly person so he enjoys those silly moments with old Sarah)

We also enjoyed a long Sunday of actually skipping church (something we NEVER do) (as my sister said "well, I'm proud of you Sarah" - which I don't know if I should consider a compliment or not...hee hee) and we went to the lake with friends (who also didn't have their kids) and just rode on a boat and acted like crazy teenagers all day. I actually rode a knee board for the first time and even got "up" the first time - caught some waves, got a little too "proud" and crashed - that was good enough for my knee boarding, crazy teenager experience. Until, I tried out the sea do, where I drove for the first time and truly felt like I was a super hero. I don't think I've ever had so much fun as I did driving that thing.

It's Thursday now and we have had the kids back with us for a few days. I feel refreshed. I feel in love again. I feel like I can do this marriage, parenting, housewife thing a little longer. =)