My husband and I try hard to make sure we get at least one date night a month, so we have time to focus on our marriage relationship and reconnect with one another. Several different wise adults have told us to make sure we make our marriage a priority...especially once children are involved. It gets far too easy to get caught up in life, and sometimes we mistakenly put our children and their needs at the utmost center of the family. I am not saying our children's needs are not important...on the contrary, they are extremely important, and when the children are younger, they require even more from the adults in their lives. At the same time, though, a husband and wife need to devote time to strenghten their relationship, so when difficult times come (which they will), the relationship is already strong enough to handle the situation together. Also our children learn what relationships should look like by watching their parents. I believe more is learned through observing a parents' interactions than just the conversations a parent has with their child. For example, if a parent tells their child they need to respect their girlfriend and treat them well, but behind closed doors they see that same parent speak condensendingly and be physically rough with their spouse, the child is not learning how to treat their girlfriend well.
March was a little crazy because of all the birthday celebrations, so we didn't actually go out on a date but rather had a couple in-home date nights...making a nice dinner and dessert together after the boys are asleep. I have mentioned before that my husband has always wanted to eat at a Michelin star restaurant, so I made reservations and lined up my in-laws as baby-sitters for the evening. As a much unexpected and appreciated gesture, my husband's parents got us a hotel room for the night and offered to keep our boys overnight (as a birthday gift to my husband). This opportunity was a rarity because we do not often leave our boys overnight...by our own choice. Every once in awhile it is nice to take an evening off, be able to sleep in and just appreciate each other and our boys all the more.
Saturday we dropped the boys off at their grandparents and then headed out to our destination. We checked into our hotel, walked around the city doing some window shopping, got all fancied up for our Michelin star dining experience, ate dinner, walked to a tall hotel to enjoy drinks and admire the panaramic view of the city, returned to the hotel for bed, walked to breakfast the next morning, walked around a little more and then headed back towards home.
Although we enjoyed our Michelin star experience, we decided we are not huge fans of high end French cuisine. We were not fans of the gazpacho, saffron soup, foie gras, plum souffle (it was too eggy and not much flavor other than that) and I didn't care for the buffalo either...it was far too strong of a flavor for me. We did enjoy the salmon souffle, swordfish, halibut, kobe beef cheeks, and chocolate souffle along with some of the little small dessert samplers. I asked if they had lemonade, and I was told they could make some for me, so I got some delicious, freshly made lemonade which was really nice.
The bar we walked to after dinner was something we had found quite by accident. We had a nice view out our hotel window, and I had asked my husband about one of the really tall buildings that looked interesting, and when we looked it up, we found out it was a hotel with a bar located towards the very top with a panaramic view of the city. After reading that, we had to go just to enjoy the view together since it isn't something we will be doing on a regular basis. We ended up ordering virgin strawberry daquiris because neither of us are big alcohol consumers, but both of us found the virgin daquiris to be way too sickly sweet, but that was okay because we figured it was our admission price to enjoy the view. It was beautiful up there, and we got to see the city lights come on. A fun experience...
For breakfast we went to a crepery located just a block and a half from our hotel. We got the breakfast crepe (ham, eggs, cheese, peppers) and the philly cheesesteak peppers (just like it sounds) and split them. They came with some potatoes on the side. We also had some freshly squeezed orange juice. It was a nice breakfast, and we ate at a table outside and people watched as we enjoyed our meal together.
We had a great time on our getaway, but we were also glad to return home to our precious boys who were happy to see us. We sure are lucky... : )
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