Where Am I Going?

That is how it all started.  Where in the heck are we going???  A mystery trip that Brian planned this year because I couldn't handle planning a trip with everything else going on and he took it right off my plate.  The trip snuck up on me the week after the end of school and all associated drama’s, days after a crazy packed weekend and hours after fitting 7 days worth of stuff into two days. 

But, we made it.  It was Thursday morning and we were in the car and driving, somewhere, with no kids and no responsibilities for four days.  Just Brian and I.  A “just Brian and I” vacation hadn’t happened since Jamaica in June 2001 on our honeymoon and we were over ready for this.  But, it is hard to separate from the kiddos, especially when they are young, and it is hard to hand off four of them at that!  What can you do, but ride the waves of life and hope that you can come up for a breath every so often.  Grandma and Grandpa took the reigns on this one and let us go.  Bless them! 

Well, this was our breath and I thought we needed it, badly.  We needed that reconnection.  That plug back into each other besides just mommy and daddy.  I didn’t even realize how much reconnection we needed until we were reconnecting. 

I didn’t want to know anything, and this man was taunting me with possible flights or driving or trains etc.  Needless to say packing was tough, but I did it and we did end up driving (which is good because I am pretty sure my ambiguous luggage would have cost hundreds of dollars to check onto a flight). 

We started with a beautiful lunch at a vineyard somewhere in Kentucky.  I don’t think we could find this place again if we tried.  The sun was out, the air was teasing us with a slight wind and we ate outside and sampled around nine wines.  It was unfamiliar to be together with quiet and wine.  Uninterrupted sentences and only two people’s worth of food.  We toasted to our trip, our time together and our opportunity to be with one another again. 

The drive took around eight hours and I figured out fairly quickly where we were going.  To be completely honest I wasn’t ecstatic when I found out where it was, but that was only because I had never been and I didn’t know how amazing it was.  I also had BEACH going through my head for weeks after he was egging me on to get a new bathing suit.  It has been 11 years since I saw crystal blue waters after all. 

But, it was very soon after we pulled into Gatlinburg, TN and I saw the beautiful scenes before my eyes, the gorgeous mountain cabin we were staying in and my husband standing there with me that I realized this was going to be an incredible weekend!  I couldn’t have been more right.  I will write another piece about our many adventures.  Like with everything else, when the Harden’s set their mind to something we go all out and this was no exception.  We knocked off every single thing on our “want to do” lists and more!!  Leave it to us to go on vacation and pack every minute with something.  But, we did it all together.

Our home away from home for a few great days!