Loving Life: {Travel}

In the first five years of our marriage (the years before the kids came), Matt and I made a point throughout the year to set aside time and money to getaway. We were looking to relax or have a romantic adventure together. Weekend getaways were all about relaxing, while longer vacations had a combination of relaxation and adventure built into them. I found that I needed that in our marriage. It was something I looked forward to. I loved to plan and prepare for these trips, and I loved the quality time that we shared during this part of our marriage. When I look back on our first five years of marriage, my favorite memories came from these trips.

The money we spent on these trips was a part of our annual budget, and because we were childless at the time, the majority of the budget was spent on where we stayed. Holiday Inns and Comfort Inns will be our choice of lodging when we take family vacations with kids. When we were trying to take a romantic getaway as a family of two, I typically looked to stay at a boutique hotel, a bed and breakfast, a cottage with character, a cozy cabin or a romantic inn. Food was also something we enjoyed on our trips. We never stopped to eat at a fast food chain, and we always tried to eat something we couldn’t get back home. We spent little money on how we spent our time. Enjoying nature and sight seeing our surroundings are two of our favorite things to do, and it just so happens it is also free. The only exception to spending money on how we spent our time was if we were paying money for a special adventure like snorkeling in the Caribbean, parasailing over the Atlantic, taking a hot air balloon over Napa Valley or whale watching off of the Northeast Coast. And since neither of us like clutter, we don’t spend a ridiculous amount of money on souvenirs. We buy a magnet from each place we visit and put it on the side of our fridge (in an organized fashion of course) when we get home as a small token from our travels. Other than that, we don’t spend much time or money in the gift shops. I take a ton of pictures, and of course, I have this blog to write about the memories we made.

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Weekend Getaways

Gatlinburg, TN

(Birthday Getaway 2011)

Cincinnati, OH

(Anniversary Getaway 2011)

St. Louis, MO

(4^th of July mini vacation 2011)

New Buffalo, MI

(Birthday Getaway 2011)

French Lick, IN
(Anneversary Getaway 2012)

Nashville, TN

(Anniversary Getaway 2013)