on our travels & leaving our baby.

sam & i had a blast in st. louis.  it was a pretty intense trip with a lot of flying, driving & work but it was an amazing experience.  i took a thousand touristy pictures but have yet to upload them because i've been so busy editing wedding photos.  maybe someday in the future... maybe not.  i was so nervous about leaving parker but he did great & his auntie was a rockstar stand-in for the weekend.  i'm so grateful for that!

it was weird to be so torn between wanting to get home to my little monster & not wanting our weekend away from him to end, all at the same time.  it was so fun to just be out & about alone with sam & to remember that we really do have a good time together even when parker's not around.  we went to restaurants & had relaxing meals, we made lots & lots of stops & didn't have to mess with carseat buckles & we slept in past 9:00.  but we still found ourselves calling milk "milch", horses "nays" & telling each other "ni-night."  that little boy has rubbed off on us.

but seriously, it was great to get out & just remember what life without parker was like.  it was fun, it was free, we had much less responsibility & we were much more spontaneous.  we were reminded that we connected on other levels besides our kid & that we actually enjoy each other's company.  we decided this is something we need to do regularly.  that in no longer than two years, when boy two is parker's age, we'd do it again.  we'll take a trip just the two of us & take time out for each other.

but holy crap, it felt good to come home to that little boy.  as much fun as we were having out there away from him, it's nothing compared to how good it felt to be together again as our little family of three.  being away from him for a while was nice but being back together is even better.  i'm so grateful to have this little boy that makes all the diaper changes, car-seat wrangling & naptime scheduling worth it.  that even though our free & spontaneous lives have been forever-altered, we wouldn't trade it for the world.

and since this trip away went so well, i'm already looking forward to the next one that will again remind me of that fact.  distance makes the heart grow fonder, right?  nothin' wrong with that.