This past weekend, my sweet hubby and I went on a 
trip.
A Much. Needed. Trip.
We are parents of 4 beautiful daughters and we LOVE THEM SO MUCH… but there is SUCH value in having “couple” time, even when you’re married with kids. Maybe even ESPECIALLY when you’re married with kids.
My kids spend a week every summer with their grandparents, so we thought this year we’d spend a few days on a little trip of our own. We don’t have much money, but we scrimped and saved and set a side a little from our tax refund, and planned as econo-but-fun trip to Charleston, SC.
I’ve always wanted to go there. I’m not a HUGE history buff like some historical writers I know, but I do find history interesting and LOVE the beauty in old houses. Such charm—so romantic!
We had such a good time.
We might not have had the money to do all the fancy stuff some people do. We saw couples decked out in their fancy duds going to the swanky restaurants that made me sweat looking at their prices. Our most expensive meal for the two of us was $36 including tip, which was less than the price of one plate at about 90% of the places we looked at! Some day– maybe I’ll splurge on a $50 steak.
This weekend was not that weekend!
But money didn’t matter. We enjoyed each others company. We splurged on going out to Fort Sumter which was SUPER cool. We walked around and looked at all the old houses. I played in the fountain at the part. We took lots of pictures. We made memories. I even dreamed up a book idea that may-or-may-not ever be written.
There is just a lot of value in spending time together. In reconnecting.
Romance doesn’t just happen. Even romance in our books are well thought-out and planned. It takes effort and time and two people willing to make the investment.
Let’s chat!
If you’re married, when’s the last time you made a significant investment in your relationship? (doesn’t have to be money….)
If not, have you ever been to Charleston? Or what fun city have you been to recently? Would welcome suggestions for future places to visit!
Krista Phillips writes inspirational romance with a dash of smiles. She believes a sprinkle of laughter (and a wee bit of chocolate) makes everything a little better! She blogs regularly about life as a wife, mother, follower of Jesus, and mother of a child with a rare congenital heart defect at www.kristaphillips.com. She is represented by Sarah Freese of WordServe Literary.
I’m glad you had a nice trip, Krista. Spending time together is so important. Just last night we spent 1 1/2 working a jigsaw puzzle. It doesn’t really matter what we do, as long as we’re together.
Your trip sounds relaxing. Friday nights after the boys are in bed, we play board games together. Totally agree- you don’t need to have money in order to have a great time together. My best memories of us as a couple are of hiking trips etc. or simple dates eating pizza by the lake:) Thanks for the reminder to cherish the simple things:)
Have never been to the U.S…can recommend some great Aus places though…:)
Your trip sounded like you had a great time. My husband and I don’t fo on trips often (money issues too), but we’re planning one for our anniversary in August. Meanwhile we have cozy candlelight dinners at home (we did go out into a fancy part of town last month, but I have to say I almost prefer the risotto dinner we cooked ourselves last Saturday night). I agree that what matters is being together and keeping the romance.
So glad you could get away with your husband, Krista, and thankful you had such a great time! My husband surprised me last month by combining a trip to Florida for our nephews’ graduation (both at the same college) with a trip to Monroeville, AL, home of Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird. Jim knows I love that book (I even paid homage to it in one of my books), and he discovered that the townspeople in Monroeville perform the play every summer. He got tickets for us to go, and it was a fabulous experience I’ll never forget. We explored the town, met a few locals, heard some interesting tidbits about Harper Lee (she died in February and we saw her grave–very simple, as you might expect), and even heard more about the time Gregory Peck came to town when his production company was getting ready to make the movie version (the ladies all dressed up and made him pies). I could go on, but suffice it to say, it was a marvelous experience made even better because Jim was the one who planned it–knowing how much it would mean to me. Blessings.
We go for a walk most days after daycare children go home. It is relaxing for me. Last weekend we played frisbee golf with our youngest daughter, who is soon to be married. It was relaxing and an inexpensive way to do so something together. We let lots of people better than us go ahead of us. That was fun too :-)!
Friday night is our date night, and after a long work week, we sometimes like to just stay home! So we order Chinese take out, rent a movie we’ve been wanting to see, and cuddle in for the night!! Definitely relaxing and romantic!!
My thoughts and prayers are with you, your husband, and your lovely four daughters. Understand your concerns about your youngest daughter’s health. Read your blog and you definitely deserve a night out with your wonderful husband.
Celebrated our 43rd anniversary last night at our favorite local restaurant, we have visited occasionally for 43 years (once every three years). We are now retired on a limited income. We used the gift card our middle son and his wife gave us for Christmas. Often we were able to go for dinner at this restaurant, because my parents watched our sons and give us money for our anniversary.
Often the best times are those that are free and not always alone without the kids. We are fortunate to live on the western shore of Lake Michigan with romantic sunsets. We buy a pizza or sub and have a picnic. Then while the kids ran ahead of us on the beach, we held hands and had a chance to reconnect. There were free concerts on the shore. Sometimes it was a movie at home after the kids went to bed. Or a steak dinner by candlelight on the deck.
Thanks for sharing. Blessings.
Life changes when you’re empty-nesters, but it’s still important to spend time together purposefully. Our favorite time to talk in on a road trip when there are fewer distractions.
Our son and daughter-in-love live in Mount Pleasant, just across the Ravenel bridge from Charleston. We love to visit Charleston. Our last big trip was earlier this year, near Mother’s Day and we went to SC. We have been married for 37 years and are more in love every day. :-)
As empty nesters we spend a lot of time together. My favorite times are when we take our dog for a walk every evening. Having two kids in college makes travel almost non-existent.
Krista, I am so glad that you and your husband got to go away and spend time together. I’m not married, but love Charleston. Sigh. Just beautiful. I have actually read contemporary and historical romances set in Charleston. You certainly don’t have to only be a historical fiction writer to set a lovely book in Charleston.
By the way, Krista, do you have any novels or novellas in the works at the moment? I have loved every one of your stories.
The two of us don’t get out as much as we used to because we don’t have as many trusted options for childcare as we used to. We have friends who we’ll ask on occasion but most have 3-8 kids of their own or 2-3 times that many grandchildren. One thing we are able to do is put a movie in for the kids then retreat to another part of the house or if the weather is nice, we’ll send them outside for a few hours :)
Krista, like some of the other, my hubby and I are empty nesters so we get go spend a lot of fun time together. One thing we did recently that we love is having our granddaughters for a sleepover. They keep us young. We love to travel together, and yes we took a romantic trip to Charleston in 2004. I can’t believe it’s been 12 years since we did that.
Exactly!!! sometimes it is the simple times that count!!
If we ever get the blessing of being able to vacation in your neck of the woods, I’ll hit you up for some suggestions!!!!
I hope you have a FANTASTIC trip in August!!!!! Dinners at home are fun too! (although I’ll be honest, I’m not the greatest of cooks, so we do end up going out to dinner more than some–although we almost always share a plate, LOL Not big spenders here!!)
Oh my goodness, what a fun surprise!!! Hubby planning that for you was SO INCREDIBLY SWEET!!!!!
Love walks!!! And my hubby is a huge frisbee golf player!! Can’t wait for the weather to cool off a little so we can go on more! I feel like it went cold to hot with not a lot of time in between, LOL.
We try to do date night once a month or so if at all possible!! Because it’s harder with the kids, we are trying to do a date “lunch” once a week now too so we can have that once-a-week connection. I work from home so can drive to him, sometimes its a picnic lunch and we walk around a nearby park! One of my favorite times of the week!
Oh yes, we love doing things with the kiddos too!!! LOVE LOVE Lake Michigan, I used to live in Northern Indiana so we went to the lake numerous times. So beautiful!!
Agreed! We’re quite a few years from empty nesters… but not many years away from our first one flying from the coop. Sigh… But I DO find there is value in getting “away” from home and the lonnnnngggggg to do list and having a “mental” break from it all.
How fun!!! I wondered what it would be like to live there. We drove through Mount Pleasant out to the Isle of Palms to spend a few hours on the beach that first day. We didn’t take the trip to go to the beach… but I couldn’t be that close and not at least walk along the coast and have that ocean view for a few hours!
Hubby and I always hoped we could travel right about now… we married SUPER young and had kids SUPER young, so we always said we hoped that in our 30’s & 40’s we could do more travel when the kids were older. WE didn’t think that quite through to realize that all our money would then be tied up in said kiddos, LOL. But we still are trying to be purposeful with our budgeting to make it happen once in a while.
Agreed! I have a Charleston plot line budding in the back of my head for “later” LOL.
Oh goodness, I’m so glad you’ve loved my stories! That makes my heart happy!!! And yes, I have a novella coming out this fall– A sequel to A (Kinda) Country Christmas — called A (sorta) Southern Serenade, and then will have another novella in that same series coming out in the spring.
I also have a novel completed and am hoping to have some news on a pub date for it soon!
I hear you! We are blessed in that my hubby’s parents take the kids to their house for a week each summer. Even the years that we don’t travel (most years!) it is a welcome break for us at home! It’s also SO MUCH EASIER now that my oldest 2 can babysit their younger siblings… makes date nights much cheaper/more possible.
Grandparents ROCK. My inlaws have my kids over for a week each summer (and used to do a few days each winter before they were in school) and the kids really look forward to it, and so does grandma and grandpa!! They like spoiling them for a week but are ready to send them back and have a break at the end of the week, LOL.