Before we had Taylor, Matt & I lived extremely active lifestyles. We'd come home from work and either go to the gym or get a work-out in at home together, we'd travel as frequently as possible, find weekend long projects to do around our old Portland home, spend time with our family and friends, and when we had the chance, we'd make our way out to the Oregon Coast for a relaxing getaway.
Trips to the coast have always been special for us. We were long distance for over three years and whenever we'd come home, we'd make an effort to get away from our busy lives for a weekend and reconnect. At the time, there was no WiFi at the beach house, so we had no choice but to take extra long walks and fill the evenings with good meals, a bottle of wine and cribbage by the fireplace. The coast was the first place I remember sitting there thinking "this is what love is supposed to feel like". From the beginning of our relationship, these trips served as a great reminder to me of what I had, what was most important and I always left feeling refreshed, renewed, and overwhelmingly loved.
The last two years have been pretty insane for us. We bought our home & got engaged in January of 2018, were married in September and were pregnant with Taylor soon after. While planning for our wedding, working on house projects, and getting ready for to have a baby, trips to the beach became a somewhat distant memory, getting lost in all the chaos we had injected into our lives. It seemed impossible to make time to get away for just a weekend with so much to be done. I remember the last few months of my pregnancy being filled with so much excitement, but equally, worried about how we'd navigate through this next chapter together - we'd spent so much time focused on finding the perfect home, planning our wedding and preparing for a baby, that we rarely had time to focus on each other. We weren't making time like we did before.
The feeling was mutual and we insisted on making the trip to the coast for our babymoon, despite it being our only free weekend to get things finished up before Taylor's due date. This would probably be our last chance to get away on our own for a very long time. As we took our routine walk on the beach and Reggie ran up and down the beach, I remember thinking how glad I was that we made the effort and how exciting it was that the next time we'd be here would be with our son. I imagined my husband giving the tennis ball to Taylor who'd throw it a couple feet for Reggie to dive bomb into and the look on Taylor's face the first time his tiny toes touched the sand. How lucky are we to be able to bring our son to a place that for so long has been a special destination for us.
Now that Taylor is here, I'd be lying if I didn't say that it often feels as though my husband and I are really great teammates, or worse, co-workers - a huge compliment to our parenting abilities, but probably not the first words someone would choose to describe a perfect marriage. I returned back to work three months ago and between splitting drop-off and pick-up, Matt trying to get to gym a few times a week, coaching 6th grade basketball, making sure Reggie gets a walk, that we have dinner prepared, and that Taylor is taken care of, its not uncommon that some of the first words to each other since we said goodbye that morning are at 9 pm as we're getting ready for bed. Being a new parent, and a working one at that, is exhausting.
That's why, while our weeks are insanely busy and our weekends inevitably become packed, whenever we do have the chance, we jump at the opportunity to get to the beach with Taylor & Reggie. We know that if we choose to stay home, we will fill our schedules and won't have time to relax and spend quality time as a family. These trips are our chance to put all of that away for a few days and re-focus on our relationship and our new family. We're able to share this amazing place with Taylor and my hope is that as he gets older, we will continue to prioritize these family getaways so that he can develop a relationship with the coast that is as special as ours.
What's your special place? How do find time to re-connect with your family?
Love Linny