This morning I woke up and went to the fitness center for the last time. I really enjoy working out. It is a way for me to relax and just think about life. I also feel really good when I’m done.

Then I went back to the room to pack up our belongings, because today was our last day on the east coast. I had a really nice time with Nate, but I was ready to get back home to see the girls and back to routine. I really love routine and I’m such a planner.  I enjoy it when I have planned for something and things run smoothly, without chaos.

So we left the hotel and decided to do a little shopping in the area before we headed off to the airport. I prayed all morning that God would bring us back safely to our girls.

Today we headed to Virginia Beach to get some sun.

When we arrived, we parked and walked across the street to the ocean front. We walked right along the beach and let the water drift up over our toes. It was a hot day, but the water was still cold. There were many people getting in the water to boogie board and just splash in the waves, but it was freezing cold. I wasn’t about it get in the water, but walking alongside it was very nice. We had done quite a bit of walking this week and I really loved that.

And on our little stroll, my dad came to visit us! No, he really didn’t, but doesn’t this guy look like him from behind!? Wowza, almost scary!

Later we walked along the boardwalk where the shops were and picked up some cute land and water shoes for the girls.

At this point, I was really missing the girls. The only thing that saved me from not getting on a plane and going back was that I knew they were in good hands and were having a good time. I could hardly wait to see them.

It had been a long day at the beach and we were both very tired, so we went back to Newport News to catch a late dinner.

We went to a local pizza tavern near Fin, the restaurant we had eaten at a few days prior. It was actually really good and a nice day to unwind from all the walking.

Then we headed back to the hotel, hot tub and bed. Tomorrow we would wake up and see our sweet girls!

Today we had planned a dinner cruise for the evening. But first, it was another work day for Nate. We visited a few of Nate’s client and then we would be off to  Norfolk, VA for our cruise.

Nate was almost finished with his day when we realized it was already 5:30pm. We still had to drive 30 minutes to our hotel (that we hadn’t checked in yet), get dressed and drive 30 minutes to the location where the cruise was and we had to be there at 7pm. The ship does not wait for anyone. On top of that, it was rush hour! Really?

We rushed to the hotel to check in and the computers weren’t working and they could not get us a room to change. So I changed in the lobby restroom while Nate found a way to iron my dress. It was slightly chaotic! Well I quickly did what I could and we headed off to Norfolk. We could tell that it was indeed rush hour, because instead of taking 30 minutes to get there, it took us one hour. We got there and Nate dropped me off to tell them we were there and he parked the car. He had trouble finding a spot, but eventually did and ran to the boarding dock. I looked down at the clock on my phone and it just changed from 6:59 to 7:00pm. Could we had cut it any closer? Wow!

We got on the boat, had a nice dinner and sat up on the top deck for the rest of the cruise. The weather was perfect!

After the cruise we drove back to the hotel and headed off to bed.

This morning Nate and I headed downstairs to the fitness center before we headed off to Washington, D.C. It would be another nice road trip, about 2.5 hours. I realized that we had been doing quite a bit of driving, but it really didn’t bother me at all. It was a nice quiet drive.

Once we got into D.C., we were on a mission to find a parking spot. And………….two hours later (yes, two hours later) we found one in the basement of a hotel. (We came to find out later that it is best to take the Metro into D.C. I guess I will know better next time.) It had complimentary valet service namely so they could pack all the cars in. So we headed on our journey to see some of the historical monuments. We did lots of walking today. It was nice and warm, but still a nice breeze.

We went to the White House…

to the Washington monument…

and to the Lincoln memorial.

We went to a few other places as well. We could have spent a long weekend there, but this was a day trip and was good enough for me.

By the end of the trip, we had done a lot of walking, but I really enjoyed it. Then we were back to the car on our way back to Newport News, VA. It was pretty late when we got back, so no hot tub, just straight to bed this time.

This morning was an early morning for me. I was expecting to wake up around 5:30am to catch our train ride, but my body decided to wake up at 3:30am instead. So, I reached for God’s word and continued my reading on from Exodus. I love that in Exodus 33:11, The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. In the next few chapters Moses asks God to be with them on their journey to the Promise Land, but God was unwilling because of the stiff-necked people. But, Moses speaks with God and God finds favor with him and then God says “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

What a close relationship Moses had with God, to see Him face to face and speak to him as a friend. I’m so thankful that I can without a shadow of a doubt know that I will someday be with God in Heaven. That at the end of my life God would say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” and someday I will be in the presence of Him who saved me from my sin. What an awesome God I have!

After reading, I finally ended up falling back asleep. At 5:30am, we both wake up and got ready for our travel to Newport News, VA. We headed downstairs for breakfast and were off to the airport to return our rental car. Good-bye CX-7. It was fun.

Inside the airport, we went up to the taxi service attendant and well…he was sleeping! We woke him up, paid for the trip and went to meet our driver who was ALSO sleeping! He wakes up and we headed to the train station. On our way he stops at the gas station. I was thinking that we must be really low on gas, right? That was the obvious conclusion. NO, he went in for a soda and then comes out and fills up the tank with TWO gallons of gas, probably to justify his stop. Well, at this point with all that has happened I am laughing seriously hard and I was still laughing when he got in the car. I eventually had to compose myself.

Upon arrival we become aware that well I just want to skip this part  we didn’t notify them of Nate’s handgun 24 hours in advance.  So today we would be finding another mode of transportation. We were slightly excited to ride the train, but we found out by driving, we would get there around 1:30pm and if we would have taken the train, we wouldn’t have been there until 7pm. So, it didn’t turn out to be a bad change. We got here quicker and had more time to do things.

So we left the train station for yet another taxi ride back to the airport to pick up another rental car and headed on our road trip to Newport News, VA.

Upon arrival, we went for a stroll around some neat shops and ate at a place called Fin. It had been under new management and everything on the menu was organic. I had local crawfish and Nate had salmon. It turned out to be a great place!

After our stroll, we headed back to the hotel for……….. hot tub and bed.

I may have failed to post this earlier, but this trip is a vacation BUT also a business trip. So, today was the business part of the trip and we went to the office.  Nate worked on computers and I wrote about our trip. Mid-day I started coming down with something, so I went back to the hotel to take a nap while Nate finished up with some projects. Neither of us had been feeling well. I’m not sure if it was from allergies or the stomach flu. There were hundreds of plants and flowers at the Biltmore home, so it could have been a combination.

When I woke up a few hours later, I did feel better, but I wasn’t hungry for dinner at all. But, I did want to hit up this place called Frogurt I had seen on tv the day earlier during breakfast. It mentioned it was yogurt, so it should help my stomach, right? Well, it was wonderful. The place resembled Orange Leaf in Wichita. I wonder if it’s a sister company, or that they are all copying each other. It was really good though. I had pink lemonade and tropical fruit sorbet, yummmmmm!

After our frozen yogurt stop, we went for a stroll and walked around the shopping area nearby – again buying nothing, but talked about our kayaking trip coming up soon after the girls birthday. That will be fun.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, more hot tub and off to bed.

This morning we woke up at 7:30am and my husband went to the fitness center with me! We hadn’t worked out together since…well maybe since I worked at PLC in Overland Park, which was about 5 years ago. Then we headed to get some breakfast and get ready for our road trip. While we were in our room, Martin called us on Face Time and I jumped out of the shower to fine my sweet little Janie. I think she thought it was a picture of me, because she seemed uninterested after a few seconds. But it was good to see her face. Katelynn was at her cousin’s house having fun at the time (and we would see her later in the day).

After the call, we headed out on our road trip to the Biltmore Estates in Asheville, NC about two hours away. The trip was beautiful, not like driving through the state of Kansas. There were tons of beautiful trees and hills, a great road to cruise on. As we reached our destination at the Biltmore home, we realized this adventure was a little pricier than we had hoped. But nonetheless, we bought our tickets and toured the amazingly awesome home of the Vanderbilt family. There were over 250 rooms and each room was elaborately decorated. Almost every room had a fireplace, fabric covered walls and extremely ornate wood furniture. Even though it was built in 1895 I really liked the décor.  The basement was complete with maids quarters, a bowling alley, swimming pool, exercise room and ping pong – it was obviously the “man cave.” Did I mention that this was their vacation home…wow! There was also a library filled with thousands of books that resembled the library in the movie Beauty and the Beast (yes I just said that). I know Katelynn would have appreciated it. I wanted to take a picture, but there was a guard in the room and we weren’t supposed to take pictures (I will post other pictures where guards weren’t in the room).

After our tour, we stopped for some ice cream in the parlor – had some praline crunch, went to the winery – had nothing and were on our way back to the hotel in Winston-Salem.

On our way home, we got a call from Jeri to Face Time with the kids. So we called around for a restaurant that had WiFi.  We were both very excited. It seemed like I hadn’t seen the kids in months. This time we saw Katelynn and it was evident that she was having a good time. She was also still in one piece and that settled my heart too. Janie knew what was going on this time and she smiled and clapped when she saw us! It made my heart melt…she does that often.

We then left the restaurant and headed back to the hotel for hot tub time and bed…do you see a theme here?

Let me start this blog off by saying this is more of a documentation for me and my not-so-great memory. I don’t know what is going on with me these days, but my memory seems to be on the decline. So here I go documenting our trip, so I can remember how great it was to get away with my husband.

We said our last good-byes as we put the girls to bed at grandma and grandpa Enegren’s house. It was really sad for me, but I was more than ready to get away with Nate. It had been two years since we had gotten away with just the two of us. It’s our time away when we remember what it was like before we had children. I can’t even put into words how important it is for us to do this, even if we don’t do something significant, we simply need to get away.

So we drove home and spent the night at our house to prepare ourselves for our early morning departure. I’m accustomed to waking up early in the night, but not by an alarm, so I kept thinking I was dreaming when the alarm went off and Nate had to wake me up. Seriously he had to wake me up, can you believe that! As we pulled out of the drive way our neighbor Marty came to greet us. Yes, he was really up at 4:00am? Another reason why I’m so thankful God provided a home for us where he did. We have great neighbors. Martin graciously woke up early enough to drive us to the airport, what a long day it would be for him. As we get there, I remember that it was allegedly “dooms day.” Now, I had been thinking I was going to die today, but not for that reason…because of flying. It’s just me being a mother and worrying. But, we landed safely and made it to North Carolina. Thank you Jesus.

Then we were off to pick up our luggage and pick up our car. Since we had to wait in line, which seemed like a normal procedure, the man at the front desk upgraded us from a Corolla to a Mazda CX-7. Yes, thank you for the extra space Mr. Enterprise! Then we are off to our hotel to rest in bed from our early morning rise. The best part of my nap was that I didn’t have to think about getting up and making dinner or when the kids were going to wake up. I had one whole week of me/us time! Wow, thank you Martin! So when I finally woke up two hours later, we got dressed and were off to find some place to eat. We spoke to the woman at the front desk and she said there were some restaurants just up the road and that it would be a short walk. YES, my husband is going on a walk with me! Well, we didn’t find anything we wanted, lots of places that looked more like a lunch joint, lots of cafes, BUT we went on a walk and I loved that! So, back to the hotel to get the car.

Arriving in Greensboro

After we drove around, we finally stopped at Bonefish Grill. Now I really enjoy fish, but did NOT have the best experience here back in Wichita. Actually the halibut I had was not cooked and I didn’t have an appetite to eat another bite, I was done. BUT, nonetheless, I would try again. I ordered the tilapia with artichokes, basil and lemon sauce with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Yummmmmm! Did I mention that I wasn’t interrupted? Did I mention that I could just relax? It was wonderful! Nate and I began to talk about how we enjoyed out honeymoon and how nice that was to get away. But I don’t think I really appreciated it as much as I should have, especially now that I’m getting away post children. It’s hard to really understand and appreciate how wonderful “me” time actually is until children arrive.

It was a great dinner and we left the restaurant and did some shopping (bought nothing), but just enjoyed the stroll. We drove back to the hotel, went to the hot tub and off to bed.