Child-Free Anniversary Weekend ...

This weekend, Casey and I celebrated 6 years of marriage bliss. I know I've said it before, but seriously you guys... I'm so lucky to have this guy as my husband. He's pretty incredible. I knew from basically Minute One that he'd be the one I'd marry someday and I'm so happy I was right.

To mark the occasion, we did what any normal parents would do... we shipped the scamp off we sent Bea to Grandma's for some quality alone time.

We're very, very, very lucky that Casey's mom happens to be Beatrice Kate's best-est friend in the entire world. But really, we're even more blessed that Grandma volunteers to take Bea for TWO GLORIOUS DAYS a weekend every month or so, so that Case and I can have some um, alone time? (I'm not sure how to make that sound less skeezy, but Dad, if you're reading this... I'm sorry)

Sad or not, one of the first things we did to celebrate Child-Free Weekend was to move our television into the bedroom. See, we only have one t.v. and it lives in the living room. In fact, it was a choice that Casey and I made the first year we were married to not have a television in our bedroom. But all rules are off on Child-Free Weekend, and the TV was moved to its place of honor for two days:

Oh, please. Of course we watched West Wing. My man knows how to please his lady.

And Cooper, well, he also moved into his place of honor for two days:

I'm pretty sure he thought we gave Bea away it was back to the Olden Days of Childless Freedom!

On Saturday, I had to make a quick visit to meet a new doula couple and when I got back, it was clear that not a lot happened with The Boys Club, while I was out:

After Casey got up and moving we headed over to the Farmer's Market and stopped in for lunch at a food truck. I'm pretty sure we're basically at least tied with Portland as the Food Truck Capital in the nation:

Obviously there were a lot of choices, but eventually we settled on Chirba Chirba dumplings:

And delicious gourmet grilled cheese, of which I got exactly one-half of my sandwich:

Boy, that sure looks tasty. Was it Casey? Was it tasty?

When we got back home we snuggled did a whole. lot. of. nothing. Seriously. I think I took a nap and Casey watched Portlandia and SNL reruns for 3 hours straight.

Eventually, we got sick of ourselves and we got dressed and went on a Real! Live! Date! to one of our favorite local spots, Rue Cler. It's this fun, not-too-expensive French restaurant, and there are no photos because I ate my meal so quickly, it was that good. Also? I forgot my phone.


It's really no wonder that Durham is leading a contest with Southern Living magazine as one of the tastiest towns in the US. Our culinary scene is freaking amazing.

During the dinner Casey surprised me with tickets to see Jekyll and Hyde the musical at the Durham Performing Arts Center. He later explained that he had not, in fact, broken our "no gifts for our anniversary" rule because this was an activity, not a gift. I'm not sure I agree:

Lest you think this was some community theater rendition, please let me explain. We had Orchestra level tickets to see a Broadway-level production. My husband? He kinda rocks. I couldn't believe he pulled off that surprise, but I was so glad he did. It was a fun way to spend the evening with my love.

We were both a little pouty when we had to call the weekend to a close because we had such a fun time together, alone. But we were happy to go pick up our girl from Winston-Salem. When we got there, it was clear we weren't the only ones who had a great weekend. Bea didn't want to leave her BFF:

Though, there was at least one person there who was happy to see her go:

Meet Arnold's golden, female pouty twin, Athena.

Now it's back to real life... and we're already making plans for our next child-free weekend in a few months!


Oh, and wanna know something weird? On the day we got married, 6 years ago, it was almost 80F outside and beautiful. Again yesterday, it was 75 and so nice out. It was like nature was celebrating with us!

Hopefully your weekends were just as fun?!?