Vacation

At the end of July, we were finally able to take a real vacation as a family. It wasn't combined with Kevin's work or any other family obligations. Just the three of us on a lake for a week.

We rented a house down at Lake Anna, which is about halfway between DC and Richmond. Some friends came out the first weekend, but after that we had the place to ourselves. It was maybe a little big for just the three of us, but it was one of the few properties that let us bring Kina along.

We spent the week mostly hanging out. We had plans to spend more time in the water, but it ended up being too warm. The lake was built as a heat reservoir for a power plant, and the house we rented was on the warm side. The water temperature was almost 90 degrees, way too warm to be refreshing. Especially on hot, July days. We went out in the canoe a coupe of times, which proved to be a great way to make Gavin fall asleep. But for swimming we had to drive over to the beach on the other side of the lake.

We also went out to a local winery and tried a few restaurants. But for the most part we stayed in. Gavin napped a lot. I read my books. Kevin played Zelda. All in all it was a very relaxing week. I'm glad we were able to find time to get away as a family. Here's hoping this was just the first of many more family vacations to come.

Stay-cation

At the beginning of July, when Gavin was eight and a half months old, I was able to spend my first full night away from him. Part of me had wanted to get this out of the way sooner, but while I was breastfeeding I could never really spend that much time away from him. Once he started going to daycare I was having a hard enough time pumping enough to supply that. Adding an overnight trip just seemed like more hassle.

But by July he was taking formula often enough - and I was feeding him rarely enough - that I felt comfortable spending the night away. So I gathered my girl friends for a mini stay-cation.

We spent the afternoon at a Korean spa called Spa World. It has a co-ed area with a variety of rooms set to different temperatures. You can lay in any of them, take a nap in the main area, get food, play games, or sit on one of the comfy sofas. There's also an enormous hot tub area. Well, actually there are two - one for men and one for women. We spent several hours there, laying around and talking. Eventually they all took a nap, but I knew that if I fell asleep then I'd probably never wake up again.

Afterwards we went out to dinner and then spent the night in a hotel room. We drank an excessive amount of wine and played games. It was so nice to hang out with my friends and not worry about feeding my baby or getting up at 2 to comfort him or anything. I could actually take a night off and just enjoy myself.

I'm really glad I was able to get a ladies night in between Kevin's various busniess trips. It helped me recharge my batteries, and it was great to have actual, uninterrupted conversations with my friends.