Weekend Away

Michael and I went to Chattanooga this weekend while Marlee spent the night at Giggy's house. It was the first time we've both been away from her overnight. I only just started to feel ready to leave her a few months ago. We decided it was time to take the plunge for a few reasons:

1. A weekend alone together would be fun!
2. We're about to have another baby, and odds are I won't want to leave that one for another 18 months. It's a window of opportunity!
3. There's a good chance I'll either go into labor in the middle of the night or have to spend a night in the hospital when Slim is born (though I'm hoping for a morning birth and going home that night). I didn't want that to be our first night away...I was worried I'd be focused on that and not the task at hand.

So we did it! Dropped Marlee off Saturday morning and drove up to Chattanooga. We spent the day Saturday walking and taking in the city. That night we did an after-hours lantern tour of Ruby Falls. It was really neat...no lights in the cave at all except our seven flashlights! I've never done the normal tour, but I'd imagine it's much less cool :). On Sunday, we slept in and had a big breakfast, then took in the Chattanooga Market. It's an awesome farmers'/artists' market held every Sunday. I really wish we had something like that here! We headed home around lunchtime to pick up MJ.

We missed her a bunch...she's usually along on all our adventures, so it felt strange. We kept thinking about how much she would enjoy certain things. We'll definitely take her soon. With all the missing though, I didn't worry about her once. I knew she was having lot of fun with Giggy. It made me feel like we did the right thing by waiting. I think if we'd have left her at a younger age, I would have worried more.

We had a great time, but we're glad to be home all together again. We love to travel, but it seems like the best part of every trip, long or short, is coming home.