I feel like the first question you ask your spouse when you’re planning a trip is: are we taking the kids or not?

I mean, that’s really the biggest question.  The whole planning of the entire trip depends on how that one, crucial question, is answered.  Kids or no kids.  Everything hinges on that.

Funny that it took us a while to figure that answer out for this particular trip.

We actually debated taking the kids, to which we concluded that everyone, including us, would hate us.

Am I right?  I know I’m right.

Kids do not equal a nice Saturday afternoon at the vineyard!

So once we decided that we weren’t taking the kids we had to figure out what to do with the kids.  They cannot just fend for themselves at 3(!!!) and 20 months.

Our first option in Andrew’s parents was out because his mom was going to be in Cape Cod for the weekend.

What to do.  What to do.

I was talking with a co-worker about it one day and without even truly considering what this meant, he volunteered his family to keep our kids.  I laughed, like he must be a mad man, and after stating his seriousness, and how much fun this would be {he really was a mad man}, I asked that he go home and talk with his wife about it.  Lawd dude, you cannot volunteer your wife for a weekend with extra kids without asking her!!!!  That is your own invitation to the dog house.  Hello?  Duh.

So he went home and asked her and thankfully she agreed.  They were in.  Their whole family of four was going to take on the wild banshees of Reynolds and Eliza Jane.  I started praying.  For lots of things, but mainly that our kids wouldn’t be completely wild and crazy!

The week of, I started prepping a little here and there.  I decided that I was not going to be THAT mom with lists of everything for these sweet friends that were keeping our kids {not to pass unnecessary judgement on anyone, I just know how I can be…so I refrained from the lists}.  These sweet friends are raising two great kids of their own, and I fully trusted them to do whatever needed to be done with ours.  Including reprimands, pops and whatever else that was necessary, because these terrible 2s and 3s ain’t no joke, y’all.

We did talk about food options, what the pickiest eater will actually eat and what not.  Bedtimes, etc.  Other than that, they had full reign.

 

To say that our kids had an amazing time with our sweet friends is an understatement.  Reynolds {the only one that can/will talk} told us for days what fun he had with them and their kids.  The pictures we were tagged in in Instagram revealed a lot of play and finally, exhaustion.

These are some of the pictures we got while we were away…

Oh, and this Superman tattoo ↑ that R has on his arm…it was on there until last Thursday.  He wouldn’t let us take it off.

And the most hilarious picture of them all….

To our sweet friends David & Katie and their kids, we are indebted to you.  You loved our kids immensely for two days and you allowed us a quiet night away {and a chance to sleep in!}.  Thank you from the depths of our hearts!