Adults Only Weekend (or if I've written about this before and forgot, please forgive me)

No, we aren't participating in some version of East of Eden.

But in the horizon lies an opportunity to be child free for 40 hours. And I cannot wait.

Kevin's cousin, Doug, is getting married to the lovely Rachel. They live in Arizona. They want to get married here. Isn't it fancy? I'm guessing somebody has some cash to spend on a party, because this ain't cheap people. Because we love a good party and other-people's weddings, we cannot wait.

But a dilemma arose. Patrick or no Patrick? At first I was insistent. Yes, we have to bring the toddler. Who cares that it's two plane rides in 40 hours, or that we'll have to figure out how to get him to sleep in a hotel room while we hang out in the hallway, or that he'll NEVER sit still during the ceremony or reception, or that we'll spend even more money we don't have taking him there. It's a family event! All the other (four) cousins will be there! We want to introduce him to family!

Then the reality of the weekend set in. And I asked myself: Does this choice truly work for our family? Does it work for Patrick? Does it work for our finances?

The answer was no. In fact, other than the pleasure of showing him off to family, bringing him on this condensed trip sounded pretty miserable. We thought about the last Arizona trip, and the experiences of our toddler niece and her parents. Ugh.

It also helped that my mom, upon hearing about this wedding, said "I'll come up and watch Patrick and the dogs."

Because she's awesome like that.

So the choice was gleefully made. A grown-up vacation! Time to read, hang by the pool, drink Margaritas (unless I'm pregnant), party it up at this swanky-swank wedding, and enjoy other people's children minus responsibility for my own. We are going to get pampered in the spa and order room service for breakfast. I'll buy a new dress! And it's an excellent excuse to be 95% weaned by April. The weather should be in the 80's in April, by the way.

I'll be honest, not all were pleased by this choice. But they were respectful and kind, which was very appreciated. The question was jokingly raised about who we would hang out with since everybody else would have kids with them? Hmmm...a hotel room all to ourselves without any children, dogs, or responsibilities? I'm sure we'll come up with something, but any suggestions would be taken under consideration.