Couple's Retreat

My intention is not to make you all jealous of this:

 Or this:

 Or this:

Well, maybe this:

But to let you know why I think a couple's retreat is so necessary to to a happy you, as well as a happy couple.

Anxiety levels were high leaving our squishy faces for eight days. It was the longest and furthest we would have ever been from them. And we could only check in every other day. I may or may not have cried for a sec in the backseat on the drive to the airport.

Anyways, on to better reasons to leave your children. Unless you like a good, heart palpitating cry. Whether it is an over nighter or a week, YOU NEED THIS. Chris and I try to do it every couple of years, with an over-nighter thrown in there once a year. Here's why:

Number One: Let's just get it out of the way, we all know what it is. Sleep. I don't care if it is on a hard mattress, rocking in the middle of an ocean, it was uninterrupted. Except for the Captain on the loudspeaker in the morning informing us of our morning Zumba and Bingo options.

Number Two: The ability to remind ourselves why we love and dislike our spouses. Sometimes we find ourselves in such a daily grind that by the time dinner is served, baths are had, and most importantly, TV is watched, we haven't had the chance to chastise each other for unauthorized gropings and not picking out a shirt to be ironed before 11:00 p.m. And that is sad. Bickering and genuine laugher go hand in hand in a marriage. Without it, I think days become muddled and a spark is lost.

Midway through the cruise we were fighting like brother and sister. Knit picking everything about one another. There's nothing like being on a boat with no where to go to make you look at each other and say, we need to knock it the hell off. 

It was fun to hold hands and act like newlyweds, as many of our fellow cruisers thought we were. Our waiter was shocked when I told him I was 29 and had two kids. *Whether or not he was stroking my ego and my wallet, Mario was given an extra tip for that. 

Number Three: Having ME demand a different dinner because I did not like the first.

Number Four: Being able to actually use all my sweet living room dance party moves. Where can a stay at home mom like myself show off all that I got? On a floating dance club full of fifty-somethings and a few younguns, that's where. I may or may not have kicked them all off the floor to serenade my husband with an awe inspiring rendition of "Shoop" by Salt 'N' Pepa. I know the thought of my Olive Oil arse Beyonce-ing it up has you on the floor rolling right now, but it was F-U-N. Especially watching my husband teetering between embarrassment and being somewhat impressed???

Big thanks to my dad and step-mom for the trip for Christmas, it was awesome. Minus my dad's last night spent in the boat's infirmary with kidney stones part. We will forget that happened Dad.