A Date with Peace and Quiet

It has been half a decade. It doesn’t sound long, but it’s a wide variety of peaks and valleys. This past week, I celebrated my fifth wedding anniversary with my husband.

When you have two young children, getting a date in at all is pretty tough. We aspire to get out at least every other week, but that ends up being more like once a month, at best.

Between nailing down a babysitter, timing our work schedules and the cost of going out, we seldom take the time to do it. But, relationships take a lot of work. We try to remember, though it isn’t always easy, that time together can be the best way to “work” on it.

Thankfully, we have my college-aged sister in town for a few more days, so we took advantage of a free Aunt to get away for an entire night. Since the last moon we must get to align for a peaceful night is actual rest, we decided on a “staycation” for our celebration.

Instead of spending hours on the road or extra cash on flights, we just popped next door to a spot in Montgomery County, right in our own backyards. We opted to try out the new Valley Forge Casino.

We had a lovely evening going out for a very nice dinner, something we rarely do. We picked the Pacific Prime, a steak and seafood restaurant. After weeks of take-out Chinese, delivered pizzas or fast-food drive-through windows, it was a nice change.

We aren’t big gamblers, but we had to take a stroll through the new casino floor. It was crowded on a Saturday night, but fun. We aren’t fans of cigarettes, so it was unusual to be back in a smoke-filled space, but it wasn’t too overwhelming.

By 10 p.m., we had headed back to our room. All I longed for was a quiet bath in their awesomely large Jacuzzi tub. After relaxing, the gift we both needed was your basic night for us. A few episodes of the “Storage Wars” marathon on A&E, and we were ready to crash.

Ultimately, I think the best part of our night was the sleep. What two parents wouldn’t pay for a peaceful night’s sleep? And sleeping in until 10 a.m.? That was the best gift my sister could have given us!

I’m glad we “got away.” Even if the get-away was very close to home. It was worth the peace. It was worth a night of not having to argue with anyone to get into the tub. I didn’t once have to use the phrase “finish your chicken nuggets” or “no, you can’t play another video game” (surprisingly enough).

It has been more than eight years of being together, and we will always have to work on it, but it was nice to take a night and reflect on being a married woman and for once not a mom. It was great. Happy anniversary, babe. I love you!