We got home yesterday from an amazing weekend up in Midway, where we stayed at Zermatt Resort. It was the perfect setting and location for a relaxing weekend that allowed us to spend good, quality time together and reconnect as a couple. We missed our baby a lot while we were gone, but knew that he was in good hands at grandma's house. To be honest, we felt worse about leaving our puppy behind to hang out at home by himself. We were excited to get home to both of our boys today, but I'm glad that we took the time to get away together for a couple of nights!
This post is part of a collaboration with Zermatt Resort. All opinions are my own.
We got home yesterday from an amazing weekend up in Midway, where we stayed at Zermatt Resort. It was the perfect setting and location for a relaxing weekend that allowed us to spend good, quality time together and reconnect as a couple. We missed our baby a lot while we were gone, but knew that he was in good hands at grandma’s house. To be honest, we felt worse about leaving our puppy behind to hang out at home by himself. We were excited to get home to both of our boys today, but I’m glad that we took the time to get away together for a couple of nights!
I know what you’re thinking, “Amberly, how can I unplug? What if there’s an emergency with my baby?” All you need to do is set a special ringtone for your baby’s caregiver and ignore all other sounds coming from your phone. If you want, feel free to Facetime, Skype or something similar with your little one once a day. We weren’t totally perfect about this over the weekend, I was posting a little bit to Instagram, and while one of us was napping, or sleeping in or waiting for the other to finish getting ready, sometimes we would check e-mail or social media. I didn’t use my computer once though, my phone was in my purse most of the time so I wasn’t paying attention to any of my notifications and I spent a significant time away from social media.
Related: Five Boundaries You Should Set to Save Your Marriage from Your Smartphone
I’m used to being in front of a computer for the majority of my day. I use a computer all day at work, to do my homework at night, and to work on this blog. Sure, I had things that I probably could have been doing over the weekend while I was awake an hour before Joe, but I decided that not only did I want to disconnect for more quality time with my husband, but I wanted to disconnect to allow myself to relax. I will have to spend a little bit of time catching up on some things this week, but I don’t regret that break that I gave myself one bit!
How many of you feel like your meals together since the baby came along are so short that you don’t even get to have a somewhat productive conversation? As I’ve been tracking our meals for the #BillionDinners Challenge, I’ve noticed that our meal length is averaging 10-15 minutes each meal. When we’re at home, we’re usually eager to get to our next activity for the evening plus we have a puppy and a baby who are begging for our attention. This weekend, all of our meal times tracked were 30-60 minutes long. Granted, this was from the time we sat down at the restaurant until we finished eating, so all of that time when we were waiting for our food to arrive was included, but I counted it because we were face-to-face at a table having meaningful conversation!
Related: Around Our Table, Traditions in the Kitchen
Out of all of the places we ate this weekend, our favorite by far was Wildfire Smokehaus inside the lobby of Zermatt Resort. We ate breakfast and dinner there on Saturday and both meals were delicious! My french toast was made with sourdough bread and had caramelized sugar on the bottom of it and Joe’s omelet was really good as well. We were excited to go back for dinner later that night and we had the hardest time choosing what we wanted to eat, I really could have gone for one of everything on the menu. We finally decided to share some smoked ribs (you know how much we love ribs) and a bacon and pineapple pizza with barbecue sauce. The ribs were perfect, their french fries were some of my favorite I’ve ever had and as soon as we weren’t full anymore, we enjoyed the leftover pizza as a snack later that night.
Do a little bit of research before your trip and find some fun things in the area that you wouldn’t be able to do with a baby or little kids or that you might not think to do on a regular basis together. Go for a long hike, take a hot air balloon ride, rent an ATV of some kid and explore the area, go boating, etc. Don’t plan too much because you’ll still want time to relax and you won’t want to do so much that you’re tired and want another vacation after your vacation.
Related: How to Create Your Own Date Night Bucket List
We probably could have done a lot more exploring than we did, but we chose to focus on relaxation this weekend and felt like we saw a lot of what there was to see in Midway. We climbed to the top of The Homestead Crater and enjoyed an amazing view of the mountainside and then we spent some time at Memorial Hill for a great view of the valley. Zermatt isn’t the only Swiss themed building in Midway; Main Street has a lot of character and fun things to see, so it’s fun to explore as well. We also really enjoyed walking around the Zermatt Resort property. They have a beautiful carousel (that I forgot to go back and ride), a pond, goats, and some gorgeous seating areas. During the day, there is Swiss themed music playing around the grounds to add to the ambiance.
Relaxing may not sound like the most exciting way to spend your weekend together, but you won’t regret that time one bit. You may get time to unwind together every night after the baby goes to bed, but if you’re anything like this, you spend a lot of your time rushing to get projects done, or do other things that you aren’t able to do productively while the baby is awake.
One of the best parts of our weekend was the fact that we had no set plans and we did whatever wanted. We wandered around town, took a nap or two, watched a couple of movies, sat and enjoyed the views, spent as much time as we wanted eating our meals, and enjoyed the jetted tub in our room. Those of you who know me know that I’m not the sort of person to go into my day without a to do list or a plan, but for the almost 48 hours that we were away, I was spontaneous and did whatever sounded fun in the moment. I didn’t have a house to clean, homework to do or projects to work on, and it was nice to have absolutely no responsibilities for two whole days! When we checked in to Zermatt Resort, we were excited to find out that we would be staying in a penthouse suite where we really enjoyed hanging out and were excited to come back to at the end of every day.
Related: What to Pack for Your First Baby Free, Romantic Weekend Away
We are so glad that we decided to continue our annual fall tradition of getting away together, even though we missed our baby a lot! I realize that this may not be possible for other couples as soon after adding a little one to their family as it was for us. We were lucky enough to be able to take this trip when we did because I stopped nursing Bensen a few months ago, he doesn’t wake up at all during the night anymore and we have family close by who are always willing and eager to hang out with our sweet little man. In the future, we might not have the same luxuries, so we decided to take advantage of it while we can.
When you get to the point of being able to leave your kids(s) for the night, check out this post for tips on how to plan your first kid free vacation and this post for what to pack for your first kid-free romantic getaway.
Have you left your kids overnight yet? What tips would you add to the list? When you leave your kids in the future, what would you do differently?