The Real Rice Life: August 2013

I met my husband in the Spring of 2006, March I believe it was. In June, I packed my one suitcase and moved to Denver, Colorado for a summer long mission trip. Rick, my boyfriend of 8ish weeks, came to visit me and we really have been in love since.

From the start, with our busy lives, we always felt like we had to pencil each other into the other's schedule. We started off really good, keeping a long list of date night options on my fridge to pick from each Wednesday night. We went on fancy dates to The White Dog, quiet dates like a movie on the coach and fun dates like playing pool.

As parents, we find the toughest relationship is with each other. All of a sudden spending one-on-one time with our first son and also with our second take up the little bit of free time we have and what is left is spent as a family. Even the little bit of time Rick and I have had to ourselves has been spent catching up with friends we don't get to see much.

Relaxing is not my strong suit, on any account. All of my brain tumor drama, definitely helped me to slow down, readjust my priorities and remember what is truly important in life, but it didn't really successfully help me to relax.

To say our 5 year anniversary trip was long overdue is an understatement!

And we could not have picked a better place.

Rick and I went to Mountain Song Inn with one objective - to relax. Chris and Andy (our amazing innkeepers) were aware of this, particularly after the health saga that seemed to never end and they were ready for the challenge!

The most relaxed I have ever been are those 30 minutes after completing a yoga session. I feel relaxed both mentally and physically.

Staying at Mountain Song Inn was like those 30 minutes but they lasted the entire weekend. It was the plush robe in the closet, the soaking tub with the most wonderful bath salts, the big comfy bed with the pillows with just the right fluff, the homemade map with exact mileage to each of our destinations and the amazing hummingbirds that I literally watched for 2 hours on a cold rainy day because I simply couldn't take my eyes off of them (I even had to take a video so I could show my son!). Every inch of every corner encouraged relaxtion.

Upstairs, Rick and I were able to relive some of what made our courting days so great. A game or two of pool, checkers and we were even able watch a movie in the library over a bottle of our favorite wine. Even sitting on the porch and watching the rain was wonderful. The openness of Chris and Andy, their ability to be around just enough to make us feel welcomed without impeding on our anniversary celebration was amazing.

And the food, oh the food! Where to even start with the amazing 3 course breakfasts we had! From homemade pastries (ask for the peach danish) and the homemade yogurt with homemade granola to the delicious veggie frittata and the amazing dutch apple pancakes. The sweet potatoes with brown sugar and cayenne pepper were out of this world. Please don't ask me my favorite because it would be impossible to decide.

But the beauty and relaxation doesn't stop at the property line. The Inn sits quite close to a tiny town that has just about all you need, a pizza place, some micro brews and some live music. We were able to watch 10 year old fiddlers on the street and eat delicious local produce. We even found a really cool hand painted bamboo flute to bring back our oldest.

We went exploring and took a hike to the top of Buffalo Mountain and a ride down the Blue Ridge Parkway to see the beauty that is God's creation. It was nice getting out into nature for the fresh air and to remember all of the wonderful things we were able to do before kids.

I relaxed. More than ever before. Even little old me, who goes a mile a minute, keeps a to-do list for my spare time and can. not. sit. still. can say, our mission was accomplished, a weekend away, to focus on my relationship with my husband and take a much needed break. But more importantly, realized this is something I am capable of doing. It just happens to be icing on the cake that it happened to be at a slice of heaven.

Thank you Chris and Andy for making our weekend so memorable. There is no doubt we will return again.