Family Alive

What a great relaxing weekend!  It started when Brian’s mom unexpectedly took the kids Friday evening instead of early Saturday morning before we left for the bike race in South Carolina.  I hardly knew what to do with a quiet, empty house!  I should have vacuumed… but instead I packed, cleaned up and took care of loose ends before we left.  Maybe I’ll get to the vacuuming this week.  Hopefully.  Maybe…

Our trip to Greenville was heavenly.  Quiet time in the car together, just talking and catching up, listening to our own choice of music.  I had lots of things I was hoping to get to work on with the laptop this weekend, magazines to look at, and a couple books to read.  In the end, I dove into a book I’d picked up at the library, Positively False by Floyd Landis about his win and doping controversy in the 2006 Tour de France, and I finished it in less than 24 hours.  I read lots of excerpts to Brian and we had long discussions about the topic of doping.  Obviously, we can’t get away from cycling!

The bike races were good, and Brian’s got details on his blog.  It was heavenly to be kid-less though we said countless times how many times we missed them.  Greenville, SC is a beautiful town, and their “Fall into Greenville Festival” was going on, in addition to the bike races.  I got to visit a very cool store called Go Fish (where they sell local artisans’ handiwork bought through missionaries all over the world).  Last year I bought several Christmas presents, including my own 🙂 . We enjoyed dinner at a great seafood restaurant last night after the race (and I had to go back for lunch today! A yummy shrimp po’ boy with sweet potato fries).   We went to bed SUPER late (due to my reading and Brian’s 2+ episodes of Man vs Wild) and slept SUPER LATE.  We relaxed at a nice coffee shop this morning.  I got to focus on cheering for Brian and taking pictures instead of dividing my attention between the kids and the race.  We took a short side-trip through Brian’s alma mater of Clemson on his old cycling roads on the way home.  The trip back was quiet and relaxing as I finished reading our book aloud, and we listened to a good message by Frances Chan on Christ-Centered Relationships.

It was an awesome weekend that totally refreshed both of us.  I love taking trips and sharing experiences with my kids, but this weekend it was just a great change to be 2 instead of 4 and direct our attentions to each other and ourselves.  What a treat!