3 days, 9 years

This has been my favorite kind of 3-day weekend. Nothing on the schedule, no reason we have to leave the house, but plenty of opportunity to do it anyway. I went to barre every day, we had people over to swim every day, the kids built forts, JP caught up completely (maybe) on swim school emails, and I read all the reviews of every kitchen faucet on wayfair.com.

And on Saturday night, after having a bunch of first grade boys over to swim, JP and I went out for a fancy dinner to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary (on the 13th anniversary of our first date!) at our favorite Fort Worth restaurant- and increasingly possibly our favorite restaurant ever- Grace. We had an 8:00 reservation so Cora would be asleep and the big kids would almost be down for our new babysitter (the younger sister of our previous babysitter who dared to go off to college on a national merit scholarship) and I wore the dress I'd bought online at Express for $18 the week before. It's reversible, in case I want to wear it again without anyone knowing. Cora picked that one night to have a hard time going down, so in the midst of me reassuring our poor new sitter that Cora will totally fall asleep right after we leave and Landon and Claire trying to tell her ALL OF THE THINGS going on in their lives at once and JP looking at his watch and noting its similarity to our reservation time, I tossed my big camera at the sitter and asked for one picture pretty please.

One picture!

And then I got one at the restaurant while we sampled our complimentary champagne. The bosc pear martini I'd already ordered was waiting on the side. A bottle of Bordeaux was involved later on. Grace makes me such a lush.

Our meal was, as always, incredible. It's not just better than anything I could ever make, it's food I wouldn't even think of putting together and making. And the company, of course, was even better. I read some article on the way over about a psychologist who said he could predict with 91% accuracy whether a couple would divorce or not after listening to them converse for a few minutes. The article, though interesting, wasn't really the point, it just made me think about divorce- friends we know who've already gone through one and some of the difficult things JP and I have gone through together- and I tried to find the words to explain to JP that no matter what the future holds, I just can't imagine a version of the universe where he exists in it and he is not my husband. I can imagine so very many things, but my mind breaks at that. It's not even that this life and family we're building would be fighting for, though they are, it's him. He's my person.

But enough of that. The meal was awesome and I look forward to our next reason to celebrate something fancy.

Sunday dawned bright and breezy and the boys headed out for their traditional Sunday run/bike.

I love this tradition and hope they do it forever. I also love JP's new running shorts. Why did men stop wearing short shorts? His legs are squandered in the cargos of today.

They went 6.5 miles in 49:19 minutes- a new record!

They were both very sweaty and pleased with themselves and jumped in the pool with their clothes on to celebrate. Then we all went to Lowe's and Target and Costco together, because we know how to have a good time. We had friends over for wine and swimming that night- we provided the swimming and they provided the wine, and that was great fun. They have 2.5 year old and a 10-day-old and I held the tiny brand new wombat baby and the second I made eye contact with JP he said, "No." It seems unfair I became a baby person with my own last baby.

eats like a badger; not invited to fancy restaurants

Today began with a meandering family walk way off JP and Landon's Sunday pace.

Claire and I went to Target and tried on all the fall clothes, none of which I liked on me at all, and then Kroger where she kept asking where the "changing station" (aka dressing room) was. She really likes when I try on clothes in dressing rooms and she can tell me I look beautiful while she dances and sings in front of the full-length mirror. Love her.

JP had to go to the pool for the final evening of the summer- they're shutting it down so there was a ton of work to do and I was on my own with a teething angry baby and two big kids who were honestly being really good, it was just the last night of a 3-day-weekend and I was feeling the solo parenting status a little more intensely than usual. I had planned to do yoga once everyone was in bed, but by the time Cora finally passed out and the big kids were in bed a half hour late, I skipped yoga for a scalding hot bath and very large glass of wine. And then I ordered our sink, faucet, and pendant lights for the kitchen so JP wouldn't have to look at any more online pictures when he got home and now I'm blogging and wondering how long it takes to drain an Olympic sized pool. But it was a fun, relaxing, long and lovely weekend and I hope yours was the same!