A much needed retreat.....

For months now Aaron and I have been discussing the need for a vacation. Not the "gosh, it would really be nice to get away for a while" conversation. It was more along the lines of "We NEED to take a vacation, and soon!". Now don't get me wrong... I love what I do. I thank God all the time that my career is something I absolutely love. However, when you work in the wedding industry inevitable you will be working on the weekends. Working 6 days a week... every week doesn't leave much time for Aaron and I. A vacation is the only real guarantee that our time will be spent completely focused on one another. What an incredible treat it was to wake up everyday to my incredibly handsome hubby! Another day, stuck spent with you? Bummer ;)

Not really having a weekend off for a vacation we settled on taking a Monday thru Friday off. So following a wedding on Saturday the 19th and a gig for Aaron we made the drive down to O'Hare early Sunday morning. (We flew out of O'Hare since my wedding the following weekend was to take place in Elgin, IL... look for some fun photos of that incredible event coming soon!) It had been so long since our last vacation we didn't want to waste any time.... looking back we probably could have affording at least a few hours for a later flight! Aaron's gig Saturday was in LaCrosse and he played until bar time. I spent Saturday night backing up my wedding files and finally packing.. and he spent the night driving down from LaCrosse only to pick me up and continue our drive to Chicago. Needless to say, I don't think either of us heard a word of the flight attendants safety speech!

From Chicago we flew into Burlington, Vermont... yup, Vermont. I know... big time vacation hot spot! When we discussed a vacation we both agreed we wanted to keep it to a short flight, so tropical destinations were out... and we wanted to make relaxation the key, so no big cities. That's how we settled upon the Adirondack Mountains and Lake Placid in particular. Turns out our dot on the map was a perfect fit! After a short trip to Montreal we spent the rest of the week in Lake Placid hiking, shopping, enjoying some live music and even took a trip whitewater rafting. Each night ended the same... with a relaxing soak in the hot tub. It was perfect! Sooo my thanks to everyone who patiently waited for my email/voicemail responses after getting an "out of office" reply. I so appreciated your understanding.


A view from our hike... breathtaking!



Okay... so the rock wasn't really big enough for the both of us! But this is why I love this man so much, he humors me. :)



Just a few snaps I took on one of our hikes...







And the final day of our trip... which also happened to be Aaron's birthday. He knew exactly how he wanted to spend it. Sooo I pushed my fears aside and donned a wetsuit on a cold rainy day... turns out whitewater rafting is sooo much fun! Our guide told us that they had unusually high waters for this time of year. The water is rated from 1-5, with 5 being the most difficult. We rode level 3 & 4 waves. This photo is courteous of Melody Thomas Photography... we're the two yellow helmets.



This photo cracks me up! Aaron looks like he is having such a blast... but then check out the guy in the last seat on the left... not exactly the same response!