Honeymooners

When Trent and I got married almost 10 years ago, we were young. Young, pregnant and honestly, pretty overwhelmed. While we would have loved to take a magical honeymoon like so many of our friends were doing, we felt like saving money was more important. And it was! We had a baby on the way, and for us, the honeymoon phase wasn’t a reality. We jumped right in to marriage and family, and while I don’t regret one moment, I admit it didn’t give us much time to adjust to our new roles. In the next ten years there were many ups and downs as we worked on learning how to be partners…there is a HUGE difference between long-term dating (we had been together almost four years and had lived together for almost three when we got married) and raising a family/growing a life together. While we surely had a lot of fun along the way, it wasn’t free of conflict and a LOT of growing pains.

For the past few years we’ve said jokingly if we made it to 10 years, we would finally take our honeymoon. And then earlier this year, we realized the time had FINALLY come! After working on some scheduling conflicts and finding a good time for our family to take our kids off our hands for a week, we booked our long-awaited honeymoon to the incredible island of St. Lucia.

I cannot put into words what this trip meant to Trent and I. For the past 10 years we have worked so, so hard on creating this life for our family. Whenever I hear people saying that marriage shouldn’t feel like “work” I have to hold my tongue, because that hasn’t been my experience. Our marriage has absolutely been fun…but it’s been work too. There have been moments (sometimes lasting longer than a short moment) where one or both of us has questioned what the heck we were doing. We never had the luxury of being married without the pressure of raising children, and that in itself is WORK. In those 10 years we’ve had two children, started two businesses, rented and owned homes, upgraded to a minivan, laughed, cried, yelled, hugged and smiled. But we’ve never had more than three days alone together.

For us, leaving the country and heading to paradise for seven long days was beyond a treat. We were able to reconnect and remember why we chose each other in the first place…because despite our differences (of which there are MANY), we fit together. I’m not a person who banks on “forever” in any aspect of my life. Forever is just too big of a concept for me to grasp. But our travels to St. Lucia reminded me why I wake up every day making the conscious choice to be married to this incredible guy. Not because we are perfect, but because we are worth it.

(All photos taken with my Fuji x30)