Last Wednesday afternoon Blake and I bid these kiddos farewell and headed north for our annual anniversary get-away trip!

We talked about going somewhere far and warm, but there is a lot that needs to be finished here at Twin Oaks – so we decided to keep our get-away closer to home.

Blake reserved a suite for us in Eden Prairie just outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota.

It was sunny – but not warm!

There was still quite a bit of snow there!

Once we decided to stay close to home we also decided that this trip needed to be a working trip!

I started the list weeks ago of everything we hoped to accomplish while we were gone.

What a blessing to have this time away where we could focus on each other and things that needed to get done!

The first morning we spent sipping coffee and planning school for this coming fall.

I had some things I wanted to look into with Blake and some other things I had already looked into and wanted Blake’s opinion on.

We have some challenges we need to address with school, and this gave us the opportunity to look into how to solve them!

We always plan school this time of year and use some of our tax return money to buy any school books we will need for fall.

We also had a shopping list that seemed a mile long.

In case you haven’t heard, I do not like to shop!

Our list had everything from clothes for Eliza, ceiling fans, shutters, and furniture for Twin Oaks, to birthday presents for Lane.

We finally found a mirror that fit our downstairs bathroom and our budget!

We also made decisions on the four ceiling fans needed, shutters for the front of the house, furniture for the living room, and a new mattress for the master bedroom.

We walked through IKEA for over two hours on Thursday.

It is a neat store to walk through!

Being in the big city always makes me realize how much I love our tiny country town.

The traffic there was CRAZY!

Bumper to bumper stop and go the whole way down the highway.

Besides all of the shopping, we ate YUMMY food, of course!

I think the smoothies were my favorite!

(look at all that snow in the background!)

It was very fun to cook for just the two of us!

Searching out great little Co-op’s is a fun thing we like to do on trips too!

This one was super duper.

Blake and I also had a book we are reading together, a video series on marriage that we are watching and doing the study guide to, this year’s budget to plan, and precious things to pray about.

We relaxed by watching a movie on two of the evenings too.

It was SO NICE!

Addie Mae and Grant kept the home fires burning while we were gone, and I am sure I do not have to say what a great job they did!

We talked on Skype with them each day – which did my Mama heart SO good!

I start looking forward to Blake and my anniversary trip on the first day of January each year.

It is such a blessed time for us!

We both are committed to working hard to keep our marriage strong – and it DOES take purpose, yes.

We came home on Sunday ready to jump back into life – feeling refreshed and connected!

Next year we will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary, Lord willing, and we are already talking about taking a BIG trip somewhere if we are able.

I am already looking forward to that!!!

Until then, our weekly date night will do – because Blake and I just love being together no matter where we are!

Thank you, honey, for the great get-away and for pouring your heart and soul into the most important things.

Anniversary trip 2018, you were a complete success!!