The Journey of Parenthood…

Zach and Emily Getaway: December 2020

Zach and Emily Getaway: December 2020

Since college we’ve gone away together every December! Sometimes it’s been a bigger trip, but once we got to four kids we’ve converted it into a quick weekend away.

I will be the first to tell you that I NEED time away and that I connect with Zach the best when we do take trips just us. Date nights just don’t allow me the space and distance from my “to do” list at home to really be able to relax and reconnect.

Ever since we bought the rental house at Disney World we’ve used it as our weekend getaway location.

We got the kids all settled it at Zach’s parents house and hit the road! Our goal was to truly RELAX and CHILL. I tend to be the one who wants to go-go-go and I really made a conscious effort over this weekend to have it be a trip for ZACH.

We didn’t do Disney. We didn’t go and do. We CHILLED. 2020 was an insane year and it was a LOT for us all but some pretty major changes happened for Zach and I just wanted to give him the ability to truly breathe and rest and be refreshed!

I was super pumped to take him to Ford’s Garage. I ate there on my girls trip with Katie and Tiffany and it is THE best burger EVER. It didn’t disappoint! He LOVED it! All the details are super fun too and it’d be a great spot to bring the kids (plus it’s only a few minutes from our house).

Every year we spend our Christmas money shopping together. We stopped buying gifts for each other and instead use that money to have quality time helping each other buy fun things! We call ourselves THE UOT (Ultimate Outlet Team) and it was such a fun time together this year with some great finds!

We didn’t let the weirdness of 2020 keep us from the good time. It was so funny lining up to be allowed access into stores…it was like the clubbing days we missed out on in our 20s 😉

The kids were having the time of their lives at Zach’s parents house – especially Spear who just loves Big Papa.

We had dinner at Maggiano’s (one of Zach’s fav restaurants) and had our first wild bore sighting on the way back into the resort.

We both agreed that we just wanted a BIG BULK of CHILL TIME. The next morning we slept in, had some bagels, and just hung out snuggling binge watching tv. Something we NEVER do.

We watched Christmas Vacation for the first time EVER for both of us. It was super cute and I get the appeal and why it’s such a cult classic.

We DID treat ourselves by booking couples massages. We’ve done massages at Disney World but I don’t even think they are open right now and we def wanted to cut costs so we found a place in Winter Park which was about a 35 minute drive from the house but it wasn’t bad and totally worth it to have a relaxing massage for WAY cheaper than we would have spent at Disney!

We both really love Blaze Pizza and pretty much can’t pass it up! We were all nice and relaxed and then had full bellies from the pizza and decided we needed to put on our “rental home owners” hats for a bit as our patio table and chairs were in need of replacing.

Good luck finding patio furniture in December haha! It took us quite a few stops but we finally found something that coordinates well with our outdoor furniture and was a nice upgrade from what we had previously.

We got the sweetest message from Courtney who taught Carter and Tessie in Bible Class. She said it was the best Bible Class she’d ever taught and that they were both so into God’s Word and that Tess even teared up tasing about creation and how amazing God is – she’s def my sweet girl.

Shocker…we slept in again on our last morning and then hit the road and stopped somewhere fun to eat on the way back…we hit up Tijuana Flats which was a first for us both and it was SO GOOD!

I’m so thankful for our marriage bond. We hit some rough moments in 2020 and the growth we’ve had through them has been so incredible and has really united us in a way we didn’t have before. We’ve both worked hard for our marriage to be the best it can be and I’m so thankful for the JOY we have together in our love!

I’m also so thankful for my in-laws who understand the importance of these weekends for us and who always encourage us to getaway together!

A fun tradition Zach and I have started doing on our getaways is to answer questions via my Instagram. We LOVE it as it’s a great way for US to talk about things and helps us focus on that connection even deeper! You can watch all of our Q+A fun in the video on this post.

Emily Parker
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