The end of last week was a whirlwind for my family. I’ve been in technicals the past week for a theatrical show I’ve been working on, my wife had an obligation in another city, and my graduate work for school certainly hasn’t let up at all. To top it all off I ended up going with my wife, out of town, for her work obligation. This ended up being a great thing but it certainly outlined the difficulty of trying to be in two places at the same time. It also outlined the difficulty of the types of work my wife and I have chosen.
This out-of-town trip was, however, the first “vacation” our little family has taken. I’m defining this as an outing to another city, overnight, without seeing family members (other than ourselves). Each and every other trip outside of town was for the purpose of spending Christmas at home or visiting the grandparents, aunts and uncles for birthdays or any other sort of family occasion. Basically, an excuse for our son to be held by family other than his parents.
Our work/trip this weekend was just us and it was quite joyful. Strangers felt compelled to comment on how cute our son was (and by extension on how cute our little family was). Our son was literally bounding on the floor with happiness as we sat in our hotel room. It was almost as if he couldn’t believe he had so much space to play, in a new location, and no one was picking him up and preventing him from playing. No one was blocking his view of his smiling parents. We were so proud. In a way, I’m thankful that we were required to go… because it was good for the family. It will certainly make us think about spending some time to ourselves rather than running back to our hometown.