Our First Weekend Away

Brandon and I went to a marriage retreat this past weekend through Briarwood Presbyterian Church. We went with a few of our friends through CMMA, which is the Christian Medical Ministry of Alabama. This ministry has been huge in our life since we have been at UAB for medical school. Notice I said "we," because I feel like I have been in school too! Anyway, we went to the Marriott Shoals hotel in Muscle Shoals, and it was so nice! We went from Friday afternoon until Sunday around lunch time. Kate stayed with Brandon's family, her Papa G and JoJo. She had a blast! This was our first weekend away from Kate, and we did better than I thought we would! I limited myself from calling more than twice a day, and I actually stuck to it. Kate did decide that she didn't want to sleep well for them on Saturday night, but we think she just does not like sleeping in her pack-n-play.
Brandon and I got to sleep through the night and wake up to an actual alarm clock instead of our human alarm at home! Brandon did a little studying on Saturday afternoon while I read my book, took a nap, and then took an uninterrupted bubble bath! I can't even remember the last time I had a day like that. The organizers of the retreat put on a candlelight dinner for us on Saturday night, and it was very nice! We loved getting away and learning how loving each other more allows us to love Kate more. It is such a simple message, but sometimes it takes getting out of your everyday circumstances just to remember it. We were thrilled to come home to our sweet girl on Sunday afternoon. I felt like it was Christmas morning on Sunday. We were getting ready and I said to Brandon, "We get to see our baby girl today!" How could you not love coming home to such a sweet little smile?
I posted these pictures because they are the most recent pictures we have. In the first one, Kate is being sneaky, trying to use her toys to get her closer to the table so she can stand up and play with the remotes. The second one is Kate loving on Bailey, our other baby. The third is Kate crawling through her aquarium tunnel. She loves it because there is a fish that plays a song on the outside, so she will crawl all the way through just to get to it. She is getting more mobile everyday! Yikes!