Nine Years

(In the lobby of the B&B)

The past few weeks my mind has been filled with planning details of a trip for Matt and me. Our ninth anniversary was October 19, so this past weekend I had babysitters lined up and he and I took a THREE DAY trip alone to celebrate it. It was so much fun. We've never been away that many days together, just the two of us, not visiting family. (Not that being with family is not fun, I just meant that being completely away and free to keep all hours was fun.) :)

(Just a random roadsign Matt noticed while we were driving. When I got home and saw it full-size, I noticed the top sign says "9th street". An appropriate number for this anniversary.) :)

Back in the spring when I went on a Mom's retreat for two and half days, some of the ladies were talking about how much their husbands would like to fly in a helicopter, and one lady said, "You know, I just need to surprise my husband one day and pay for him to take a ride in one." A little lightbulb when off in my brain and I thought, "Hey! I could do that!" Matt loves helicopters and has always wanted to ride in one, but because of the cost, he never has.

(On the ground again, still grinning. )

A few months after this retreat I sold some old silver coins I had and got $141.42 for them. Matt asked me what I was going to do with my money, and I had a few ideas. But the best one, which I kept to myself, was the helicopter ride. I stuck the money back and when Matt was at work or school started looking online for places nearby that gave helicopter rides. I found nothing within a few hours from here and was getting discouraged. Then I remembered that our friend's brother is a helicopter pilot in Enterprise, AL and got his number from her.

With shaking hands from excitement I called him to ask about Matt and me taking a ride. His twenty minute rate for two people was $140.00. :) I had just enough from selling my silver to surprise my man with the best gift I'd ever come up with. And we'd even have $1.42 to buy a candybar afterwards. :)

After searching MANY sites for hotels near Enterprise I found a Bed and Breakfast in Defuniak Springs, FL which was about an hour south of Enterprise. The B&B is in a historic hotel in a cute little downtown area. Each bedroom is decorated in a different them, and the whole place if full of antiques. A 4-star "casual fine-dining " restaurant is attached to it and there is lots to do within walking distance. And their rates were much better than any other B&B's I'd seen.

(Two lovers smooching outside the Hotel Defuniak Bed and Breakfast.)

At the beginning of September I unveiled my plan to Matt and he liked it. I started researching things to do and places to tour and visit during our stay, finding babysitters, making packing lists, etc.

So Friday morning we set out. Right away I started having a good time: No carseats to buckle, no feeding Cassie during breakfast, no extra people going with me to the bathroom. :) Sometimes it's the simple things that make life sweeter. ;)

We got to the B&B at about 5 pm and took our stuff to our room. It turned out to be rather small, but still pretty. We were looking at a fire-escape route map on the door that showed the layout of each room. Matt noticed that some of the rooms were suites and asked if I wanted to see if one of those were available. I went back downstairs and asked, and two of them were. The lady was very sweet and showed us both of them so we could choose.

As soon as Matt saw the "Safari Suite" he loved it. We went ahead and looked at the "Romantic Suite" as well, since we could, but both of us really like the first choice. As Matt was moving all our stuff from our first room to our new suite, and I was headed back downstairs to take care of details at the desk, the lady apologized and said she just saw that someone was checking into the Safari Suite the next morning. We could stay in that one that night and move to the Romantic Suite the next morning, or we could just stay in the Romantic Suite both nights.

The Safari Suite:
(We loved the bamboo furniture. On top of this cabinet on the right there were various baskets and a big jungle drum.)

(French doors seperated the bedroom from the living room.)

(Blogger won't let me rotate photos, but here are some of the decorations in the room.)

We decided to be choosy, because we could, and do one room the first night, and another the next. These people were so kind and accommodating. They even had sparkling grape juice on ice with wine glasses in our room waiting for us since we were celebrating our anniversary.

These next three are of the Romantic Suite:

(This room also had french doors.)

(A tapestry on the wall)

We had reservations for 6:oo at Bogey's, the restaurant attached to the B&B. Before the trip I'd gone to their facebook page and seen where they list a "code word" for each day. If you're the first to say it to the hostess at lunch, you get your meal free, or at supper, you get $10 off. At about 5:58 we were frantically trying to get the internet to connect on our laptop and finally managed to out in the hall. The "code word" was "two against the world". We zipped downstairs, to the restaurant and I asked the hostess if anyone had told her "two against the world" yet. No one had, so we got the discount!

The next morning after we ate in the breakfast room, we headed out to Enterprise for the highlight of the weekend. The ride was wonderful, but we quickly realized 20 minutes wasn't going to be long enough. It seemed like it was only five or ten minutes, but oh! it was fun! Mr. Jon, the pilot gave us a few thrills, but nothing too scary since this was our first time up in a helicopter. My favorite parts were the times he would fly down very close to the ground so it seemed like we were just skimming the grass (or lake, once) and then right before we came to the trees, we'd swoop up. Matt and I did a lot of whooping and laughing. Matt, who doesn't noramally make a show of his feelings, grinned and laughed the whole time. He was still grinning after it was over. I loved seeing the look on his face as he got to do something he'd always dreamed of doing. The Lord worked out so many details for us to make this trip perfect. Even down to the gorgeous weather, full moon that looked beautiful on the lake, my having just enough of my own money to pay for the ride, so he couldn't turn down the opportunity. :)

(In the air and having the time of our lives.)

Sunday we went to Ponce De Leon Springs park, which is a natural cold spring. It has been built up along the shore to be like a swimming pool, but the floor of it is sand, and a couple of cypress trees grow in it. You could even see the cave about five feet down where the water flowed out. The camera battery was dying, so we got a little bit of video, but no photos of that stop. The water was perfectly clear, with a green-ish blue tint, kind of like tropical seas. It's a constant 68 degrees, so it was a bit too chilly for our swimming taste. Had we been there the day before when it was very hot and sunny, we just might have jumped in! We did see a couple dive in, and they claimed it wasn't too bad. Sticking my feet in was enough for me though. We walked on the nature trail that went along side Sandy Creek, which the spring emptied into.

It was so fun to just take our time, stop at stores that looked interesting, get icecream from Dairy Queen just because we wanted it even though we'd not eaten lunch yet, browsing stores, eating chips in bed, taking a walk around the (well-lighted) lake at 10 pm one night just because we decided to, and so much more.

(Saturday Matt watched UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship for those of you like me who had no idea what that stood for] on tv. I couldn't quit laughing at how much he got into it. Here he'd just helped win the round.) :)

(These two pictures are of a place we didn't discover until after they were closed Saturday, and of course they weren't open Sunday either. It looked like a fascinating place. I just love the name of it!)

(Inside "The Little Big Store", and old-timey general store just down the street from the B&B. The "Sorry, we're sold out" sign in the foreground is referring to their farm-fresh brown eggs.)

Many thanks to friends and family who watched kids for us so we could get some time together. It's a fun weekend we'll never forget.


I love you, Matt.
Love, Rose