Washington Vacation

It took quite a bit of persuading from Patrick to convince me to take a trip without Dakota.  I knew that it would be great for our marriage and a much needed break, but I just didn't know how long I could be away from Dakota.  I missed her when I went to the dentist, could I really leave her for a couple days?!  I said I could only be away from her for 3 days, Patrick said a week, so we compromised on 5 days.  I recruited the help of my mom and grandma to take care of our precious Dakota for the 5 days we were gone. They were so sweet to make the drive out to Colorado.  Through all the preparations for our trip, I was just all business, and I didn't let myself think about actually leaving Dakota.  I pumped enough milk for Dakota to drink while we were gone, wrote out a detailed schedule for mom, and prepared all of her baby food.  It wasn't until we arrived at the airport that it started to get to me.  As I hugged my mom goodbye and told her to take care of our little girl, I burst into tears.  It didn't help that mom started to cry too.  Not really sure why she was crying but that is just what us Eberspachers do.  Poor Patrick had a weepy wife to drag through the airport.  What a great start to our get-away vacation.  As the plane took off, the silly fear of death came over me.  It is scary where your mind will wonder, if you let it.   I had that same fear right before we got married.  Back then I had a heart to heart with God and told him that I couldn't die yet because I had to get married.  Now once again I was telling God that we couldn't die because we have to watch our little girl grow up.  (Sorry for being so morbid.  I blame Patrick because he was talking about out will on the way to the airport.  The practical side of Patrick was thinking about being prepared, but the emotional side of me was wanting to just go back home where it was safer and call the whole trip off. )  As the flight went on, those fears left me and I was able to focus on the fun trip ahead.  I knew that Dakota was in good hands.  We called my mom every day to check in and was able to Face Time.   Patrick and I had a great time as we traveled all over the Seattle area seeing Mt. Rainier, Olympic National Park, San Juan Islands, Vancouver, and downtown Seattle.  This would have been a hard trip for Dakota, and Patrick and I were happy to have that time together.  Toward the end of the trip, I caught Patrick looking at pictures of Dakota.  We were both ready to get back to our little girl.  We got in late on Wednesday night, but we still woke Dakota up when we got home.  We just couldn't wait till morning.  We were amazed with how much she changed while we were gone. Five Days away was definitely long enough.  Thanks again Mom and Grandma for taking such great care of little sugar britches, as Patrick likes to call her.