xoxo

xoxo

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Heading Out to Selah Ranch

The morning of July 5, the boys played while I got things packed up and ready for our weekend getaway!  Nonna kept the boys at our house while Mario and I were able to sneak away for a few days for our anniversary!  He hadn't told me much about where we were going, so I had no idea what to expect!



trucks are still a big deal at the Mammina house



Nonna kept the boys occupied with chalk out front so I could get my showering and packing done.




Ma is always so great about remembering to get pictures of the outside of our little house.  I know I'll cherish these one day when we've moved on.




Nonna brought the boys special activity placemats to keep them busy while meal prep is underway.



final hugs from my sweet babies, and we are heading out!




gotta give daddy some lovin' too!





on our way!!!  so excited!





We drove about 2 hours east to Mt. Vernon to a little B&B called Selah Ranch.  It's a lovely Christian retreat center geared toward providing time and space for those in ministry to get away from every day life to  think, reflect, play, pray, and unplug for a bit.




We stayed in one of the luxury cottages--this one is called Drake




sweet little front porch




the SUPER comfy king bed made for some good nights' sleep!




my pictures don't do this place justice--
the vanity was beautiful--looked like it was straight from Pottery Barn!




pretty stone fireplace




and our own personal golf cart to trek around the property





My sweet hubby unloading.  He always seems to know exactly what I need!




The property sits on 1100 acres, and has 8 of these gorgeous lakes throughout--all stocked with fish!  It also boasts the #1 and #2 BEST disc golf courses in the WORLD!  (Justin--maybe this is where you need to plan your next family vaca!  ha!)





It was so nice to be on our own time schedule--no little ones needing anything, no naps to work around, eat whenever you feel like it, heck--take a nap whenever you feel like it!  It was a WONDERFUL and rare treat to be able to totally unwind.





Mario brought along his air rifle and practiced shooting at targets.  We also brought a volleyball to bump around, lots of reading material, and our computers (can't get TOO unplugged, now, can we?!?)!!!




I realized when I was here how rare it is that I even get to see the sunset--I'm usually busy getting kids to bed around this time every night!



We went into the town of Mt. Vernon to eat the first night.  There really weren't any "date-night quality" restaurants nearby, so we decided to grill out the other nights we were there.




Our first morning we drove our golf cart over to the main house for our beautiful breakfast!




We were invited to eat dinner with the owners and their family this night--they are lovely, and we even discovered we have some friends in common.




Mario started a little bonfire for us to enjoy.





We got to do some good talking and reading out here.




and some praise and worship, courtesy of Mario on the guitar




The rest of the mornings, breakfast was served to us in our room--room service style!
Gotta love that!  :)  And we ate dinner here too--this night we just picked up some all-natural hotdogs at the grocery store and grilled out.



Mario did quite a bit of fishing, and he caught some HUGE ones!





This is my "supportive wife" role during all the fishing--
hanging out in the shade of the golf cart with Cookie the owners' lab, and a book or magazine!



Obviously, we did a TON of relaxing.  It was SO relaxing that we didn't take a ton of pics because we generally didn't do a whole lot--and that was the whole idea.  It literally felt as if we put the world on hold for a weekend--we talked about future plans, took walks, laughed, played, slept.  We felt so refreshed, that we even came home a day early!  We missed our boys, and we felt SO rested!  Thanks, honey, for making the time for (and planning!) trips like this.  It is good for my soul...

And thanks, Ma, for keeping the boys for us!  They never missed a beat--I don't even think they knew we were gone!  Haha!  They adore you!

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