When not to take your kids on vacation:

My husband just turned 40. (I am a little older, but we won't talk about that. I always say, I am older but he has way higher miles.). Anyway, I decided to surprise him by taking him to Nashville. I invited a bunch of friends and family, and we had a ball! The morning of our flight, I woke him up and I just said, "hey wake up we are leaving." He was so confused, the first question was "what about the kids?" I comforted his fears and explained I had that all arranged, his bags were packed and all he had to do was get dressed! He was honestly a little annoyed at first, but once he got up and got going I think he started to get excited. When we got to the airport, he saw one of his friends. He started to ask questions, "what is going on here" and "why is Al here" were the first two. I just played dumb, but as we entered the check in area...there were about 10 of his friends cheering and saying happy birthday! It was so fun to see him so surprised and excited! As the day went on, more and more friends met up with us and by the time we got to our room for the "welcome party" we had over 40 guests! It was awesome. I had prayed early that morning that my husband would feel how loved he was and would be blessed by the weekend. I definitely was able to thank God on our way home for answering those prayers. He told me like a thousand times over the weekend that I was the best wife and how lucky he was to have me. He felt how much I loved him and that was the very best part!!

Some of my friends made comments throughout the weekend about how I came up with this idea. And I have to say that I have a very viivd memory as a little girl of my mom packing my dads bags. I remember her looking beautiful and her perfume smelled amazing. She told me she was going to pick up my Dad from work and surprise him with a trip for his birthday for the weekend. My Dad was so excited and they had the best time. I loved hearing all about it when they got home! And I always knew that someday I wanted to do that for my husband. And I hope that someday...my kids will do that for their spouses. I am so thankful for my parents example of working on and investing in their marriage. I think as crazy as life gets, and as easy as it is to sometimes let your marriage take a back seat....we have to intentionally focus on prioritizing and protecting our relationships. No excuses, just do it. You won't regret it!!