Sometimes, you just have to book it

Let's rewind to February 2009, shall we? 

Jon and I were engaged. We had just bought our first house. We were getting married in 3 months. Life was perfect. 

May 10th, 2008

 One of the last steps in our wedding planning process was to book our honeymoon. We waited until February to make sure we got a good deal. We were going to spend two weeks in Europe. 1 week in France, 1 week in Italy. 

You see, Jon and I love wine. Not for getting drunk, but we are those people who truly appreciate the taste of a good wine. Just like coffee for me, drinking wine is an experience for us. Some of our best memories of our dating relationship involve wine. And no, not in a pervy way, but just in all of the deep, meaningful conversations about life and love we've had while sipping on wine. Even our engagement had a wine theme.

Engagement wine

So, what better honeymoon than going to sample wine in two "romantic" countries? We were so excited. 

One night in February 2009, I had our flights and hotels sitting in my Expedia cart, just waiting for me to enter my credit card information. I wanted to wait until Jon came home from work so we could book it together.

That night, he came home, and I instantly knew something was wrong. I will never forget the look on his face when he told me the most devastating news we'd ever faced until that point.

Jon's architecture firm was going under. He was out of a job. 3 months before our wedding. A new mortgage looming. The hopes of a European honeymoon went unequivocally down the toilet. Or bidet. Or WC. Or whatever those Euros call it.

The next 6 months were nothing if not stressful, but, almost 5 years later, I can definitely say that Jon losing his job was the best thing that happened to him, at least career-wise. He had to hit the reset button on his career, but he's in a job and industry now that has been an absolute blessing to our family, both personally and financially.

Still, part of me has always wished that we could have taken the extended honeymoon we dreamed of but weren't able to take.

Fast forward to May 2014. Within the span of a week, I will turn 30 (ahh!), we'll celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary (and 6 year engagement anniversary), and Jon will graduate with his MBA. That's a whole lot of celebration for one couple, right?

So, naturally, over a glass of wine a few months back, Jon and I decided that we should take a trip to commemorate all of these mega-occasions in May. I knew I didn't want to go to Europe because I'm not ready to be that far from my girls, but we did want it to be wine-themed. The choice was obvious:

Napa Valley, California. 

The place where the wine flows abundant and everyone around you moves a little bit slower. 

I can think of a ton of reasons why we shouldn't go. It's expensive. It's time off work. Our girls will miss us. We'll miss the girls. We're parents and we can't leave our kids for that long because that's irresponsible.

But sometimes, you just have to book it. So we did. And we're going.