Weekend Away

It was that time of year again...we were itching for a weekend get-a-way. Let me just encourage, encourage, encourage any married couple to make these a priority in your life. Whether it's once or twice a year, our short weekend get-a-ways have been some of the most special times for us. We have been to D.C, Alexandria, The Outer Banks, Richmond, and now added to the list, Williamsburg. We've taken plenty of day trips to Williamsburg, but never stayed overnight. It's amazing how only going an hour away is far enough from your regular routine to be so relaxing! What are your money-saving travel tips...?
Our specific purpose for this trip was to talk through and about parenting goals and plans, because we are entering the land of no return shortly, and by that I mean parenthood! So we definitely wanted to get away before little Graham changes our world.
We have been taking a parenting class offered at our church going through the book Shepherding a Child's Heart, I have also been in a weekly ladies Bible study called Creative Correction and also recently read On Becoming Baby-Wise. So, needless to say, we have been bombarded with parenting advice, tips, strategies, etc... and while they have all been good things, we needed to sit down and sort through specific parenting goals and ideas. I don't think we can be given too much advice...but I think we can be given too many perspectives!! So anyways, parenting was a specific topic for the weekend and we spent a lot of time talking through things. We had a great time, it was extremely profitable, and had a lot of fun too!!



For those of you whose first thing that springs to mind is "we don't have the money to get away" let me just share a couple of tips that we have put into use, (because we certainly are not rolling in cash!)



1.) Priceline
2.) Entertainment book



Hotel...
We have used Priceline numerous times for booking hotels and almost always have gotten a steal of a deal! Now it does have some cons to it...but overall has great! We usually have gotten a 3 or more star hotel for $50 or less. But we soon found out that the fall is one of Williamsburg's busiest times, so we weren't getting the deal we were hoping for. So we turned to our entertainment book and ended up getting $80 off the listed internet price!


Food...
Since we were driving up on Saturday, we packed a picnic lunch for that day. We also were able to again use our Entertainment book and buy dinner on Saturday with a coupon for buy 1 meal, get 1 free. Sunday morning was oatmeal and apples brought from home, and then we had a Panera gift card for lunch on Sunday and were home for dinner on Sunday night. So again, just for those concerned with the cost, it can be done without spending a ton!



And now for the pics...
Here's Colonial Williamsburg


Andrew obviously needed a break from school... :)

Our hotel was very quaint...the next couple of pics are of the grounds which were beautiful!

a trip to Williamsburg would not be complete with a stop at the Outlets! Here's the largest Yankee Candle store I've ever seen! I also couldn't resist this outfit for Graham from The Children's Place!

This post is not letting me label pictures very well...so after the flower pics are a battlefield in Yorktown. Then we also went to President's Park where they have GIANT busts of each U.S. President.