The Bernardo Family: Celebrating seven years!

Last week, Frank and I celebrated our seven year anniversary in New Mexico. We had been planning to go to Italy, and then Belize, but we decided at the last minute to do something much more low key, and I am so glad that we did. It was the perfect trip for us to reconnect and spend some good quality time together. I thought that this trip was a great way for me to transition from my old job to my new job, to focus on the positive, and to have some fun. Little did we know that God was using this time to help strengthen our bond so that we would deal with the enormous test we faced immediately upon our return (that will be my next post).

We headed out of town Friday night and Nana and Papa came to Dallas to watch the kids. We decided to drive out to Santa Fe, which I normally would hate, but for some reason a road trip sans kids sounded pretty exciting to me. Frank and I used to take a lot of road trips when we were dating, and I really wanted this trip to be about getting back to that place in our relationship before the stress of kids. And we definitely did. We stopped in Midland Friday night and spent the night with the Vestals. It was great to see them and their beautiful home. We left Saturday morning and had a wonderful drive out to Santa Fe. We were listening to Willie Nelson on Spotify when we came across his version of the song "the Scientist," and I quickly became obsessed with it and wanted to listen to the song over, and over, and over. Frank got sick of it, but for some strange reason I really connected to the song, to the music and the lyrics. The whole time we were on the road, I kept thinking "we're going back to the start." We can get so caught up with things in life that simply do not matter--wealth, recognition, work, fashion, cars, new houses. Stress of a dirty house, or a busy job. I really want to take our life back to the start, to our roots, to the things that really, truly matter. After this week with Lily, that has become even more apparent.

Anyway, we finally made it to Santa Fe Saturday afternoon, and we settled into our hotel and had a wonderful night of drinks and dinner. Frank said that he wanted us to not worry about money on this trip, so I enjoyed several glasses of $20/glass champagne. It was heavenly! We stayed at the Four Seasons, and it was a gorgeous hotel. We had a great view of the mountains from our balcony, and a wood burning chimney in our bedroom. I think our absolute favorite part of our room was the heated floors in the bathroom. The weather was perfect during our stay, and we got to enjoy clear blue skies and amazing sunsets every single night.

Sunday we ventured into Taos to ski for the day, and it was quite the adventure. The drive from Santa Fe to Taos was gorgeous, but we were a tad hungover, and I started to get nauseous and was starving by the time we arrived. Taos is really just one mountain, and it was packed with skiers. I hated having to park, take a shuttle to the base of the mountain, wait in a huge line to rent our equipment, and carry our equipment to the lift. We were so spoiled in Park City staying at the Waldorf, where they took care of everything for us. I just do not enjoy messing with crowds, and so my experience was off to a pretty poor start. We started on the bunny slope, and I was so terrified to go down the first "hill," that I froze at the top and begged Frank to come back up and help me. I soon got over my fear of that run, but after awhile Frank encouraged us to go on a really long green run that went nearly to the top of the mountain. The ride on the ski lift alone was harrowing, and I couldn't even manage to get off the lift correctly. The ski lift operator had to stop the lift because I did not get off, and he yelled "Don't jump!!" Let's just say that I pretty much hated skiing down that long green slope, and I soon declared that I was done with skiing for this trip. Frank went down a few more runs by himself, and I am glad he got to enjoy some skiing without me. I loved skiing in Park City, but I think it is just too hard for me to go for one day and remember what I am doing--I need a few days to warm up and get into it. We ventured back into Taos village for dinner and enjoyed another gorgeous sunset on our drive back to Santa Fe. Monday we had a couples massage at the hotel and went into downtown Santa Fe to do some shopping, more champagne drinking, and plenty of eating. It was a really cute city, and I was surprised by how much we enjoyed ourselves.

On Tuesday, my Mom called me in the morning and mentioned that Lily was not feeling well and was coughing a lot. I heard her crying in the background on the phone, which is very unusual for her, especially at that time of day. I figured she probably had yet another ear infection, and I spent a large part of the drive home calling her doctor and trying to get her an appointment with the ENT specialist. We were rushing to get home so that we could see Frankie before he went to bed, because we really missed him a lot. Little did we know that we were really rushing to get home so that we could be there when Lily woke up with a 105 degree fever.

Overall, the trip was absolutely the refreshing and relaxing vacation that Frank and I needed to strengthen our bond and get back to our start. I love Frank so much, and I am so proud to be his wife. We have come so far in the last seven years--two beautiful children, a wonderful home, and so many adventures together. There is no one in the world I would rather share these adventures with, and I look forward to spending many more anniversaries together exploring the world. Although, there is a very good chance that our kiddos will be coming with us on our next trip, because right now I cannot imagine ever leaving them again.