We all know marriage takes maintenance. If you’ve been in any sort of relationship dynamic with another person ever you know this. By the time age-appropriate discussions are had at dinner and little hands are held at bedtime, there’s barely the space/time/energy/desire to drink a beer and watch an episode of Friends together. There’s certainly little to no margin left to communicate needs, hurts, dreams, and thank-you’s. Here’s where we have a bit of a leg up; we live in a beautiful city. We have a circle of people cheering us on, who let us go on daytime dates so we can weed the marriage garden. There’s no way to have these conversations other than gently when sitting on sandstone cliffs a couple hundred feet above green-gray surf, sighting dolphins, and feeling the bigness of God’s love for us. What feels like histrionics at home after midnight gets placed in perspective in the salt-air riding in from a horizon that has merged seamlessly between sea and sky. Next week is our ninth anniversary. I’m thankful for a friend and husband who is committed to re-falling in love each season and for Voskamp’s quote that grace is the biggest brave.

And now a barrage of pictures celebrating the art of being out and about as well as a few of fun times at home! We do best as a family when we go places during the day, because I do best when we get out of the house. Again, we’re pretty spoiled with our out and about options and I know it.