I Won a Vacation for Two

Last week I found out I was a Top Purex Insider for sharing my post about a contest: Start Summer Early & Win a Vacation from Purex! What this means is that I won a trip for two to the Crown Reef Resort in Myrtle Beach, SC, including 4 nights at the resort and airfare. How awesome is that?

Here’s the kicker. Two weeks ago, we paid for our family vacation to Myrtle Beach (we actually stay in Surfside, just south of MB) that we’ll take the second week of September.

My initial thought was “YAY” a vacation for the hubby and I! Then it hit me that we have no one to watch our boys and that while breastfeeding, I can’t really be away from Owen for very long. After talking with the rep about the trip, I was informed we just need to take it by October 31st. Owen will be 1 October 29th, so he’ll ideally be weaning by then, but we’ll see. We tossed around the idea of taking the boys with us, but let’s face it: I don’t want to. I want to take a vacation with just us.

My mom said “It’s too bad you already paid for the other”. I had already thought those thoughts. However, we would never take a trip as a couple. We just wouldn’t do it. It sounds amazing, but there’s always something else you should be spending that money on. Now, because we have already paid for our family vacation, we’re “forced” to go to Myrtle Beach twice this year. Bummer, right? So… once in September with the boys and then once in probably Mid-October for just Tommy and I.

I’m sure there are couples with small children that take vacations for themselves, it’s just not in our budget. Even if it were in our budget, I’m not sure I could really see spending money on us. The picture on the left is from September 2009 when we visited my grandparents in Kentucky for a vacation. The picture on the right is from our honeymoon to Williamsburg, VA in August 2010. Since kids, we haven’t taken a vacation for us.

I’m over the moon excited about this trip and all the fun grown-up things and not so grown up things (the resort just put in a $2 Million waterpark) that we’ll get to do without the boys! We haven’t quite worked out what we’re doing with the boys yet while we’re gone, but it’ll come together. Both of our moms still work, but they’ll definitely be doing their share of Nanny/Mommom duties while we’re away.

So my question for you is: do you take trips as a couple or just as a family?