Fifth Honeymoon

Michael and I celebrated four years of marriage this past weekend.  But we like to call it our fifth honeymoon.  Each year we have gone on a trip for our anniversary.  This year was definitely the smallest, lowest distance traveled, and shortest yet.  But it was still perfect.

We decided to go small this year for several reasons:  I am six months pregnant, traveling sounds ok, but we are limited in some activities ( i.e. laying on the beach usually sounds fun, until you feel like a beached whale), we just got back from a week long vacation with my family, Michael is going to China next month for a week and a half.

So we decided to spend a weekend near Eureka Springs, on Holiday Island.  Apparently lots of people have heard of this place, we have not.  It is a small community a few miles outside of Eureka, on Table Rock Lake.  I'd say based on my observations it is a retirement community.  Which was great! Nice and quiet.  We rented a house from vrbo.com (vacation rental by owners).  Shout out to Heather for telling me about this website!  I've looked at it before, but knowing someone else who had actually used it made me feel better.  So I searched on this website for a place to stay on Holiday Island.  The place we picked said it was near the lake, and looked nice by pictures, but it still felt a little like a gamble.  Your jaw is going to drop when you see this place!  I thought we had the wrong house because it wasn't clearly marked (and I thought we were staying in a condo).  But Michael decided to try the key, just in case.  I thought we were going to be arrested for attempting to break in at this point, I was so sure we were not at the right place.  But, the door opened!  I had to check for myself that it was the key that opened the door, and not that the door was just left unlocked.

So here it is- huge, but only 1 bedroom!  One enormous bedroom, and bathroom.

This is what we saw when we drove up. Yep, wrong house.  

Back porch, where we ate all our home cooked meals. 

More pack porch. It has a lake view. 

All things summer.  

Our view of the lake.

Bathroom

Kitchen.

Living room. 

Bedroom- please note I was standing in the middle of the room.  There was another living space and t.v. watching area behind me.  

Here was our agenda for the trip:

Friday- Michael took the day off, we made it to Eureka for lunch.  We ate at Local Flavor.  We love this place!  We ate there the day Michael proposed.  Then we checked in and found our house.  We spent the afternoon at the pool.  Then ate dinner at Ermilio's in Eureka.  They make everything from scratch, even their noodles.  Its wonderful.

Saturday- Slept in, swam, made lunch, swam, played games, made dinner, watched a movie.  It was the perfect relaxing day.

Dinner: Grilled steak, bacon wrapped grilled asparagus, caprese salad, and some leftovers from Ermilios

Sunday- Made breakfast, packed up.  We had to be out by 10.  We went to Eureka for massages.  Then ate lunch at Mud Street Cafe.  It was our first time to eat there.  We loved it!

And that sums up our fifth honeymoon.  I didn't take a single picture of us, but you can just imagine lots of fun, swimming, and relaxation instead.  

In other news, I start the third trimester tomorrow.  Yikes!