Well, what do you know . . . that day that old folks warned us about snuck right up on us. Yep, our kids, "before you know it," did grow up too fast! Not sure how that happened, but my wife of nearly 31 years and I find ourselves in an interesting situation. Empty nesters!
Courtney is off and married with a small tribe of her own, Lindsey is making a life for herself in Portland, Oregon, and Jake is abroad serving a mission in Edmonton. (Canada is "abroad," right?) And just like that, here we are! This beach pic is what first pops into my mind when I think about our little family.
Since January of this year, Tracy and I have learned a lot about being empty nesters, so hit me up for advice. Or, "Slide into my DMs." We are all in this together.
Actually, Tracy and I are digging this stage in our lives right now, and here are a few notes . . .
First off, we are intentional about keeping the home fires burning. One of our favorite movies is "It's A Wonderful Life," which we watch every Christmas. We can often find it on the big screen at one of our local theaters, but we love that heck out of that flick. For our last Valentine's Day, I had my friends at Social Spice Media create a nice little surprise for Tracy, which hangs in our place in Utah:
If you don't know the movie, you won't get the reference.
Second, priorities. Tracy and I prioritize time together, and while we would love to see family and friends, right now we are spread a bit too thin; so we make sure that our time is our time. Dinner, movie, whatever . . . it is usually just us.
This is how family pictures will probably look like from now on! Pretty nice that we can walk to church with Mt Timpanogos in the background. Was a bit cool, but that is what jackets are for!
Watching BYU vs Gonzaga in basketball. Was a good night for Zag fans! Really glad that we both love to see sporting events.
Great trip between the holidays to NYC and Boston . . . summer trip to the UK and fall in Nashville are in the queue!
Grabbing a bite at The Foundry at Sundance. Date nights are huge for us. . . so we ate dinner here before watching the Missouri vs Utah Valley wrestling match. MO crushed 'em, but UVU made a nice showing.
Enjoying a birthday party, together, that involved too many sweets!
We.Are.So.Cultured. Immersive Van Gogh in Hollyweird, totally worth the hype. Really enjoyed this.
We sometimes have company on date nights- above is the first of many dance recitals, and we enjoyed dinner before and dessert after!
Enjoying the Ute's Spring Football game. In rain, hail, and wind . . . springtime in Utah. Again, just us, and afterwards we shared a 40oz porterhouse at Ruth's Chris!
Keeping busy is not a problem. Tracy is enjoying her gig teaching first grade at Midway Elementary School, and I am enjoying the business down in California while trying to open up in Salt Lake. We don't feel the weight of kids leaving the nest, we are too busy! Downsizing seems like a nice empty nester thing to do, unless you're us. We added the place in Orem, Utah, and I still dream of a cabin in Weaverville.
Empty nesting does not mean we stop worrying about our kids . . . heck, we probably even worry more. But we do it in the comfort of a quiet living room with our feet up, enjoying a nice chilled bottle of Diet Coke, while watching a period piece on Netflix.
And to you young parents . . . enjoy it while it lasts; they grow up too fast!
