A fine romance....

Monday morning again, and finally everyone in our house is not sick ( I wouldn't say Ben is well). Normality is gradually descending upon our house once more. In the background I have Bach playing and the washing machine looking after the weekend's dirty clothes, because I didn't have a chance to catch up yesterday. You see Ben and I went away, for a whole, entire 25 hours on the weekend. Away from the children and the dog for the first time in nearly 4 years.


It is our 10th wedding anniversary on Friday and for a celebration I bought some luxurious, grown up  time at the Dreamcatcher Lodge just outside of  Picton. I know doesn't it sound exotic! Picton is not the first location one thinks of  for romance, like Paris or a South Pacific island, however, for us anywhere that doesn't have a playground attached or a kid's menu offered is an absolute aphrodisiac. 
It is also a bonus that it is only a 25 minute drive away...just in case something happened at home whilst Grandma and Papa were babysitting. 

an aerial shot of the main building at Dreamcatcher Lodge

We had our usual Saturday morning sports run around - Miranda to Gymnastics and Ned to soccer. Home for little pies and sausage rolls and Ben's parents arrival. We were out the door just before 2pm and went straight to the Lodge. It sits high on the hill on the road between Tahmoor and Picton, overlooking the countryside looking back towards Sydney. We received a very warm welcome from our hosts, Kathy and Greg and found that we were the only guests for the weekend and  that suited us fine. (We hadn't planned on going to make new friends.) Our room was lovely with a 'pacific' theme and with a lovely, restful green view.

I must say though that the only view that really mattered to us was looking at each other. It had been so long since we had had any 'couple time' that we really just wanted to soak each other up. I confess that I even felt a bit nervous of spending time alone with Ben again after such a long time. Does that sound silly? Like most couples, we are so used to grabbing moments together between the demands of our children that to have an entire 25 hours together without the children seemed somehow incomprehensible.


Two of Ben's greatest indulgences are a massage and a spa bath, and that is what our night away offered. We both had a 1 hour massage with a local masseuse (Marian at Karmarian Resort in Tahmoor) and when we returned to the B&B the deep 2 person spa bath in our room had been filled and decorated with candles and oils and a wonderful cheese board and a bottle of champagne!! WOW! 

the spa bath with candles, cheese board and champagne for two

This was followed by a two course meal served in our room as we sat in fluffy bathrobes, and followed by port and chocolates. I'm not going to tell anymore, but needless to say we looked at each other and we enjoyed the view.

candlelit dinner for 2 in our room 

We slept in on Sunday morning, although I awoke at 6.30 as per usual, however, I rolled over and slept some more. We finished off with breakfast with our hosts and a walk around their lovely property.


It has been a wonderful way to celebrate our 10 years of marriage. A romantic night away together filled with treats and luxuries effectively restores that intimacy so crucial in every relationship. We came home restored and refreshed... and in love, as always.


Thanks so much to our wonderful and generous Grandma and Papa for making our magical escape all possible by looking after our little-peeps and the dog. We hope that Papa continues to recover his health and they didn't wear you out too much!


Warmly,
Kate.