FireDad went back to work yesterday. With the way our vacation fell, he was off from the fire department for a total of 13 days. Thirteen days. Even for our wedding and honeymoon stretch, we’ve never spent thirteen days together. Normally he leaves for the fire department every third day and spends twenty-four hours there, leaving me at home with a bed to myself. I love sleeping next to him but, really, I’ll be honest, that third night? It’s nice.

We made jokes about being sick of each other by the time our thirteen days were up. We laughed and said we’d never make it through a seven day vacation and associated travel, let alone the full thirteen days. But, at the risk of sounding horribly sappy: it was flipping wonderful.

We took walks on the beach. We splashed water at one another. We went shopping without children (which is the benefit of vacationing with extended family). He bought me my first-ever fishing pole which is pink with lights. Then he took me surf-fishing, taught me how to properly cast in the ocean and even let me re-bait my own hook. (I’ve been fishing before but have never owned my own pole. With lights.) We sat on the deck in the evenings, silent and still. We teased and we poked. We laughed and we joked. We spent time with our boys together, taking them to the aquarium. We splashed with them in the ocean. We argued with one another over whether or not to go east or west at one point. (Perhaps I was wrong because I wanted to stay at the beach? Yes?) We learned dorky information about the route home (like the state line between Virginia and West Virginia is inside the East River Tunnel).

And, of course, I took lots of pictures of the two of us.

(Also: I wear a lot of green because it’s my favorite color. Obviously.)

We don’t have a ton of pictures of ourselves. In fact, the photographer we hired for our family portraits on the beach made sure to get some of the two of us by ourselves because we haven’t had any of that nonsense since we got married! I’m hopeful that they turn out well and that FireDad isn’t making his “I’m Purposefully Trying to Mess Up Your Photo” face. Like this one.

And so, yesterday came, bringing our vacation days to a final end. FireDad woke up to an alarm, something we didn’t do since we set out on vacation at 3:00 on August 15th. He showered, got ready and came in to give me a kiss. I felt sad as he left, knowing it will be a long time before we have another thirteen days together. I did roll over and snuggle into his pillow, catching a bit of sleep before the boys woke me up. We spent our day without FireDad running errands and doing the school orientation thing. But by dinner time, we simply missed him. So we stopped at the fire department and got some time in with our favorite firefighter.

He came home this morning and we’ve worked our way back into our normal routine. I’m sad that he has to leave us every third day but, really? The bed last night? All to myself? It was good.

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Having returned from vacation this past weekend and  not having done the grocery shopping until just this morning (we did a lot of pasta), I have absolutely no pictures of food to share with you for this week’s You Capture theme. We’re lucky we ate. (We also did pizza. And went out for Mexican yesterday. My diet? What diet?) But, as we’re back in our routine now, hopefully I’ll have some pictures for next week’s challenge: Old Signs. Ooh, fun.