One of the things that I heard often when Aaron and I first got married was the whole “Don’t stop dating your husband” spiel. “Put him first, kids second,” and “Keep the spark alive,” were also occasionally thrown at me.

Well, six years in, I will honestly say that I suck at this. By the time he gets home from work everyday, my brain is spent. I often (okay, most of the time) just put our marriage on autopilot. We can’t have a conversation without at least 10 interruptions from the littles and our bed is usually occupied with four other tiny feet. A hug is even broken up by a high-pitched shrill of “That’s MY Daddy!”

The spark is black, my friends. A date to us is sitting on the couch at 10 p.m. watching our latest Netflix obsession. RO-MAN-TIC.

It’s hard to put anything or anyone else before or even on the same level as your kids. They are loud and way more demanding. There’s also that instinct that kicks in that makes you incapable of doing anything else but care for them sometimes. And sadly, if I don’t have time to eat lunch, I certainly don’t have time to do anything else.

So this year to celebrate Aaron’s 30th birthday and our six-year anniversary, I decided to go all out. Well, as all out as a couple with two tiny children and a small budget can go. I booked a beercation.

Yes. A beercation. That’s vacation with the “vaca” taken out and beer put in its place. I wanted to take him somewhere where the entire point of our presence was to drink and enjoy beer.

Backstory: Aaron and I met through our shared love of craft beer. I was a bartender at the Lawrence Old Chicago and he was a World Beer Tour member who came in under the goal of trying all 110 beers. We challenged each other to a drink off for our first date. Yes, we’re always romantic, OBVIOUSLY.

I decided to book our trip to a very cost effective destination of St. Louis. Plus, our anniversary weekend just happened to also be the weekend of the St. Louis Microfest. JACKPOT. Microfest is where more than 80 breweries get together for a two-day festival in order for people to get a chance to try a variety of beer. We bought tickets for the Saturday afternoon session. For that we got four hours, 80+ breweries, barbecue, and people-watching: It was AWESOME.

We were finally able to have full conversations, eat a hot meal in one sitting, and just be us for 48-ish hours. It was weird, but totally great. I was able to fully listen to things my husband was doing at work and talk about something other than the level of wetness of someone else’s pants. It was nice to see him again as him, the guy I used to laugh with over a Boulevard Wheat and not just my relief butt-wiper, story reader, and baby snuggler.

I think he liked it too. He took me shopping on the way home. I think that speaks volumes.

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