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Life

How We Keep the Romance Alive

March 15, 2017
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Hello friends!

Today we are going to try and answer a question you all have asked us many times. After almost 20 years of marriage, how do we keep the romance alive?

Now we are going to be honest here … our whole relationship is not sunshine and roses people.

Have there been certain times in our marriage where we have wanted to kill each other? Of course. Our marriage, just like everyone else, has had it’s ups and downs. It can be really easy to get caught up in your day-to-day craziness of jobs and commitments, only to find you’ve neglected your relationship, especially if you have kiddos running here or there.

Usually when that happens, one of us will say we need to take a time-out and plan something fun to do together.

Sometimes that means taking a fun trip away together (which we love), but that’s not always in the budget. There are times where we just go out to dinner and a movie, which helps us reconnect, or we make dinner together and binge watch some Netflix.

Sometimes a simple walk around the neighborhood, talking about our day, is all we need.

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When our daughter was younger, we would drop her off at her grandparent’s for a couple of hours and have a picnic in the park.

We also try to show affection by doing a little something sweet for each other. Topher might pick up my favorite magazine while at the grocery store, and I might write him a sweet note to stick in his suitcase for him to find while he travels for work.

Romance doesn’t always have to be grand gestures that cost a lot of money.  Sometimes, just a sweet little something that lets that person know you are thinking about them.

In our marriage we are best friends. Do best friends always get along? Certainly not. But is it fun to kiss and makeup? You bet!

So our answer to the question of How do you keep the romance alive is simply this:  it’s a daily commitment to your partner that you’re going to do something each and every day to show that person you love them.

And it’s also during the challenging times.  It’s how you answer a question when you’re annoyed.  It’s helping with a chore when you’re exhausted from work.  It’s being kind when they’re upset.  It’s folding laundry when none of it yours.  It’s cleaning your plate when dinner is burnt.  It’s changing the most horrible, explosive diaper you’ve ever seen … for the 5th time that day.  It’s repeating the same sentence over and over and over while love and patience in your voice.

Romance is built on respect, effort, and understanding.

We can’t always whisk away to Jamaica, but we can take time to shut off our phones and check in with each other, and spend a little time speaking each others love language.

The key to a good marriage isn’t a once a year grand gesture.  It’s the 3:00 in the afternoon text that says “I’m thinking about you and can’t wait to see you tonight”.

Destinations Travel Tips

8 Amazing Places to Eat in San Francisco

October 11, 2016
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Hello friends! When we spoke last, we told you about our trip to San Francisco, and today we thought we would fill you in on some of the best places to eat there.

We found choosing where to eat in SF a little overwhelming as there are so many options to choose from. It was also difficult because we felt that everyplace we chose was so good, that we had a hard time not wanting to hit the same places more than once. We did try to contain ourselves from repeating restaurants, because we wanted to try as many places as we could.

We also wanted to try some places that were a little out-of-the-box….Read More

Destinations Hotels

Why Loews Regency SF was Heavenly

September 6, 2016
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Did you ever have a hotel stay that was perfect?

I mean where every. single. detail. was absolutely perfect?

Well we hadn’t either until we took our recent trip to San Francisco, where we stayed at Loews Regency.  From the minute we walked through the door, we were treated like royalty … and for two kids from Kansas, that’s exciting stuff, people.

We arrived in SF a little early (gained two hours flying west), and we wanted to immediately start exploring the dozens of things on our “Things To See” list, but we didn’t want to drag our luggage around with us. Since our room wasn’t quite ready (it was before 10:00AM), Loews kindly offered to store it for us and immediately call us when our room was available.

After we got a bite to eat, sure enough we received a call that our room was ready for us. As soon as we walked back in the lobby, everyone there (from the doorman, to the concierge, to the front desk clerk) they all called us by name.

Once we were taken to our room, we were in awe. …Read More

Cruise

10 Reasons We Love to Cruise

August 1, 2016
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Hello friends! Today we thought we would talk to you about a subject that is near and dear to our hearts.

Friends often ask us what are favorite way to travel is. Our answer is always cruising.

There are so many reasons why and today we thought we would share them with you….Read More

Caribbean Cruise Destinations

Dolphins, Sharks and Sea Lions in the Dominican Republic

June 28, 2016
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Hello friends!

We hope you are all having a good week! Here in Kansas, it’s hot – so hot I saw two trees fighting over a dog! We are trying to think cool, relaxing thoughts, and it’s always memories of the ocean that get me chilled.  In particular, our recent trip to the Dominican Republic.

Shanna and I have been fortunate to visit a number of the Caribbean islands multiple times, but had never been to the Dominican Republic. On our last Carnival Cruise, we made sure to book a trip that was traveling to the Dominican since we’ve heard nothing but good things about it.

On arrival, the weather was a perfect 75 degrees. We already booked an excursion at Ocean World, so all we needed to do was find the right group, and enjoy the short ride through the countryside. …Read More

Destinations

Traveling to Washington D.C.

June 24, 2016
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Hello everyone!

Topher and I went on a trip to Washington D.C., and we just had to share with you all! First of all, can you believe it was my first time there? I know! You would think by the time I was 40 years old I would have gotten around to our nation’s capital at least once!

Before we get started, let me apologize in advance for the fact that we didn’t bring our “fancy” camera on this trip, so the pictures aren’t up to par … but they were as good as we could do with our iPhones.

Once we arrived in town, we checked into the Ritz Carlton. Staying at the Ritz was another first for us. How fancy do we sound saying we stayed at the Ritz? Before you start to hate us … just know this was paid for by Topher’s business, and it isn’t a normal thing for us.

As you can imagine, this place was gorgeous! From the swanky rooms, to the to-die-for crystal chandeliers, this place was the bomb! The customer service, from the front desk, to their room service, it was bar none.

TravelinginWashingtonDC

Topher was actually in DC for a work function, so we did all of our sightseeing in one day (in case you’re wondering why we never change our clothes). We took a bus tour to all of the sites, and we highly recommend doing this as you don’t have to worry about finding your way around, finding a place to park, and the bus stops were definitely long enough to see all that we needed to see….Read More

Caribbean Cruise Destinations

Our Day at St. Maarten

June 20, 2016
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Last week I shared with you my Top Ten Ways to Cruise Cheaply. This week I thought I would share some of the fun ports we went to on our cruise earlier this year.

First, this was our sixth Carnival cruise. Some people have asked why we always use the same cruise line. Frankly, every one of the ones we have taken on Carnival have been amazing, so it’s one of those “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of things.

We had friends that took a cruise on a different line, and they left the very same day as us, from the very same city, and went to the very same ports. We came back and touched-base with them and told them how incredible our cruise was, but they were so disappointed with theirs. They said they had awful service and blah food the entire time.

Since we only cruise every couple of years, we would be so bummed if that happened to us, so we have always gone with what’s worked well for our family….Read More

Caribbean Cruise Destinations

Swimming With Stingrays in Antigua

June 17, 2016
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I know the name of the blog is Our Empty Nest Adventures … but our latest vacation included our kiddo. We thought we would all go on one last trip as a family to end her senior year. So in case you’re wondering why the nest doesn’t look too “empty”, I thought I would fill you in.  And in full disclosure … we’ll probably take her on others, but the plan is to travel more frequently with just us two.

I can’t emphasize enough how cruising is one of the favorite ways to vacation for our family. Since we always have a budget to stick to, cruising allows us the most bang for our buck. Since we don’t have unlimited funds and can’t travel to multiple places every year, cruising lets us see several different places every time we go.

If you’re like me, when you travel you like to do a little bit of research so you know the best places for entertainment, famous landmarks and food. So I thought I would show you where we went on our port to Antigua.

We decided to go swimming with stingrays….Read More

Events

Magical Night at the Wichita Lantern Festival

June 13, 2016
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Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

Usually Topher and I are homebodies on the weekends. When the kiddo graduated, and we kicked off this website, we decided we needed to go out and do more, be more adventurous, and try new things. We definitely aren’t getting any younger, and we want to have some fun dating once again.

We discussed before how we would love to be lounging on a different beach each week in the Caribbean … but sadly the budget does not allow it.

So we decided to look around in our own backyards to check out the fun things relatively close to home. While scouring the internet, we came across the Lantern Fest and noticed it was coming to town. Have you seen the amazing pictures on Pinterest of the gorgeous skies, lanterns floating up towards the heavens? Well I have, and it became a line on my bucket list folks.

When I found out they were having one of these 30 minutes away from my house, you bet that I was on board!  I reached out to the event host, and they graciously gave us tickets in exchange for a review.  And although they covered our entrance fee, all the comments in this article are genuine….Read More

We are recent empty nesters who are looking for adventure! We can't wait to explore on planes, trains, ships or even just a short car ride away! We would love to have you join us along the way!

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