Last weekend, Matt and I escaped down to Midway and Heber City for a little late anniversary getaway. Way back in December, my mom and stepdad treated us to a gift certificate to The Blue Boar, where we’d spent the first night of our honeymoon. The Blue Boar is a positively charming bed and breakfast that has won multiple awards for their complimentary breakfast/brunch, and we had been dreaming of their five-course meals since we had them for the first time three years ago. My mom told me she bought us the gift certificate right after reading a blog post back in October about how stressed out I felt all the time with school. When she gave it to us (and for awhile after), I think she was worried that when we finally did get away, it wouldn’t be as needed because our lives would have slowed down significantly.
Ha.
For any non-educators out there, teachers are almost always stressed out (or at least ones who teach 7th grade are), especially around midterms and the end of a trimester. We are ESPECIALLY stressed out as we near the end of the school year, as the students have managed to transform themselves into hellians from the underworld itself.
So trust me, Mom, when I say that we NEEDED this.
To work up an appetite for the burgers and shakes we’d be enjoying later at Dairy Keen–a fun local establishment that has a model of the Hogwarts Express running the length of the building–we went on a 3-mile hike through Wasatch State Park. I don’t know what it is about getaways, but I usually crave exercise MORE when I’m away from home (which I suppose is a good thing, seeing as we eat out for most meals when we’re away).
Later, we soaked in the natural hot springs of Homestead Crater, which is exactly what it sounds like–a pool of hot water inside an ancient crater. Unfortunately, the place is a lot cooler than it sounds because for $16/person (for about a 45-minute soak), I could have just as happily filled up the jetted tub in The Blue Boar and saved ourselves the $32 and the stress of being around a lot of obnoxious people in a tightly enclosed space. Oh well. Now we can say we at least had the experience.
Basically, the getaway was a necessary step back towards sanity as I fight to get through these last few weeks of the school year. (Seriously though, I’m about at the end of my rope, especially after a kid–I have my suspicions as to whom–stole a full-size Snickers bar right off my desk yesterday that I was planning on eating right after school. Seriously folks—do NOT mess with my chocolate. I got much more riled up about it than I probably should have.)
Only 11 more days to go.
I can get through this.
