Time together with time to spare

We are friends with an amazing couple who have been together since high school. Seriously, she was 16 when they went on their first date and now they are in their mid 40s.

In a world of divorce and low boredom thresholds it is pretty impressive and I feel like we could learn a lot from them.

One of their tricks, especially while their kids were young, has been to always have two weekends away together each year.

As they describe it "One for each set of grandparents."

Some years they have been to expensive hotels, and other years they have gone to the cheapest place they could find. But they have always made that time together a priority.

We went away this weekend. Without our kids. For the first time in two years.

And it turns out we do still have things to talk about that aren't related to when the recycling needs to go out or whether Princess' nappy should have been changed an hour ago.

In fact, it felt remarkably the same as when we were dating.

We discussed current affairs.

We walk along holding hands ... minus the small boy in the middle yelling out "1 2 3!"

And without the endless touching of two small children who have no understanding at all of the term 'personal space' it was actually nice to stop and hug each other occasionally.

The only disappointing thing was that we seem to have lost the knack of sleeping in ... although perhaps 7am does count as sleeping in when you are normally up at 5.30am.

It seems obvious that time together, focusing on each other, is a really important part of staying connected as a couple but in the crazy world of a family it can be easier said than done.

Still, this weekend truly showed me having that time is worth the effort.

Do you find time for yourselves as a couple? Date night? Weekend away? Sunday brunch?