120715 Travel PostBy: Brad Carlson

When you grow up in MN, the weekend ritual for many of the families I knew, was to head to the cabin. My family never had a cabin so I always wondered what it would be like to have a second home to escape to. When I met my wife Kris, I finally got my first opportunity to go to a cabin. Her parents had a place less than 2 hours north of where we were going to school together. I absolutely loved spending time up there. It was a great place to go and forget all about the stresses of life and to just sit and talk to whom ever was there for the weekend.

Fast-forward 23 years and I’m still in love with going to the cabin. The difference now is it’s across the country in NC and it’s a beach house that Kris and I bought a few years ago. It’s also a lot more meaningful because my kids come with us and we’re all able to escape from our busy lives and re-connect together. This past weekend, my youngest drove us to the beach so I had some time to think about what I wanted the weekend to be like. We’ve all been so busy between our jobs at Norwex and school, that it’s been 2 months since we’ve been down to the beach. My youngest has been slammed with homework as they’re in the middle of the rush to get things done before their winter break. Kris is in the middle of the busiest time of her year and I’m still adapting to leaving the corporate word and joining Kris to help grow her business.

As we were driving, it felt like I was 23 again and driving to the cabin. I couldn’t wait to get to the house and revisit our Friday tradition of pizza, music and decompressing from the week. There’s something about getting away from it all that brings out such incredible discussion. During the week, it seems like we all mostly talk about the logistics of what needs to get done and when. At the beach, we talk about the deeper, more meaningful topics that bring us together as a family. I encourage everyone to schedule time to get away and decompress on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it does need to be a change in place and routine. As we come up on a new year, challenge yourself to find time to get away with the people you love and to connect at a much deeper level than you’re able to do during the week.