The Anniversary

Last week we had our little anniversary getaway. I have been bummed because my camera battery is dead and I can't find my charger anywhere! I haven't been able to take a picture of the anniversary gift my hubby got me to share with you. We started our 24 hour getaway by going to Macaroni Grill for dinner. On the way to dinner, I saw two wrapped presents in the backseat in BEAUTIFUL wrapping paper. I immediately felt bad that I hadn't even wrapped my gift to Matthew, but that is just how he rolls. He is an expert wrapper. He even went to the trouble of finding wrapping paper that was TOTALLY me. He told me I could open the presents then or wait until later......so I did it right then in route to dinner. Gift #1 was a "family gift." He got us a croquet set!!! We had recently had a conversation about how we thought it was fun to play croquet with our parents when we were growing up. Now we can play again! We agree that it is the perfect sport for our non-athletic family.......it's fun, and you don't have to exert yourself much. I was super stoked! Then, of course, my hubby had to bust out his British accent and say, "Now we can have a proper croquet match." The second gift he got me was fabulous. I wanted to take a picture, but like I said my camera is totally dead right now. He bought this gift online. Here is a link directly to what he got me, if you are curious. I love the little tiny paper lanterns on the necklace and I love even more my little family's names engraved on each one! It's funny because we never discussed getting each other gifts. We were just thrilled to have 24 hours alone together. I am going to reserve a whole other post to tell you what I got Matthew for his gift. One hint: it has to do with his recent experience with being a fox whisperer.

You should know that this night of our getaway was the night before I joined Weight Watchers, which means I totally ate myself into oblivion. After Macaroni Grill, I felt completely and utterly stuffed. We left the restaurant and both agreed immediately that we wanted to go to the bookstore. This may seem odd or funny to some, but not to us. We LOVE going to the bookstore and used to do it all the time together before we had kids. Now we hardly ever get to go without the two crazy heads nearly getting us kicked out. We spent two hours (that totally flew by) at the bookstore. I found the new issue of "Where Women Create" that Jen O'Connor of Earth Angels told me to find, and *holy crap* it sent chills right through me. She was totally right that I needed that magazine in my life. I may need to write a whole other post about the amazingness of that magazine. After hanging out at the bookstore, we decided to complete my "last supper" before Weight Watchers by going to Cheesecake Factory and getting cheesecake for dessert. Folks, this was probably a huge mistake. I felt like a stuffed pig after eating the cheesecake. Whatever that feels like! We hobbled to the car and went to our hotel. Matthew had chosen to stay at Hotel Indigo. He found it online and thought I would like that it is a "boutique hotel" which basically means it is super trendy and unique. It was very well priced too! The only two pictures before our camera died are below. The first picture is me (post gluttony) standing in our hotel room in front of a ginormous photo mural of a flower. That smile on my face is actually a grimace of pain.

I took a picture of the bed because I liked the turquoise and brown colors in the room and the funky prints! Hotel Indigo had a "hotel dog" running around in the lobby. All of the floors are wood, instead of carpet. That was cool. However, don't even get me started on how uncomfortable their pillows are! Soon after the above two pictures, I promptly fell asleep in a food induced coma complete with acid reflux until about 3 am. Nothing says Happy Anniversary like acid reflux. The next morning we had breakfast/lunch at Cafe Patachou, which is my new favorite for very fresh locally produced food. After our brunch we walked around the mall aimlessly, then went back to the bookstore!!! I can't tell you how wonderful it was to just be out and about together, like we used to do every weekend we didn't have kids. We both had lots of conversation and inspiration! In Anthropologie (my absolute favorite store to look around in), we both had huge inspiration for something that I could make and sell on Etsy. You never know where inspiration can strike. I hope to get started on our idea in the next few months!!! I love how we are such a perfect match that we can inspire each other. Sadly we had to end our little getaway to return home and prepare Avery for dance pictures (one of my least fav things to do as a mom is get my girls ready for pictures). However, our little getaway was exactly what we needed!! It wasn't anything fancy. We didn't travel any further than 30 minutes from our house. Yet it still felt like a true getaway! Thankfully, my husband did some corporate tax work for a family member on the side of his normal job. His payment from that little side job made our little getaway possible! Sometimes you just have to leave your normal life, if even for 24 hours!

Have any of you had a getaway with family or friends lately? I would love to hear all about it!