Wednesday, July 17, 2013

A Weekend Getaway for Just Us!

It's been three l-o-n-g years since Sean and I have had a break, other than the occasional dinner out. The kids are 2.5 years old now, but since I was so sick while I was pregnant, I'm going to say that it's been three years since we've been able to stop long enough to reconnect.

Happily, that is no longer the case!

A few really wonderful people from our church came over to our house, took control of toddlerdom, and let us escape...for the entire weekend!!

There is no way to even begin expressing how much it meant to us to have that time to reconnect and not worry about the kids. I can't remember being that relaxed in a really, really long time.

So in true blogger form, I documented our weekend with lots of photos! This is a super long post, but I don't want to forget anything in the future, so it's all going to be typed out here. Read on, if you wish!

Friday afternoon, Cheryl arrived at the house and took the reins. We managed to leave before the kids got up from their afternoon nap, so the transition out the door was pretty painless. We told them before they went to sleep that we would be back in a couple of days. I'm still not sure if they understood what we were saying since we haven't ever done this before, but they knew everyone who stayed with them, so I'm sure that helped.

Then we jumped in the car and drove....down the street to the Holiday Inn. No joke! Well technically, we did stay in another state, but seeing as how the Kansas/Missouri state line is only 8 minutes from our house, and the hotel was only 15 minutes from our house, we stayed pretty close. I bid on the hotel through Priceline and got a great deal on it, but didn't know where the hotel was exactly until the reservation went through. We pulled up to the hotel and realized that we were right next door to Children's Mercy Hospital. I guess if there had been an emergency, we would have beat our kids to the emergency room!
Hotel on the left--Hospital on the Right!
Then we took a nap. Oh yeah, we are a super exciting couple! (I hope you can hear the sarcasm!) I tell you what, naps are one of my most favorite things regardless of what day it is and what's going on. Since we were on vacation, no way were we going to miss a nap!

When we woke up, we headed out the door to V's Italian Restaurant. We had a Groupon, so decided that this would be a great time to try it. I forgot to take my camera, but you really aren't missing much by not seeing photos of it. It was pretty bland and tasteless as Italian food goes. Not a place I'd recommend or one that we will visit again.

By this point, it was 9pm. We are always home by 7:30pm these days as the kids' bedtime is at 8pm. But we had the whole weekend to ourselves, so we decided to really live it up and drive to The Legends. The Legends is a ginormous outdoor shopping mall with lots of outlets stores, restaurants, hotels, etc. The Legends is also where we spent the first weekend of our marriage, so it only seemed fitting to visit it again.

As we circled the mall, I saw the Old Navy Outlet store and asked if we could stop in there so that I could find a pair of jeans. I hate jean shopping, but the price was good, and I found exactly what I was looking for. I'm glad I seized the opportunity rather than paying full price elsewhere! Sean also found a nice polo shirt on sale as well. By the time we finished at Old Navy, most of the shops were closed, so it ended up being a short visit.
Back at the hotel, we zonked out. Actually, I took Tylenol PM and then zonked out. Uninterrupted sleep. I was determined to make the most of it!

And we did make the most of it! We slept in and missed breakfast entirely (but the extra sleep was totally worth it!). It's been so long time since we slept in. Toddlers do not do well when it comes to waiting for breakfast.

We headed to Providence, New American Kitchen for lunch. I had a gift certificate to try it out, so we took advantage of the weekend and headed to downtown Kansas City. Oh. My. Word. This place is a GEM! Some of the best food we've ever had! We tried six different dishes and were blown away by the consistency of how delicious everything was! At one point, the manager came out, talked to us and gave us each a dessert to celebrate our 5th Anniversary. There were no leftovers. We ate every single bite.
You know what? This post will be way too long if I say everything I want to about this place, so I think I'm going to have to put it in a separate post. Really phenomenal food! Stay tuned for a review on this place. Simply amazing!

After a very delicious lunch, we headed to the West Bottoms to visit a winery. I googled for one, and Amigoni Winery was relatively close to where we were. It turns out that it was an urban winery. Urban wineries are apparently very different from what you'd expect from a regular winery. It was in a very industrial part of the city, with a very modern and trendy feel to it. I'll be honest, I'm more of a romantic at heart, so the winery wasn't really my speed.
The West Bottoms in Kansas City

We tried the $5 wine tasting flight. Prior to getting there, we thought we might hang out for awhile and visit, but the space was really uncomfortable and awkward so we opted to get back in the car as soon as we were finished. Not bad wine, but a weird atmosphere for a winery. I think we'll stick with the country version of wineries in the future.

...and then we headed back to The Legends. I was looking for a red necklace to go with a black dress but never did find one that I liked. We did get a cute, albeit squinty, photo of us though!
The Legends

(Around this time, Cheryl passed the baton on to Matt, Cyndi, and Christa back at our house.)

After heading back to the hotel for another nap (like I said, no one stands between this Mama and her naps!), we got all dressed up for our official 5th Anniversary celebration dinner! Our 5th anniversary was actually in March, but we didn't get to celebrate it until this last weekend. And celebrate we did! We went to McCormick and Schmick's on the Kansas City Plaza and had a second incredible meal of the day.

See that chocolate bag? It really is a bag made out of chocolate! It's filled with white chocolate mousse, fresh berries, and a berry reduction sauce. It's pretty much the neatest, most innovative dessert I've ever eaten. And it's darn good too!

So what does a couple do on their final night of freedom in three years? Well, we decided to hit up our local Price Chopper for a snack run. Why would we get more food after everything we ate that day? The answer is, "Because we could!"
After snacking until 2am the next morning and watching Restaurant Impossible on the Food Network, we slept in again. On our way home the next morning, we stopped by a Bob Evans for a late breakfast (it was very unexciting) and the grocery store to pick up some food stuffs for the coming week (we do have a family to feed, after all).

And went home, refreshed and relaxed, to four toddlers who were very happy to see us after our weekend away.
This was one of the nicest things that anyone has done for us. Taking on quadruplet toddlers is no small feat. We know this from personal experience! And the fact that these sweet people were excited (excited!) to come stay with them blows me away. We are so grateful to Cheryl, Cyndi, Matt, and Christa for taking over the parenting duties for a weekend, so that we could spend some uninterrupted time together!

18 comments:

  1. i have the perfect red necklace for your little black dress, if you ever want to borrow it!!

    nikki worstell

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  2. SO SO glad you guys were able to get away and have some time together!! YAY!!!! *hugs*

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  3. Im so happy for you!!!!!!! And a tad bit jealous ;-) glad you finally got that time together... its hard to leave the kids but i bet it was great for the marriage!

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    1. Aw, I'm sure you could use a break too. Five boys with one being a newborn. I don't know how you keep up with all of that!

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  4. So wonderful! Your dates sound like ours! I'm still waiting to get a weekend away, though!
    --Gen

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    1. I hope you get a weekend soon! I didn't realize how much we needed it!

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  5. That is a great picture of the two of you all dressed up and on the stairs!

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  6. Im so jealous! My hubby and I need a getaway. I want to eat that chocolate bag!

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    1. The chocolate bag is awesome! It is a "must eat" at McCormick and Schmicks!

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  7. Looks like you had a wonderful. Christa should find my 3 easy this week after a weekend of 4!

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  8. I'm sorry that your experience at V's wasn't good! My family has been going there for probably close to 20 years! Parental break and reconnect is great and I'm sure much needed! YUM on the chocolate bag! I've been there once and would go back just for that!

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    1. Maybe it was just an off night then? I did like the complimentary rum cake!

      And yeah, that chocolate bag is delicious!

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