Saturday, September 21st - Our 11th Anniversary!

Jim had made plans for us to have an in-town weekend getaway to celebrate our 11th anniversary!  We were looking forward to the time and SO thankful to Gram and Nana for their willingness to take such great care of the kids while we had our time together.  We appreciate you both so much!!

On this day, eleven years ago, I married my best friend.  We have been through a tremendous amount together in the past decade +1 ;-)  Businesses together, home ownership, moves, death of loved ones, open heart surgery, four children... A lot of incredible lows and outstanding highs - far too many to list!  But through it all we choose to do life together, and I'm so thankful that you are my partner.  

I love you~

Before we took off for our 28 hours of freedom, Jim took the kids to karate and snapped this picture :-)

We had a wonderful time with just the two of us - shopping, talking, enjoying one another's company and the ability to do the normal things of life at a more leisurely pace.  Jim had set aside a little bit of money for us to go shopping with, and we had vowed we would *not* spend any of it on the kids... this was going to be for US.  Ahem.  That did not happen at all :-p  We are incorrigible!!  But we had a blast and found lots of good deals, including this super cozy, lightweight and flexible Columbia coat for Waverly for only $8!

Meanwhile, back at the house, Grammie took the kids to McDonald's for a multi-house lunch + play fest.  Our lovely neighbors brought over their youngest's exersaucer for us to borrow, and Waverly took an immediate liking to it (because it is like the cadillac of all exersaucers - it may actually take flight at any moment).

I had ordered special little seasonal Boos for the kids as a surprise - actually thinking that we wouldn't be buying anything for them while we were away (ha!), but that it would be a nice prize for their good behavior upon our return.  After further thought though, I texted my mom to see if they had arrived and sure enough they had... so I let Nana give them to the kids and they spent quite a while Saturday evening sorting out who was getting what, and playing with them.

We had spent most of the afternoon about an hour south of the city, and returned in-town to check out our hotel room at the Melia.  It was beautiful!  We had a suite and it was HUGE, with terrific views of the city.  They also had a complimentary upgrade on our room that allowed us access to their top floor lounge where we had free drinks and hors d'oeuvres. 

Refreshed and ready for our dinner out~

We ate a late dinner at a wonderful sushi placed called Steel - the food was fabulous, and one of the more entertaining elements was ordering ishiyaki beef.  Basically you get the strips of meat and a super hot rock and grill it yourself at the table.  It was fun and unique :-)

Our view of sunset at the hotel!  What a wonderful end to our lovely anniversary day.