A Weekend Getaway!

Celebrating 11 years of marriage on 8/29!

So, I got a little surprise myself for our anniversary! My sweet, romantic hubby put in a lot of planning to surprise me for our anniversary this year. I came home from the gym on Friday, the 28th, and noticed that our garage door was not working. Dan was home from his time at the gym and was getting ready to head to work. I informed him of the problem and then left to go run a couple of errands with Claire. We got home around noon and I went to the front door and saw a letter taped to it. In the letter, I was told to pack my bags - that I was being whisked away for the weekend. It gave me options and even told me that Dan had picked out some new clothes for me to try on and and take. I also knew to pack work out clothes because one of the options was to go bike riding! I then began to scurry about to get ready for this surprise excursion. My mom came and got the kids off the bus and shortly after that, I was ready to go. Our first stop was to check out the new outlet malls on the way to Cincy. We mostly window shopped and enjoyed looking at things, kidless! Then, we had Chipotle for supper (yum). Before heading to our hotel, we stopped at Kohls and Old Navy (I needed to find some cheap - at least cheaper than the outlet mall prices - shorts for biking since my work out shorts were all dirty). Finally, we headed for the Hyatt where Dan had made reservations via Priceline. We were up on the 16th floor, so we got a really nice view of the city and even got to see some fireworks closeby since the Reds had won their ballgame that evening.

The next day, I had a choice. We could go bike riding or go to the Creation Museum or go to Newport Aquarium. We thought that maybe we could go biking and one of the other, but that didn't happen since we slept in until 10:30...yes, 10:30. It was wonderful (and needed, since I didn't sleep well that first night)! The choice for where to go was easy. I'd been to Newport Aquarium before and was disappointed, mainly for the fact that they are dolphin-less. The Creation Museum had three things going for it...it was free (we had some friends passes), I'd never been before, and it was appealing to go without kids and get to take my time going through it. (We are definitely going to take the kids soon)! It was a very neat place. Dan and I wondered how many people walk away from there impacted in some way. I think many must with the way it is presented. In fact, I eavesdropped on a few conversations where I knew people were really thinking hard. One lady even said she was going to go home and read more on Creation. To God be the Glory! Anyhow, here are some fun photos from the end of our time there with the dinos.

When we got back to our hotel, we went to go use the workout room quickly before getting ready for dinner. They were working on stuff, so they told us to go to the hotel across the street - that they had worked out an arrangement. Well, we walk over there with another couple and wait about 10 minutes or so. Whoever had given the ok did not have the leeway to do so. That was kind of awkward, but we did end up using their equipment. We then went back to the Hyatt and got ready for supper. We decided to eat at Bucca Di Beppo's. We'd just eaten there recently and had been given a peel-away gift card. Our waitress was the one who had to peel it away...I'm sure that rule was intact just to get people back to eat and spend $$$. We ended up winning the simplest of prizes (a free pint of gelato). Dan wanted to win dinner for 16 at the Pope table. We are also now entered in a drawing to win a trip for four to Italy...now wouldn't that be peachy!!!

Dan's very serious when it comes to ordering food.

Now he can be goofy.


Big bite...

On Sunday, we checked out of our hotel and decided to go for a bike ride in Eden Park. We had the perfect day! Eden Park is so pretty and there are some really cool homes. (I found out later that part of the Flying Pig race is done in Eden Park...no wonder I hear that is a hilly race). Going up was challenging, but also fun. At the top, we stopped at a bench and just looked out over the city for a few minutes. Then we headed back down to our car and took a few pictures before leaving.

We climbed up a small rock wall.

Sweaty and gross, but still in love!

*Our garage is now in full working order. Dan had purposefully rigged it not to work so that I could see the note on the front door. (And Jill, it's very clean).