The last of a decade

A few short weeks ago I celebrated my 29th birthday.  It was going to be just any ordinary birthday until one day a month or so before I was downstairs getting into the deep freezer and decided to count how many bags of frozen milk I had saved up for Elle.  I was just curious to see, as I never really kept track during this whole first year of her life, I did a good job of labeling the bags and keeping them in date order but other than that, we just used what we needed when she went to daycare and I would replace the supply when I came home from work.  Turns out there was enough milk in the freezer for Elle to have a 7 days supply!  That means I could have technically been away from her for 7 days without nursing and she wouldn't have to supplement with anything besides my frozen milk!  I couldn't believe it.  I called Patrick up and jokingly told him "We should plan a trip!"  He didn't think it should be a joke and wanted to actually follow through with it!  So, I told him we should go somewhere for my birthday!  That's how it all began! haha...

I called my mom and dad to see if they would be available to come and watch the kids for the weekend after my birthday and they said they would be glad to.  I asked Patrick what he thought about planning the trip this time (in the 6 1/2 years we've been married and the 6 years we dated, I don't think we've ever gone anywhere where I didn't organize it all!) and he agreed he would take the reins and it could be my birthday present.  I was so excited!

The night before my birthday, Patrick and I enjoyed a late night dinner after the kids went to bed and he surprised me with the trip details.  We would be headed to Kansas City for a few days...staying at a hotel right near the Kauffman Stadium, going wine tasting, and going to a KC Royals game.  Sounded like great fun to me!  Friday night we loaded up the car, hugged our babies goodbye (it was the first time I had ever spent the night away from Elle), thanked my parents for coming to stay with them, and took off for KC.  We felt like a newly married couple again, free to stay out late, eat dinner at whatever time we wanted, sleep in, and follow no schedule whatsoever!  When we got to KC we decided after checking in to the hotel we'd go see a late night movie...which was really fun!  We didn't get out of the theater until 1:30 am, I think!  Saturday we slept in late, ate breakfast at IHOP, went wine tasting, and went to the Royals game.  We had such a great day together.  On Sunday, we went to church at the nearest Catholic church, drove down to the Plaza for brunch at The Cheesecake Factory, then headed back to Wichita in time to go out for birthday dinner with my parents before they headed back home.

While we don't really have all sorts of money to be spending on weekend getaways all the time, it was worth it to spend some extra money and have a little trip away, just the two of us.  We haven't had a chance to go anywhere like this since our 5th anniversary in October 2010 when we went to Dallas for the weekend, so if we can make it work every 1 1/2 years, we should!

I'm pretty sure my 29th will be one of my most favorite birthdays for awhile...and coming home to these two faces makes getting older pretty wonderful! :)