Staycation.

This idea of  'staycation' was originally presented to me by my close friend Andrea, who was probably tired of hearing me say I wanted a getaway with my hubby but with his crazy work schedule + lack of "vacation" funds, she suggested we go downtown for a weekend and just spend time together.

Part of me really wanted to stay cooped up in our hotel robes ordering room service and watching movies, and the other part of me really wanted to be out&about exploring downtown KC and all there is to offer, since we've lived here for years and stay in our suburban safe-zone too often.  I hoped we could find a happy medium, and thankfully, I feel like we really did.

My Mom came Thursday afternoon and spent an extra day with me before we left on Friday afternoon at 5.  We stayed at the Sheraton at Crown Center ... and while yes, it was a nice hotel, I honestly was expecting a little bit more with the high price tag.  Luckily I scored the deal almost $100 off retail price using our AAA discount, but I honestly would have been disappointed if I would have paid full price.  It was nice, but not $200/night nice, if you get my gist.  The view from the 31st floor though was incredible.

After checking in, we walked about 1/2 a mile to Jack Stack BBQ.  Kansas City is famous for their BBQ, and we had never tried Jack Stack.  We thoroughly enjoyed it, but it is more of an upscale BBQ place, compared to a local place here we love, called Oklahoma Joe's.  We thought you were paying more for the experience and the restaurant itself, instead of the food.  We left there and took the skywalk home, walking through Crown Center and Union Station.  Outside of Crown Center they had trees filled with lights, it felt like we were straight out of a romance movie... perfection!  We found the ice skating rink and watched people make complete fools of themselves for about 30 minutes, before heading back to the hotel.

We spent about an hour at the hotel just unwinding from our week and getting ready to go out.  We were trying to decide between a live jazz place, or a dueling piano bar, and decided to go with the pianists.  Unfortunately, the NCAA tournament was downtown, so traffic and the crowds were horrible.  Power & Light District was packed and I am not a fan of big crowds in general, so I was not excited about it.  The dueling pianists were fun to listen to, but since it was too crowded to find a seat, we only spent about an hour there.  We walked (over a mile) back to our hotel and enjoyed a quiet evening, just the two of us.

Saturday morning we had planned to tour the Roasterie Coffee Tour, which started at 10am.  Not even thinking twice about it, we didn't set our alarms, because I figured my internal clock would have me up by 7ish anyway.  Imagine our surprise when we woke up to see it was almost 9:30... we honestly thought our phones were broken.  I couldn't believe how deep and great we both slept and didn't regret sleeping in at all, since it never happens.  We headed to a fancy breakfast joint, then made our way to the West Bottoms district.

The West Bottoms was complete fail.  Apparently 90% of the shops are only open the first weekend of the month, so it was a dead area and when we saw convicts picking up trash + a swarm of BMW cars racing up and down the bridge, that we're pretty sure was a gang, we were pretty quick to leave.  However, we did find a vintage shop and Tyler bought himself a tie.  Random fact about my sweet man:  he collects ugly ties.  Bet you didn't know that about him!

We headed to the River Market area and went to the City Market.  This is where we spent (and enjoyed) most of our day... the weather was perfect, and the crowd wasn't overwhelming.  They had a lot of cute shops, restaurants, and of course the farmers market.

After a few hours there, we left and went to Westport.  Another area of town that neither of us had been to!  We stopped at World Market (*love* that store) and walked around the other shops.  We also tried out some infamous Bubble Tea that was recommended to us.  Maybe we just ordered the wrong thing, but neither of us were fans of it.  I couldn't get over the weird texture of having these huge balls of some unknown thing come up through your straw, and Tyler's drink was too sweet for his taste.  But, I am glad we tried it... we can cross it off our bucket list now.

At this point, Tyler was done shopping (poor guy had been walking around all day "window shopping"... you know how much guys love that!), so we saw a movie... Friends with Kids.  Horrible language, but a semi-cute plot.  The verdict is still out whether or not we'd recommend it... ha!

All of this to say, our time together this weekend was great great great...
...invaluable...
...refreshing...
...amazing!

I feel like it should be apart of your wedding vows... "I promise to take you on an overnight stay at least once every 3 months, so we can re-connect and remember what it means to truly relax and get to know each other again, in a non-mommy/non-daddy way."

Put your spouse first.  Believe me, your kids will be fine.  I don't think my boys even noticed we were gone, they were having way too much fun with Grandma & Grandpa.  My Mom said it best... "time away from your kids does not make you a bad Mom, it makes you a better Mom."

It's easy to get stuck in a routine of job/kids/life, and forget about the one you're doing this life with.  Save up for a couple months and find a cheap hotel deal.  It was a fairly inexpensive "vacation" and the best part was we were only 15 minutes from home, but it felt like a whole different world.

We reconnected, laughed, had some deep talks, enjoyed the sound of "nothing", prayed together, and just soaked in every minute.  No responsibilities, no to-do lists, no kids.

It was so refreshing and NEEDED.

Thank you for the weekend away, Mr. Keith.  You are my favorite.

And a big thanks again to my parents, who made it all possible!

...love one another deeply, from the heart.

1 Peter 1:22

PS, nothing says "welcome back to reality" like a baby who is sporting a high 104-105 degree temperature and a husband who got called into work first thing Sunday morning.

Still worth it.  :)