"We Need to Get Out More"

This weekend, I left my children overnight for the very first time. Evan has spent the night with my mom about three times (and I didn't let that happen until he was about three), and Ella Grace has never been away from me overnight. A "getaway" always sounded like a great idea to me until I thought about leaving the kids. I guess I just like them and would rather be with them than go somewhere without them.

Well, since Evan is now six, I thought (well, really Derek thought and insisted he would put me in the car himself if he had to) it was time for he and I to have a getaway weekend. My mom offered (she is the BEST about offering) to come and stay with Evan and EG (remember those two are quite the home bodies) so Derek and I could go on a getaway. I actually was very excited at this offer and Derek jumped on in right away. You will probably laugh when I confess to this, but our getaway was actually 20 minutes away. We were going to visit a nearby city known for spas and massages, but for my first time to leave the kids, I wanted to make sure I could get to them in a hurry if need be.

It actually worked out great because we ended up staying in the same hotel we spent our wedding night. They have remodeled most of the rooms but left some of the historic character intact. It was just a beautiful as I remembered.

The beautiful lobby

They gave us these when we checked in and out.

We were greeted by a group of folks opening my car door, grabbing our luggage, opening the door to the hotel, offering us ice cold water on a silver tray, and escorting us to our beautiful room. Our room was so nice. Here is Derek in our room. Doesn't he look happy?

I never go barefoot in a hotel (ewww), even a fancy shmancy one like we were staying in, so I was delighted to see they provided us each with a pair of slippers! Oh, I love this place!

We went downtown to eat at Sonny Williams Steakhouse, and it was delicious. It was the first time we had been there, and it did not disappoint. We had a delicious salad, and steak with a baked potato and scrumptious green beans. Here we are at the restaurant...

This tomato mozzarella salad was divine. The tomatoes were homegrown, so we didn't have to worry about the salmonella scare that is happening right now. I didn't get a picture of my steak, but I should have because it tasted as good as it looked. Yummy!

We walked from our hotel to the restaurant and back. It was a nice walk. However, there was a mime on the sidewalk. Mimes and clowns kind of creep me out. Would you believe right when we got up to him, he jumped out at me?! It scared me half to death and then I had a nightmare about him that night and it took me two hours to go back to sleep. Our main agenda was to sleep as much as we could, and I was so mad that dream interrupted my sleep. Plus, it was really storming and that woke me another time. Derek had no trouble sleeping. He told me he was going to sleep for 12 hours, and he did. At least one of us got a lot of rest. :)

The next morning, we ate at the hotel restaurant and had a delicious breakfast. It was appropriately called "The Razorback" and was gourmet biscuits and gravy with sausage links. After breakfast, we checked out of our room and did some shopping and then went to a movie. We returned home at about 4:00. We were gone almost an entire 24 hours and I was SO happy to see my Evan and Ella Grace. I think I missed them more than they missed me. They had a great time with "Granny" and my mom said they were "little angels."

I sure enjoyed my getaway. Thank you, Derek! As Derek said at dinner, "We need to get out more." Maybe next time I'll actually be able to stay the entire weekend! We'll see.