kansas city getaway...

this past weekend we went to kansas city with our sweet friends. the boys had planned this trip last month as a birthday/valentine's surprise. they did so good! we're hard to surprise! lane had arranged for his parents to keep our kids. on saturday morning, we said good-bye to our little sweethearts. we were equally excited for what our weekends held! 

as soon as sarah got off work at noon, we hit the road. why are roadtrips so fun?! 

we checked into the marriott (shout out to my sister for hooking us up with a family and friends discount) on the plaza in kansas city. what a fun place with TONS of shopping and eating! lane is easily entertained as you can see :) we shared a bag since we were just gone for one night. the whole time that we were at the hotel i kept finding hidden notes from lane. sweet boy had hidden them in all of my things when he packed his stuff after i had. 

after getting dressed in our fancy clothes, we took the shuttle and jumped right into shopping. my sweet friend, sarah, is pregnant and we are over the moon for their family! it was wonderful to shop with her because we would have to stop every little bit for a snack and to rest. it was an awesome pace! 

we had a delicious dinner at ruth's chris that night. SO.MUCH.FOOD. we then headed to the cheesecake factory to get dessert to-go. we then sat in the lobby of our hotel for the next 3 hours solving the world's problems and laughing, too! not much better when you can share your hearts one minute and then laugh so hard that it hurts the next.

after sleeping in until 9 (WHAT?!?!) the next morning, we headed to brunch on the recommendation of some friends. if you are in kansas city sometime, you MUST go to blue bird bistro. it was amazing! 

we then headed back to the plaza for more shopping. we couldn't find a parking spot for forever. after finding a narrow one, austin literally squeezed into it. the boys were pretty impressed with their directing/parking moves!

i was SO excited to go to the gap. i miss it so much! this was an amazing 2 story store that had everything that was online in the store. AND they were having a fabulous president's day sale! hooray for birthday money! we split from the boys soon after that for a couple of hours and then met back up for pizza at 4:30. i think one of my favorite things about the trip was the slow, leisurely paced meals we had. we would just sit and talk and take our time eating. that's not normal for us with our little friends :) finally at 6:00, we decided to start making our way home. the 2 hour trip flew by between serious talks, goofy talks, and showing each other pictures from our growing up days.  

this morning has been so weird. i woke up on my own, drank my HOT coffee, had a quiet time, unpacked, did a couple loads of laundry, unloaded the dishwasher, got dressed, went to chickfila for a free chicken biscuit, browsed target for over an hour...all by myself! i am rarely alone when out and about and NEVER alone in my house. that said, as refreshing and rejuvenating as this weekend has been, it's eerily quiet without my babies home. the noise and mess belong in my life for this season and i welcome it! i'm down to t-1 hour and it can't come soon enough :)

so thankful for the friendships that god has blessed us with all along our journey. thankful for friends that sharpen us and make us laugh and pray for us and go on trips with us. thankful for grandparents that will watch my kids so we can get away and be refreshed. thankful for the sunshine today. it's a good day!