old married couple

Okay maybe not old... but we did just celebrate our first anniversary! To celebrate, we took a little "get-away" weekend to the Plaza in Kansas City. We were blessed to be given a free hotel stay at a Marriott right on the Plaza (super thankful for dad's who have lots of points to give away)! 

Our hotel room just happened to be on the top (19th!) floor...we felt special...especially when you have to swipe your room key in the elevator in order to access the floor :) Anyways, we had a spectacular view and our floor also had a concierge's lounge where you go to get refreshments any time you want! Yes, we are SPOILED.

My Grandpa Van Curen just so happens to live in the KC area, and when he found out we were going to be in town, he insisted on taking Logan and I out to dinner! He said taking his granddaughter and her husband to dinner was on his bucket list. :) Friday evening we met up with my Grandpa and Grandma. They picked us up at our hotel and brought us to a wonderful restaurant called McCormick & Schmick's! We had never eaten there before...but it was SO nice! When we arrived, we were seated in a private dining area. This is what we saw when he handed us the menu!

The menu was specially made for us!

 Anyways, we had a fabulous dinner and a wonderful time catching up with family. We also got introduced to an amazing restaurant!! Thank you Grandpa and JD!

Grandpa, JD, me, and Logan at McCormick & Schmick's in Kansas City

Friday evening after dinner, we walked around the Plaza and even went exploring down town. KC is a hoppin' place on a Friday night! ;) Anyways, Saturday we slept in and then enjoyed a delicious meal at the cafe at our hotel. Then we decided to walk/shop the Plaza! We hit just about every store, haha. It was so fun!

We had Panera for lunch on Saturday. Logan has always given me a hard time about my Panera addiction, but after lunch Saturday he was hooked! He even asked if we could go back on Sunday for lunch. I was a pretty happy camper.

Our anniversary present to each other....total spurge...but then again they were having their annual 25% sale so it was basically a must ;)

After our morning at the Plaza we decided to hit up a couple of other KC attractions! We went to visit the Crown Center. We enjoyed the indoor shopping there and also toured the Hallmark Visitor Center. It sounds cheesy but it was actually really interesting! We saw them making the priceless cards that go out all over the world! We also got a few freebee's which is always fun :) We also ended up over at Union Station which is such a neat building! We truly enjoy just exploring new things.

They gave us a complimentary set of greeting cards (which I love)! So...if you receive one of these from me you'll know where it came from :)

The cute little bow that we got to take home after we watched it be made!

After our little afternoon excursion, we ended up back at the hotel to clean up for our nice anniversary dinner at The Cheesecake Factory! It's funny how meals become the highlights of vacations so easily. This meal was a highlight and rightly so! We went all out that night with appetizers, drinks, entrées, and of course....cheesecake. I think the only thing we actually ate all of was the cheesecake, haha. We tried our best to eat it all, and we even were sick later that night from practically gorging ourselves (I'm telling you, this food was AMAZING). Let's just say it's a good thing we only do The Cheesecake Factory on special occasions :)

I was so excited to be there!!!

Outside The Cheesecake Factory waiting for our table :)

Later that evening (after gaining a few pounds ;))

 

We ended our last night with some hot-tubbing and hanging out on the deck of the hotel. The next morning we (again) had an amazing breakfast at the hotel. We decided we wanted to steer clear of the heat that day, so we saw a movie instead. Yes, those tickets were really $4 a piece! Crazy! Oh and I have to mention that we felt incredibly guilty for going to see a movie because half of the theatre was rented out to a church so everyone around us was going to church while we watched a cartoon. Yep. We felt awful. Haha.

Anyways, in case you couldn't tell, we had a wonderful weekend away from our everyday routine, which is exactly what we wanted. Through our getaway I think we both realized how easy it is to underestimate the power of alone time in marriage. We had been so busy this summer with work, school, church, family, friends, etc... Don't get me wrong...all that has been really great. However, it's so important to have time to get away from the distractions and focus on each other for awhile. I honestly forgot how much I love my husband and saw some things in him that I don't get to see on a daily basis in our busy lives. Let's just say we didn't want to come back. But I guess that's what's so fun about vacations :)

As far as our actual anniversary day, it was Monday. We both had to work, but we did have a couple of hours together in the evening and we made this yummy recipe for Chick-fil-A chicken and sauce! A friend had recommended it to me, and it was SO yummy! I was nervous that it would totally fail at the "Chick-fil-A" expectations but the chicken and sauce both resembled Chick-fil-A's well! So next Sunday when you are sinking into depression over Chick-fil-A being closed...have no fear! This was super easy and a big hit! Very fun anniversary meal..again, it all centers around the food! :) Recipe below!

This was our chicken ;)

http://www.tablefortwoblog.com/2012/02/27/chick-fuh-lay-nuggets-sauce/#