Thursday, July 25, 2013

Reconnecting as "Us"

Kevin and I decided to have an "Us" weekend this past weekend.  On Friday night, I took the girls to Grandma and Grandpa's.  Kendall didn't take well to me leaving, but I think it was because she had a bit of a belly ache.  Although I missed the girls like you wouldn't believe, we had an absolute blast.  It was nice to be able to re-connect as Kevin and Marion, and realize that we're not just "Mommy and Daddy".

We started out the day on Saturday by getting up later (ha - 7:30ish) and just relaxed in bed until 8 or so.  Then we just had a leisurely morning, drank coffee and watched the Today show, and got ready to go over to Easton Towne Center (a huge outdoor shopping area in Columbus).  The weather was pretty dicey all day, but it didn't sound like it was going to be a complete washout, so we took our chances.  We walked around for a bit, and as we were ready to leave Gymboree to get some lunch, the sky completely opened up.   We managed to dodge the rain and got over to a place called "The World of Beer".  Kevin loves trying different kinds of beers, craft beer, etc so this was right up his ally.  I'm very much a "Bud Light girl", but I am open to trying different things.  We sat there, had a few beers and some lunch, and by the time we left, it was sunny out again!


After making a few more stops and running into an old college roommate, we hopped back into the car and headed downtown.  We had reservations at the Renaissance.  What a great hotel.  Kevin put on his salesman charm and tried to get us a nicer room, but they were completely booked.  Instead we just made friends with the front desk people and had them cracking up.  After we dropped our stuff off in the room, we decided to check out the pool area.  It was a really nice setup.  The pool was actually kind of cold.  It was cloudy and cool after the rain we had gotten, so we decided to go in the hot tub.  It was really neat being in a hot tub in the middle of Downtown Columbus.

After hanging out there for a while, we decided to head up to get ready and go out to dinner.  When I was drying my hair Kevin offered to go down to the bar to get us a drink while we were finishing up getting ready.  Minutes before he left, there was a knock at the door.  He opened it and a hotel staffer was standing there with a bottle of champagne sent up from the front desk.  Guess it pays to be nice and joke with the staff!  I was floored.  After that, we will definitely be returning!


Our view
We enjoyed a good portion of the champagne in the room, and still decided to head down to the bar before dinner.  We chatted with the bartender and one of the hotel guests about rum.  Kevin even scored a free drink out of the discussion.

We had reservations at a place called Sushi Rock in the Short North area of downtown.  Kevin and I LOVE sushi.  We don't get it very often anymore since having the girls (since most sushi restaurants don't cater to the crayon requiring clientele.)  Now it may be that I haven't had good sushi very often, but it was AMAZING.  We started with edemame (huge portion), and then ordered some yellowtail and tuna sashimi and three rolls.  Two of them were baked rolls, and they were TO DIE FOR.  It was so so good.  I have been craving sushi ever since we left!

After dinner.  Bad cell pic, but cute :)
After dinner we headed to a few bars.  One of them was a "Cantina".  We sat outside and enjoyed a beer.  Very chill type place.  Very us.  After a beer there,  we headed to a Piano Bar near the hockey arena.  It was crowded with bachelorette parties and just very little room to move.  We got down to the bar, got two beers (draft beers in plastic cups) and were kind of shoved into a corner.  We looked at each other after about five minutes (and two sips of beer) and were like "I'm not feeling it".  When we were 22, maybe...but in our mid-30s, meh.  It may have been a bit better if we could have actually seen the piano guys, but they were hard to see and even harder to hear.  We dumped our beers and decided just to head back to the hotel bar for a nightcap.

In front of Nationwide Arena

Waking up the next morning was a little tough, but luckily we ordered breakfast to be delivered the night before.  The eggs and toast we got were perfect and made us feel a bit more human!

We left the hotel at about 10:30, and headed home.  Kevin went to pick the dogs up, and my parents got back with the girls between 2:30 and 3.  I was so happy to see them.  As much as I had a blast, being away for two nights is not easy.  But don't get me wrong, we are going to do this again very soon.  It was great to be able to get away and just be us again.  If only for one night!

My parents and the girls had some fun too:

Pic with Grandma

And Grandpa

Kylie on the Carousel!  She was so proud of herself

Swing!


Swings with Grandpa

Hanging our with Toby the Bear


Grandma teaching them how to kick!

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