Kansas City Weekend

Last weekend found Mike and I, along with our good friends the Hahn's, in Kansas City to celebrate our anniversaries, five years for us and four for Brandon and Monica!  We left late Friday morning and with a quick pit stop in Des Moines, made it to the city with ease. 

We checked in to our hotel, called the Q, freshened up a bit from traveling and then went out to explore.  The evening found us having dinner at a really cool burger spot called Blanc Burgers + Bottles on the Plaza.  The atmosphere was very chic, the food was good, and the 100+ varieties of beer was cold!  After dinner we enjoyed stopping at some night spots as we made our way home! 

Our room @ the Q

Saturday was all planned out before we even left.  The girls would drop the guys off at 810 Sports Zone to secure a table to watch the Hawkeye game and the girls would get a little bit of shopping in before meeting back up with the boys to have lunch and spend a bit of our own time cheering on the Hawkeyes!  As you probably know, no matter how much cheering we would do the Hawks wouldn't bring home a victory.  Despite the football loss, the shopping was a success!

We made our way back to the hotel around 4:00 as Mike and I were scheduled to have a couple's hot stone massage, that we were so looking forward to.  We made our way to the spa and quickly discovered that the spa was no more than a closet in the basement, it didn't take me long to get totally freaked out, so we went upstairs to cancel our service.  It totally bummed me out, but one thing I really love in life is a good massage and I wasn't going to ruin that with a shady, backroom massage.  EEEK!!! 

Saturday night we had dinner reservations at Plaza III.  The restaurant had come highly recommended, so we wanted to be sure to check it out.  The food was amazing, so amazing that it was hard to stop eating and we were all miserable by the end of the dinner!

There was live entertainment in the lounge below the restaurant.  A gentleman by the name of Lonnie McFadden was performing, he is a regular in the lounge on Saturday nights.  Think of him as Sammy Davis Jr. meets Louis Armstrong, he was phenomenal!  Not only was he a gifted singer, he played a few instruments and at one point he slipped out of his regular shoes into tap shoes and danced!  He was so much fun to watch!

Lonnie McFadden - Amazing!

Sunday we loaded up the car with all the essentials needed for tailgating and headed to Arrowhead Stadium for the Chiefs vs. Broncos game!  As we pulled in you could feel the excitement in the air as the fans had their tents set up, grills going and sound systems pounding out music. 

Heading into Arrowhead!

The weather was absolutley gorgeous, it ended up being a 70 degree day and the fans were out in full force.  The stadium filled up quickly with thousands of fans waiting to see if their team would be victorious.  Before the game started we participated in a card stunt in honor of Veterans Day and experienced a B-52 Bomber fly over, which if you have never seen one, it is pretty amazing!

KC Super Fan!

Here come the Chiefs!

Unfortunately for the Kansas City fans, the Broncos took home the win, but for the four of us we weren't partial, just happy to be at a pro game, enjoying the beautiful weather! 

I should mention that while we were in Kansas City, my Mom and Terry came back from Oklahoma to spend some quality time with Lila.  They had lots and lots of fun together and they did a good job of keeping us updated as to what they were doing and making sure to send special messages from Lila throughout the weekend (sorry for the quality)...

We are already devising a plan for our anniversary trip next year...maybe somewhere tropical?!  We have so much fun on this weekend trip where we not only celebrate our each of us as a couple, but our friendships, too!

U and Me

Do you remember...that day five years ago?!  When we said I do, surrounded by the people who are most important in our lives?!  I remember, I do, and I always will! 

You are my best friend, my love, my other half.  Thank you for everything you are, for everything you make me and for the amazing father you are to Lila.  I look forward to all that the next five years has in store for us!

The ______ Lady!

This year for Halloween our Little Lady was a Pink Lady!  She could not have looked any cuter than she did!  I know that the costume choice wasn't the traditional Disney princess, but I figured if I get another year to help guide her costume choice I was going to take full advantage...I couldn't help myself!

Her costume fun started last Tuesday night when we went to Kindermusik.  The kids were welcome to wear their costumes to class!  There were lots of cute little ones there all curious to see what their friends had picked out to wear!

On Halloween night we weren't so sure if Lila would be up for trick-or-treating, but we got her candy bag all ready and off we went around the neighborhood to collect some goodies!  Mike's grandparents stopped by to see our little 50's sweetheart, so they helped Mike walk Lila around a little more while Mommy went back to the house to be sure to hand out candy to all the other little ghosts & goblins!

Eat your heart out, Rizzo!

Such a poser!

Trick-or-Treat!

She didn't last all that long out and about, but she came home with a few yummy treats in her bag and enjoyed handing out the candy with Daddy for the rest of the evening! 

Lila may have been a Pink Lady for Halloween, but I was one Spoiled Lady for my birthday!  On Saturday, the 29th, my girlfriends picked me up and treated me to an amazing day at the spa!  They had lunch brought in and we all had massages.  It was truly wonderful!  We snuggled up on the furniture in the relaxation room, all got pampered and got caught up on some gossip!

Blindfolded on my way to the spa!

After our afternoon at the spa we all went back home and got cleaned up and ready to go out for the night!  Racquel had agreed to drive the "bus" around for the night considering she is preggers and was up for being the responsible party for the evening!  We dropped Lila off at Grandpa & Laura's and off we went!

Our chariot!

Lila playing Barbies with Carson and Carly

We had decided to have dinner in Mount Vernon at Lincoln Cafe.  Our first stop before heading to dinner was the Lincoln Wine Bar to pick up a few provisions for dinner!  We settled on a few bottles of wine and had a cooler packed with beer.

At the wine bar

'Food is Important' is their slogan - boy are they right!

There wasn' t a single detail forgotten, they even got me a delicious cake to celebrate my milestone birthday!

After dinner it was back to Cedar Rapids to enjoy a night out.  Considering it was Halloween weekend the bars were full of people in costumes!  In fact, we were definitely out numbered!  Taylor even made friends with a guy in a chicken suit!

We had so much fun that by the end of the night the pictures ended up looking like this!

All of the material gifts I received for my birthday were absolutley wonderful, but there truly isn't a better gift than the love I receive from my husband, my family and my friends. All of them made sure that I had a birthday for the memory books!  I am one LUCKY Lady!