The Big 1-0

Last week, Matt and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary. It's still amazing to me that it's been 10 years since that special day. In many ways it seems like just yesterday we were in collage & dating. But, mostly, it feels like we've always been together and I can't remember what it felt like not to have Matt in my life.

Since we don't have any family in our part of the state, we'd decided to just wait and celebrate our anniversary a couple of weeks late during our August Marriage Builder Date Night.

And then, sometime things just fall into place so perfectly. The Friday before Matt was to start his new job, my Dad called and offered to keep the kids and give us some of his points to stay 2 nights at the Crowne Plaza in LR. Matt and I had just spent the morning cleaning the house & I'd actually managed to finish all the laundry. We didn't have anything planned for the weekend. It was still early enough on Friday to let us pack, get down there and still have time to enjoy the evening. So we did.

Within 2 hours of the offer, we were packed and headed to Little Rock! Can you tell we were excited??? We had a great car trip without any stops which is a rare occurance even though it's just a 3 hour trip. We arrived a little before dinner and unpacked the kids. We stayed and had some yummy BBQ with my mom & dad and got the kids settled before heading out. We've been dying to see the last Harry Potter movie and had pretty much given up hope of getting to see it in the theater, so we were psyched to get to spend Friday night at the movies. While we were waiting for the movie to start Matt & I were trying to remember the last movie we'd seen together -- we decided it was the previous Harry Potter which has been awhile. After Harry Potter we headed to the hotel. My parents had checked us in earlier that day and after making a quick room switch because the potty wouldn't flush (bad bad bad!) we settled in for the night. I think we slept an amazing 11 hours uninterrupted!!! We slept past breakfast so we got up the next morning and headed to one of our favorite spots for a quiet lunch.

Then we headed back to Mimi & Grandads to see the kids. Charlotte was ready for her nap and I was happy to rock her to sleep -- I'd missed my baby! Then we packed up Madeleine & Harrison and took them to the hotel to swim. This hotel has an indoor/outdoor pool with a "tunnel" you swim under to get from one side to the other. The crazy part is that I had a birthday party at this same hotel when I was little! We pretty much had the pool to ourselves and the kids swam for almost 2 hours.

** On a side note -- in all the crazy packing we'd forgotten our swimsuits (not the kids) so Matt got some new swimtrunks and I sat this one out and watched.

Matt under the "tunnel"

We packed the kids back up and headed back to Mimi & Grandads to drop them off so Matt & I could go out to a nice dinner. Just after we got back, the sprinklers came on and they had such a fun time playing in them -- fully clothed, of course!

Matt and I decided to try Copelands for dinner. We had the best meal and ate so much. :) We had a great waitress that recommended some yummy foods! About 1/2 way through the meal, Matt told me he knew our waitress and she played basketball for UALR and blah, blah, blah. (I'm not that big into sports so most of it went over my head). But then he told me that she was from Cabot and her family actually lived 2 houses down from us when we lived there. Crazy small world. So, the next time she came over he started talking to her and told her where we'd lived and that he had taught there and asked about what she was doing now. She was so excited that someone had recognized her! She autographed our bill and took really good care of us. :)

Apparently that was also National Cheesecake Day so the cheesecakes were buy one get one free so of course we had to get 2! We got a white chocolate raspberry and a hot fudge sundae cheesecake. Both were amazing! I'm now trying to talk Matt into going back there for our August Date Nite because I'm still dreaming about that cheesecake!

It was so fun to get dressed up and have a nice night out! After dinner we headed back to Mimi & Grandads to pick up the kids and bring them to the hotel for the night with us. As much as our kids love staying in hotels, it seemed unfair to stay 2 nights without them. We got back to the hotel and Matt & the kids went swimming again before a late bedtime. They were so tired! And it was an early morning with church the next day.

One of the most wonderful parts about the weekend was it just happened to be a weekend where my dad was preaching! Such a treat! I would love for Harrison to follow in his footsteps one day -- which is post entirely on it's own because he truly has the makings of a preacher. :)

After church, my mom cooked a yummy lunch and we had a long visit with Sugar & Uncle Stewart.

I think Grandad may have found himself a new friend. :) Charlotte sat in his lap and finished off all his mashed potatos!

It was such a wonderful, unexpected weekend! I'm so thankful to my parents for not only giving us the nights in the hotel, but for watching our little brood so we could have some time to ourselves. I'm such a worrier, so babysitters are rare at our house (i.e. never) and it's always such a treat to have a meal, or in this case meals, where Matt & I can eat and enjoy talking and taking our time. Alone time is precious when you have 3 kids! We needed this weekend probably more than we realized and again I'm so so thankful that my parents gave it to us!