Come Away with Me

So after soccer on Saturday, we headed out to the backyard to play around with the ball a little more. Easton was looking for some more soccer fun so it's not like we were like, "C'mon, dude...you need to practice". However, he quickly got tired of it and went back inside all huffy and such. Daddy and I decided to kick the ball around a little to show E how much fun we were having, but I was wearing flip flops and--like a dork--kicked the ball with my big toe and totally injured myself.

My toenail broke all jaggedy-like and way down low...oh man. It wasn't pretty. Bleeding...hurting...all that. I wasn't sure when I'd be able to wear shoes again so I was having to think about nixing certain Father's Day plans the next day. Oh well.

The boys went down for their quiet time and I needed to run a few Father's Day errands but when Jason proposed we finish our movie (Blood Diamond) I opted for that instead and I'd finish my Father's Day prep a little later.

Sometime during the movie someone knocked at the door and totally joking I said, "Is it my mom?" but I looked out the window and it was my mom!!! Jason said, "Surprise! We're going away for the night! Happy anniversary!"

I had absolutely no idea. I mean, gosh, we had all those lovely surprises to celebrate back on Wednesday. Granted I knew we'd be doing things that day, just didn't know what. But, I thought we were all anniversaried out. I had no idea J had more up his sleeve...and had for awhile! Those sneaky little planners...my mom and Jason. Even once the getaway plans were out in the open hindsight still revealed nothing of his secret plans. The only thing was that when I said, "Oooh, I've gotta throw dinner in the Crock Pot". J groaned that he didn't want Mexican...maybe we could go out instead. Not one to ask questions once dinner out comes up I put the Crock Pot away quickly and forgot about it.

Apparently Jason had been walking around with his phone on silent for the past 3 days just in case my mom or the hotel or anyone called. He didn't want anything or anyone to tip me off.

I was seriously caught off guard. I'm a planner, but somehow I still love surprises. And this was perfect. My only concerns were how I was going to make Father's Day special for J since we'd be gone (and away from the people that make him a father) for part of the day.

We had yet to leave my nursing baby overnight just yet, but I never mentioned on the blog that on Thursday night my mom came up to stay overnight to tend to Dalton. Just so I could sleep. Isn't she the best? That night I put in earplugs and took a melatonin and she got up with Dalton both times in the night. It was so nice. It was also very reassuring because I knew Dalton would do fine without me once again.

So we packed up a few things, we were just heading downtown for the night. We said goodbye to Easton and thought it would be best not to bother Dalton during his napping. Jason transferred the carseats to Moo's car and we were outta there.

J planned for us to take the Light Rail train again...parking downtown is never cheap or easy, and even to park in the hotel garage usually costs some $$. Plus the Light Rail is fun. So we drove to a Park & Ride and left the car, hopped on the train, and rode the few stops to our downtown location: The Hyatt Regency at the Colorado Convention Center. I even made J pose like a dork as we walked up to the hotel:


We went to check in and scope out the room:




Our view, this took me all of 2 minutes to put the 5 pictures together, so it's not exact or all that good. I didn't think that many of you would care enough about our view. You can see mountains, Invesco (Broncos), Elitch's, Pepsi Center (Avalanche and Nuggets), and various buildings. We were on the 26th of maybe 33 floors or so:
(You can click it if perhaps you did want a bigger view)


Neither of us had eaten lunch though so we were starving and headed out pretty quicky to the Bubba Gump's across the street for drinks and an appetizer. I got my favorite from our Hawaii trip: a Lava Flow. Mmmm...that is our hotel you see directly behind me.
2008:


2004:


And Jason, on Saturday:


And four years ago:


With some food in our previously growling bellies we were able to focus on the tasks at hand...how to enjoy our kidless-selves that evening. Jason had printed out the movie schedule of the theater nearby and told me who was playing at the comedy club but we didn't know who he was and didn't want to pay what they were asking for tickets for someone we didn't know. Instead I suggested the Improv club. However, we weren't sure if it was still there, they didn't have free WiFi in the rooms and no phone books either. The front desk said they'd send one up. We waited and waited and nothing so we went downstairs to borrow one there. Indeed, the improv club was still there and we also made ourselves a dinner reservation. We thought a nice steak house would be good.

Since we didn't have much else to do we decided to wander back out for some pre-dinner drinks. We ended up back at the site of our very first date: Wynkoop Brewing Company. We each had a beer and reminsced a bit and I wondered if people thought we were married or just dating or what. The improv club is in the same building as Wynkoop so we wandered down to check out ticket prices and such and read this, "Appropriate for all ages and groups." Translation: too tame for our corrupt senses of humor. So we opted out, not sure what we'd do after dinner instead.

We then walked over to where we were having dinner: The Denver ChopHouse. The ChopHouse is where you go when you want to see local celebrities like the athletes or famous people coming through town. My ex-husband used to wait tables there (until he got fired for sexual harassment) but he met and waited on so very many famous people. And the steaks are good too and you can wear your shorts to eat there if you want. And we wanted.

Somehow I opted for chicken at the steak house but whatever. Jason chose the surf and turf listed at "Market Price" like lobster usually is. It ended up being $54!!! We had dinner and wine and it was great. We called to check in at home and talked to Easton briefly. But it was enough to know that everyone was doing just fine. It allowed us to relax and enjoy ourselves even more to know that my mom and Lauren were continuing to do so well with our boys.

We snapped a picture of ourselves after dinner.

The ChopHouse is to the left (our right) and Coors Field (where the Rockies play) is just above my head in the right side of the picture. We strolled back towards 16th Street so we could catch the free Mall Ride back to our hotel area. Union Station was on our way...Jason was probably tired of me making us pose so he opted for this face to change things up:


What to do with the rest of our evening, though? We didn't really want to see any of the movies that were playing so I suggested bowling at Lucky Strike. We had to stop to buy me some socks and then go back to the room for Jason's socks and my bandaids for my busted toe. While I was in the bathroom Jason called out, "Did you go to Daveco liquors yesterday?" And since it was part of his Father's Day I was like, "How in the heck did you know?" and he said I gave him the receipt from it as some scratch paper when we found the phone book. Oops. Happy Father's Day! He felt bad but being optimisitc said, "Just think...I just gave you an extra paragraph of material for your blog!" :)

Lucky Strike is not your ordinary bowling alley. It's one of the trendy places. The waitresses wear trashy black pleated mini skirts with knee-high black boots. They have a cool bar/lounge area, they play loud music, it's dark with dance club lights. It's expensive and popular. So popular that we had to wait "45 minutes to an hour" for our lane. That was okay. We sat on one of their giant lounge couches and had some more drinks. I wanted to try something I'd never had before. Jason suggested a Manhattan. The waitress raised her eyebrows at me and when she brought the drink she was like, "If you don't like it I'll make you something else. Manhattans are pretty hard core." But I liked it fine. I guess I'm hard core. Go me! We took more pictures of ourselves while we waited:


Finally it was our turn to bowl:



I was sad that I didn't have my own bowling ball with me (I really do own one). We had a very nice time bowling our two games. They even have couches for you to sit on when it's not your turn to bowl. And fun animations when you get strikes, or gutter balls...


We left Lucky Strike and went in search of dessert. I paused to take a picture of my stylish bandaid toe:


We ended up at the Cheesecake Factory. I was craving their coconut macaroon cheesecake because it tastes like Samoas Girl Scout Cookies. Sort of. So we got that and some Mojitos. And an ice water to go. We were heading back to the hotel and didn't want to pay for their $6 bottled water.

It wasn't long before we collapsed into our big bed and went to sleep. At about 2 a.m. I woke up and thought I was still at the bowling alley and I'd better hurry back to Jason and the hotel. Reality set in and I realized my hubbs was right next to me already and I went back to sleep.

Without the kids I liked to think that we'd sleep in all morning. But we didn't. At 7:20 I was up and rested. What the heck? At about 7:40 Jason also declared he was "done". We couldn't sleep anymore. How sad. But it really makes a difference when you're able to sleep straight through versus getting up with a little one, right?

We picked out some breakfast from their room service menu and picked out a movie from their In Room Viewing: Dan in Real Life.

Somehow it was Father's Day yet I was getting breakfast in bed too:

Not complaining about that. No sir.

I showered and we got ready after our movie. I had to pose in the window when I realized the shirt I was wearing was the same shirt I wore on our first kid-free getaway back when Easton was only 20 months old and D was still in my belly...
In 2006:


And Sunday morning:


I would've liked to have done the exact same pose but this window ledge was a lot narrower. :)

After that we went to check out and to make our way back to the Light Rail stop. Here we are waiting for the train after a fab surprise (for me!) getaway:


We were anxious to get back to our boys for Father's Day.

Thank you so much to both my Loms and my mom (and Lauren!) for working together to plan such a fantastic surprise for me.