5 Year Anniversary

John and I hit a big milestone this December 15th.  We arrived at our 5 year anniversary!  In the words/text of my sweet and loving sister on our special day "Congratulations!  And I thought it wouldn't last this long.  Guess I lost that bet!"  (Guess you'd have to understand my lovely family).  It gave me a chuckle.  I was definitely excited for our anniversary but mostly excited for our celebration of said anniversary.  

A WEEKEND AWAY IN ST. LOUIS WITHOUT KIDS!!

I feel the need to give a special and grateful shout out to Grandma Bell in helping us in this endeavor.  The idea came to me a few months before our big day and I decided to shelve my dreams of flying somewhere exotic to celebrate, and settled for a weekend in St. Louis (where we got married) which ended up being nicer on our tighter budget.  We will save the exotic destinations for our 10 year I suppose.  But really, anywhere without kids (that lasts longer than one evening) is ALWAYS exotic and exciting and relaxing.  

My lovely mother was actually excited about playing with the kiddos for 2 1/2 days while we were gone.  She'd ask me often how much longer before she could spoil them rotten.  It worked out well that her house was right on our way to St. Louis and made for a good stopping point before pushing off on our travels.  

We drove down that Thursday evening to Willard (my Mom's house) and stayed the night and played with Grandma.  I thought it'd be a good way to get the kids acclimated before we just left them high and dry the next morning.  They didn't seem to need much acclimation.  I don't think either of them even shed a tear when we left.  Ah, nice....we are loved.  (Note sarcasm).  Of course, I wasn't shedding any tears of my own either folks.  Sayonara!!  ;-)  The drive up to St. Louis went amazingly fast.  John and I were actually able to carry on a conversation without interruption.  It was bliss.  Part of our tentative plans included stopping at a few Triple D restaurants while we were in a big city.  Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dive's is one of our favorite shows on the Food Network.  One we actually both enjoying watching together.  And we dream of the day we can retire and drive an RV around the US and visit all the fun and delicious restaurants.  Have I mentioned how grateful I am that we have the same lifelong dreams?  It's true.  But, until we retire, we've resorted to just looking up a few restaurants here and there before we travel to the big cities.  We weren't expected to get into St. Louis until about 2:00 so we decided it'd be best to save our appetites and skip the lunch hour and just keep on driving.  Yep, we are crazy folks.  So, thanks to our lovely GPS (Rhonda) we arrived at our first restaurant destination "The Shaved Duck".  The name didn't sound very appetizing but we knew that restaurants showcased on Triple D HAD to be good and had to be homemade and reasonably priced so we pushed through it.  And also pushed through a pretty interesting and random drive in a St. Louis suburb.  Let's just say we NEVER would have found it on our own.  And lets also just say that we would have DEFINITELY missed out on a De.Lish.Us. meal.  It was heavenly.  Mostly the part where I didn't have to immediately start cutting it up into bite size pieces and putting it in childrens mouths.  It's the little things you enjoy on trips like these....or maybe that's just me?

We finally found it!  Right before it closed for lunch...phew!

The food was delicious!  Ever have one of those meals where you can't decide what to take a bite of next because it's all so good?  Yeah, this was that.

John and his meal.  We both had the pulled pork sandwich.  I had the french fries (REAL!), he had some jalapeno creamed corn (which he ate the fastest), and we shared the divine Mac N Cheese.  Heck, we shared all of everything.  We couldn't decide what was the best tasting.  Such GOOD food and such GOOD service.  And this meal was easily cheaper than anything at a Chili's or Applebee's!

After that heavenly meal, we were STUFFED.  We rolled ourselves into our hotel for the weekend....which was the same hotel we stayed at when we got married.  Yeah, that was my creative idea.  Which could have probably been to blame for our later circumstances....keep reading for those details.  

I also had the ingenious idea to let the hotel know it was our 5 year anniversary.  To which they quickly responded, oh we will take care of you......which platter of treats would you like?  I didn't really let them get through all the options after I heard him say "Chocolate Covered Strawberries".  Check!  Oh and they even let us substitute the wine for some sparkling grape juice.  So kind.  ;-)

After we took a LONG nap, we dined on our treats, and then headed out to the local theater to see the movie Lincoln.  The theater happened to be in one of the nicest malls I've seen in a long time.  I don't think I'd be shopping at ANY of those stores anytime soon.  Chanel, Gucci, and a whole bunch of other names I've only heard about.  The theater was wayyyy tiny but nice.  The popcorn was fresh and delicious, and the crowd was pleasant.  And what a crowd it was.  We were surrounded by grey-hairs.  They were friendly grey-hairs but they were grey.  By judging from our surroundings, I'm guessing the nearest neighborhood was only affordable to those who had successful careers and financially lucrative and now retired.   There were a lot of luxury vehicles every where we looked.  Too stuffy for us in a normal setting but it worked well for our trip.  ;-)

I spent most of the movie, worrying about a particular/possible dilemma.  Since becoming pregnant this time around, I've dealt with plenty of yucky things in this first trimester.  One of those being....um....stopped up?  Needless to say, I was a bit panicked that my system would want to catch up with itself while I was sitting in a cramped theater in the smack dab middle of the row and tightly packed on both sides with the elderly folks.  The ones that are too kind (and too feeble) to just stand up and let me wedge/walk past them....the ones that insist on actually stepping out of the aisle and waiting for me to leave.  Thankfully, my system didn't choose this moment to catch up.  Which instead caused another problem of having me sick and achy for the duration of the movie.  It was a good movie but I was sooo glad to have it over and head to the hotel to sit by my uncomfortable self.

The next morning (Saturday) we slept in and then headed off to do a session at the temple...yep, the same one we were married in.  I figured what better way to celebrate our anniversary right?  Thankfully, it was a peaceful and non-emergency time for my stomach as well.  We were able to enjoy ourselves and the fact that we were in no rush to run anywhere.  

Next stop, the mall.  What were we thinking?  Everybody and their dog were there.  It was mass chaos.  Especially when it came to fighting over a parking space that we fully deserved but that the car behind us REFUSED to budge to let us back up the 2 inches it took to get into it.  Seriously, it was ridiculous.  Even after John politely got out and asked him in person, he gave us a half an inch and we took the rest.  ;-)  But we got it!

We ate some lunch in the mall and enjoyed it.  Perused around Barnes & Noble and found the kids their surprises.  Then we were already drained from the massive crowd so John went back to the car while I ran around to get a few extra things.  We were so happy to finally leave that parking lot madness.  

That evening, we were able to enjoy another Triple D restaurant - Anthonino's Taverna.  I had assumed it was a "fancy" restaurant and even tried to make early reservations.  Um, they didn't take them and it turns out it was just a pub, crowd yourselves in the chaos, type of place.  And it was also an hour wait.  I was more determined than John to sit it out and come back and eat there.  We weren't starving quite yet but there was absolutely nowhere to wait without freezing outside.  We decided to drive around and look at Christmas lights while we waited instead.

And of course, I was lucky enough to get to open John's anniversary present to me.  How sweet was he?  I was lame and didn't even get him anything.  He is always thoughtful in his gift giving and even reassured me that he didn't give me something to get something in return.  So, I graciously thanked him for my thoughtful charm bracelet gift (not the cheap kind!) that had so much sentimental meaning, and we continued to drive until dinner time.  Which actually went by way faster than either of us thought it would. 

Showing my gratitude for having such a sweet and thoughtful husband.

And back at Anthonino's Taverna before we knew it!

 Dinner was delicious and worth the wait although we both still loved The Shaved Duck more.  This place was more of a pizzeria style and well-known for their toasted ravioli.  They were handmade in-house and were definitely good!  I was very stuffed by the time my Chicken Fettucini came out (hand-made and also quite tasty) and John dined on more ravioli.  John had the idea to share the Christmas spirit and suggested we secretly buy someone's dinner in the restaurant.  I quickly agreed and he picked this Father & Son sitting right behind us.  However, we were lame and quickly changed our mind once we saw the waitress bring the wine to their table.  That stuff's expensive!  I'm all for being gracious as long as they are ordering off the dollar menu!  ;o)

We did eventually get to treat someone to their meal (at McDonald's lol) later that trip and it was hilarious.  We tried to do it anonymously but I ruined that when I turned around and looked at the car (drive-thru) through what I thought were our tinted windows.  Um, they weren't.  The guy waved his thank you and I felt so bad for being so "gracious....YOUR WELCOME???"  Oh well, guess we have yet to perfect that.

The trip went fantastically well, until Saturday evening.  I think the hotel and I are allergic to each other.  Seriously....Back Story: When we stayed on our wedding night, I showered and soaped myself up with soap I was apparently allergic to.  Either that or I was under some tremendous stress because I broke out in full body hives the next day which continued throughout our whole honeymoon.  Airplane to Utah, Sundance cabin, etc.  It was bad and painful and poor John was afraid to even touch me as to not inflame the hives and the painful itching everywhere.  It went away the DAY we left to go back home.  Lovely.

Fast forward to this hotel and our 5 year anniversary....and to the fact that my body was quite backed up for the past week plus.  Apparently, that can really do a number on you....as I was learning.  My stomach was incredibly achey and sick and I spent the rest of the night in the bathroom trying to encourage myself to do something....anything....turns out it only wanted to puke.  :(  Luckily, John was a saint and spent the rest of the evening fighting traffic, and finding Walmart and stocking up on every known medication that was safe for a pregnant woman to take to finally relieve herself.  I was willing to do just about anything to feel better.  

He finally made it back and I was able to take some Dulcolax.  I thought I'd start feeling better soon but I went from one end of the spectrum to the other.  I still spent all night in the bathroom but this time because I couldn't leave.  I tell you, it takes a special husband to see me in this state and STILL stay married to me.  It wasn't a pleasant sight.  I finally was able to get a couple of hours of sleep and spent most of the morning laying/moaning in bed and trying to talk myself up to enduring the 3 hour car ride home....where there was no bathroom just steps away.  :(  With some prayer and some coaxing, I finally left the hotel and survived the long drive back.  I spent 99% of the time focusing on my breathing, and the road, and mentally plotting out each nearby restroom just in case something were to happen.  Luckily it didn't and we arrived at Grandma Bell's house safe and sound.

The kids were VERY excited to see us and tell us about all the fun they had with Grandma.  They loved their books we bought them and they had so many fun stories to share with us.  I'm so glad they love their Grandma so much and that Grandma loves them enough (and us) to take them and raise them as her own for three long days.  

Even considering the tummy issues, I'm still so glad we had time to spend with each other and am SO grateful I'm married to my best friend.  As cheesy as it sounds it's true.  If I weren't married to John, I'd definitely just hang out with him.  He's a fun guy to be around.  Luckily I get both.  :D  I am blessed.