Early Anniversary Celebration

Gotta love the windblown look! And I just realized Tim's eyes are closed! Oh well...

Tim and I will celebrate our 6th anniversary on May 24th. My parents wanted to watch the kids for us overnight so we could get away to celebrate and, after coordinating schedules, landed on this past weekend as the best time to do it. We arrived at my parents' house Friday night and Saturday morning at 8:30 Tim and I were on the road to Birch Run (can you tell we were anxious to get away - 8:30 is fairly early for us to be showered, fed and ready to go on a Saturday morning!)

I know that there are some women who do not like shopping with their husbands. I love it. Tim loves it, too. Well, we like it when we don't have our kids with us. I value his opinion because it's always honest and I want him to like the clothes I wear. I also like that he wants my opinion on what he picks out. So we shopped until we dropped (almost literally) at the Birch Run outlets and did we pick a great day to go! We had a list of things we were looking for and had set aside some tax refund money. I don't have many clothes. It sounds like an exaggeration, but it's not. There are clothes I keep around because "maybe I'll fit into them someday" but Tim is finally convincing me to cut them loose. After all, since having kids, the hips are a bit wider and there are some love handles that are refusing to leave despite my exercising. Even if I could put them on all the way, they probably wouldn't fit the same anymore. I'm also not used to buying clothes for myself. I look and admire all the time, but clothes for the kids always comes first. Tim had other ideas this weekend and I felt like a queen with my new tops, swimsuit and sunhat. I really wanted to find some more classic style tops, too, not trendy so that I can wear them for years to come (hopefully.) We found some pants, jeans, shorts and shirts for Tim, winter pajamas for the kids (for next year), sheets for our bed, bathrobes, and a pair of shoes for me. We tallied everything up last night and found out we had bought $880 worth of items for less than $300. Our favorite deals were:
*2 brown cozy bathrobes from Restoration Hardware - each retailed for $79 and we got them for 90% off - making them $7.90 each. We have been looking for bathrobes since our bathroom is downstairs and our bedroom is upstairs and you have to walk by windows to get from one to the other. I don't like getting dressed in the bathroom when it's all steamy and sticky so I have been running through the house in my towel while praying no one is walking by.
*Bedsheets from Pottery Barn - retail $119 and we got them for $34. They are the high thread count, which we've never been able to afford, and I can't wait to sleep on them tonight after they're washed.
*Banana Republic - We spent $60 and saved over $200. Tim got 2 sweaters and a long sleeve shirt and I got 3 tops.

We took a break halfway through and had lunch at a place called Exit Restaurant. It reminded us of a truck stop where the food is good and greasy and they serve breakfast stuff all day. Yum. I love placemats with word scrambles.

After Birch Run we headed over to Frankenmuth. We had dinner reservations at the Bavarian Inn for 6:00 so that we could have time to walk around and explore first but we were so exhausted from walking all morning and afternoon that we only made it to a few stores. We then stopped in to the restaurant and asked if we could just eat early which worked out great! It was a delicious meal and huge! We took our leftovers back to the hotel and put it in their fridge. On the way home yesterday we realized we forgot to get them back out and take them home. Bummer.
In the Edelweiss dining room at the Bavarian Inn. That Bavarian Inn is quite the experience!

We stayed at a hotel in Saginaw and it had an indoor pool and outdoor pool that were connected. The pool was also heated. Tim and I swam for a long time outside which was a lot of fun. I can't say I've done that in the beginning of May in Michigan before!

Yesterday (Sunday) we drove down to the Trader Joe's in Farmington. We have wanted to go a Trader Joe's since first hearing about it from Matt and Jeana, who lived in California for a time (they're all over out there.) Jeana describes it as "the poor man's organic store" and I have been intrigued. I have also enjoyed just about everything that we've tried that friends have served us from the store. We loaded up on groceries for the entire month! Lots of meats and snacks and the best part is that everything is natural or organic. No preservatives or any of that junk. Some prices were comparable to Meijer, some cheaper, some more expensive. I realized that it definitely costs more than just my average shopping trip to Target and Meijer where I can coupon my way through BUT it's much cheaper than shopping at Whole Foods Market or Harvest Health or buying even organic items at Meijer. So I guess it balances out depending on what you're looking for.

Whew, that's a long post. We had a fantastic time together and are so thankful for the opportunity to get away just the two of us. We haven't done that in over a year. We have had two different times away from the kids since Ellie was born, but one was a weekend that we spent with friends and the other was for a wedding and so we were surrounded by family and wedding stuff all weekend. This was great for us to do to reconnect and enjoy just each other.