No kids trip to Houston!

Well - we went on a trip and left our three kids behind.  And everyone survived.  Including our parents (both sets - we split the kids up!) survived!  We couldn't thank them enough for watching them.  Jimmy was in a wedding in Houston and we have known about this for a while now.  So we knew we would have a little baby and I was totally unsure if I would be ready to leave him.  But we booked the flights just in case.  And guess what?  While actually leaving him was terrible (like I cried)....it was SUCH a great get away.  An amazing break from life, work, kids and house chores!

We left on Thursday around 5PM and when we were waiting for our flight - we were both in shock that this was all we had.  After being used to traveling with 3 kids - you have so much STUFF.  So this was a piece of cake!

It was a quick flight to Houston and honestly, the ride in the Uber to the hotel might have taken longer.  Ok, not really but seriously Houston traffic is unreal!

We got to our hotel and were STARVING.  Jimmy's friend, Justin (the groom), recommended a sushi place close by.  So we walked there and then got a text from him that his brother in law to be had rented out a whole bar that was full of arcade games until 11PM.  We headed that way and I played a ton on PacMen and Mario Kart - while Jimmy played some Star Wars.  It was fun to meet his bride to be (even though I felt like I knew her after following her on Facebook for so many years) and their family that had come into town!

When we were on the way to our flight in KC, I sent a text to my college friend, Amy, who lives in a suburb outside of Houston to see what she was up to on Friday.  We had nothing to do and I really wanted to see her.  Much to my surprise, she already had a girl's day planned with her mom to go to the Nutcracker Market in Houston on Friday!!!  Her friend had given her tickets to use and she got one more for me - SO FUN!!  I couldn't believe we would get a whole day to just hang out with each other and her mom SHOPPING!  The tickets were early access, so she was picking me up at 8AM, so Jimmy and I were up and went to enjoy the hotel breakfast.  Which was amazing.  And made me want my own personal chef.  Yes please.

Ok, this Nutcracker Market thing is INTENSE and all about strategy, apparently.  I have never been to Holiday Market, similar to this, in KC, but now I'm for sure going!!!  It was super fun - and this place Claudia Ornament was the top recommendation by her friend.  They have personalized ornaments and people wait HOURS in line to get them.  We were there at 9 (along with 100s of other women!), got in and went straight there and got in line.  And we still waited TWO hours.  So we had to of course document the three of us when we finally were getting closer.

So funny because in the beginning, we were both like, ahhh we will just get one ornament.  Well, after waiting two hours in line, I was like ALL the ornaments.  Haha.  Over $100 later - but I got some pretty adorable personalized ornaments and few gifts knocked off my list! 

Check out this one I got of our family!

After we left the market (and Amy got an AMAZING mink shall thing - seriously!), we headed back to her friend's house and we got a tour.  Her house was AMAZING.  And even better, she had super curly hair.  Anyone who has curly hair and rocks it so well, I always ask what their routine and products that they use are.  She uses Deva Curl and she even let me take a picture so I could remember.  After we got home on Sunday, I went to Beauty Brands and spent a pretty penny there and so began my mission to embrace my curls #siderant

Ok so when I got back to the hotel, it was late afternoon and almost time for the rehearsal.  Jimmy said I didn't have to come to the rehearsal, so I got in a work out, a quick snack and a shower.  I'm not going to lie, it was quite amazing being in the hotel room by myself getting an uninterrupted workout + shower in!!

I had to find a random shuttle + the other people going to the rehearsal dinner at the hotel I didn't know (which meant I asked about 3 different groups of people until I found some!), but we made it to a delicious Mexican restaurant, where we celebrated the bride and groom.  They serve filet as their steak fajitas and boy was it good!

The groom had a friend taking pictures at the rehearsal and dinner - and look at this picture he shot of Jimmy and I!  A nice little candid.  Two things: WOW the quality! Makes me want to use my nice camera more and I love that he caught us like this.  Always trying to hit on me :)

That next morning, I woke up to the magic of social media.  I had posted the above picture on IG the night before and said we were in Houston.  A friend from high school, who used to live in Houston, made a breakfast suggestion!  And when I looked it up - it was close enough for a short Uber ride!  So we went to Baby Barnaby's!  And it was DELICIOUS!!!  It was a small little house turned restaurant and we loved it.  We are totally breakfast people - thank you, Molly, for the suggestion!!!

After breakfast, we had the morning ahead of us.  Nothing to do.  It was a weird feeling!!!  After having three kids to constantly take care of, I am not going to lie, it was kind of nice!  I missed them, but then going to the bathroom in silence was also nice too.

I got another work out in (I'm holding accountable to my challenge group!!), while Jimmy laid and watched some football.  Sounds like a perfect afternoon.

Then Jimmy left to head off with Justin and the other groomsman to get ready.  I showered and then walked to some nearby shopping.  The Galleria was close, but it was CRAZY and I actually had some stuff I needed to return to Old Navy and that was closer.  So I walked there and got a necklace for the evening (to go with my new dress!) and some new jeans.  

The girl, Melissa, that Jimmy was walking down the aisle with and we met last night had her husband and brother in town as well and they had nothing to do either, since Melissa was with the bride all day.  They had called my hotel room earlier to get my cell phone number so I told them I would meet them at a bar after I was done shopping.  When I showed up, I was welcomed by them and Andre  Aka the man from the Hangover, with better rugby shorts - haha!

He provided us with lots of entertainment in the afternoon and I might have had one too many beers to get the night started.  Then we had to head back to the hotel via hotel shuttle and get ready for the night!

The wedding and reception were at a very fancy country club in Houston called River Oaks (per our Uber driver the first night, he was like very impressed it was there!).  It was so nice and the bride and groom had a combined Jewish and Christian ceremony.  It was fun to see those religions come together for the ceremony and I'm excited for Justin and Cortni!

After a somewhat quick ceremony, got to see this handsome devil walk down the aisle.  He sure cleans up nice, right?

While I was off having too much fun taking selfies with Mike and Jeff (Melissa's husband and brother)!

Did I mention this was a black tie/fancy wedding!?!?  It was!  And I took advantage and got myself a long fancy dress.  It was Ralph Lauren and beautiful and made me feel super fancy.  Did I mention it cost $17!???!?!  Haha.  Oh yes.  My mom suggested that I go to this place called Half of Half in KC, which is right by my work.  Nothing like last minute shopping - but I rushed there on Wednesday over lunch and found this dress!  It was awesome quality and Ralph Lauren and marked down to $50.  I was so excited!  And even more when I got up to the register ---- and apparently it had been additionally marked down because I literally paid $17 for it!  I'm guessing I had the least expensive dress on at the whole wedding!  But you couldn't tell (my necklace I bought was $17 too! ha!)

My date.  We were having too much fun.  And people were quite frightened (ok maybe shocked), when they asked if we had kids and we said we had three.  Ha.  That's just how we roll, right?

Evidence of a fancy wedding and mom and dad having too much fun.

I spared you with the dancing videos and snap chats that Jimmy took of me.  Let's just say the band was amazing, the bartender was awesome and was feeding me Corona's all night (I'm so fancy, right?).  I had to pump once, but other than that, I felt like I was 23.  Besides the fact that when we had to get up the next morning at 5:30 and head to the airport for our 8AM flight.  GRRR.

We landed in KC and this is how we felt.

And then I felt even better taking care of my sweet babies (who I was very excited to see...and were all very good when we were gone - BONUS!).  You can tell from this selfie.

But this picture takes the cake.  Haha.  I love all of their expressions in this.  #roughSunday

We had so much fun on our short getaway.  And while the weather was much cooler in KC when we landed, I had to remind Jimmy of this:

Overall, I dont' think I realized how much Jimmy and I needed a short get away.  It was the perfect amount of time away with just the two of us!!!  I took off Monday to get caught up with laundry, house stuff and had to take my car in.  I kept Mikey home with me and let him nurse whenever he wanted so he didn't "hate" me for leaving him at such a young age.  haha.  Good news is - he was so adorable and forgiving and loved me just the same.

Cheers to adult only getaways!!!  I had a blast but was so happy to come home to our babies.  Jimmy even did Christmas decorating on Sunday night, which I sat and watched.  Ha.