you should see the pictures!

This first picture is John and I at the Ogden Temple. It was our first stop on a little weekend getaway we were taking. My mom and dad came over for a few hours before our volunteer babysitter showed up. My wonderful niece Andrea offered to babysit over night for us and you'd better believe we wouldn't pass up on that offer! So, John and I decided not to make too many plans for our weekend, except that it would include a trip to the temple. We were SURE to take a picture because it will be undergoing major structural changes in the next year.

Oh, here we are at Red Robin. We got some gift certificates for Christmas to this burger joint so we went all out. We had great service but the people on either side of us had terrible service. Drama, drama, drama. You can kind of see that lady on my left...she was so funny. "Dustin," she would call, "I need more water!" "Dustin...bring me some more fries." "Dustin...fry sauce please!!!" Dustin was our waiter too.

I had a $10 coupon to JC Penney's burning a hole in my coupon organizer so we went over there in search of a watch band for John's watch. You can see from this close up that the band is in severe need of replacing. We didn't find one, but we did find this fabulous shiny red leather purse for you know who! I love it!

We didn't take any pictures at Kohl's but want to take a moment here to praise their customer service! I washed a pair of jeans we had purchased there and the leather label on them bled all over the jeans and Katie Anne's cutest little denim jumper. They returned the money on the pants and let me pick out a replacement jumper, even though the one I had was purchased many moons ago at Mervyn's. Thanks!

O.K. Next picture...(isn't that a great shot!). This is our hotel. When we bought our carpet there was a promotion giving away free hotel nights so we used it. We were given our keys with the words ELITE emblazened across the top. Wow. ELITE must mean: give the worst room to the guests staying for free. It was clean and all, but there was a nice loud whirr/vibration that shook the room all night. I was so mad that I forgot my ambien. Lesson learned.

Isn't John just so cute in the mornings? I packed our breakfast (the nicer the hotel, the less free the breakfast is!) of bagels and cream cheese, oj, and applesauce cups. John wasn't feeling too great so we hung out and played 'hand and foot' at which I let him win, on account of him being a bit under the weather. I'm such a good wife.

We finally got out of there. This picture collage shows us at the Gateway. We shopped a little, tried to see a movie but were too late for some, too early for others, and finally had lunch at Z Tejas. (Sorry about all that cheese dripping out of my mouth in the center picture...my steak burrito was just too good!!!).

We ran a few more errands and decided to head home in time for dinner. We came home to this welcome: (thanks for taking the pic Andrea!). Aren't their little faces just lit up to see us walk in the door? It's worth the hugs for sure.

Here are the kids all hugging Andrea and thanking her for such a great time. She's a trooper to take this all on! I'm glad she remembered how to change a diaper...it's been a while for her. So, that's our photo journey of our weekend away. Thanks John! It was fun to be a couple again!

***Just in case you're confused...I totally took the camera with the intention of documenting our weekend...but it was too nice to not worry about it! These are the captions of the pictures I see in my head :))