Weekend in Wichita

We had so much fun this weekend...but it went by WAY too fast! We spent the weekend at the Hilton Garden Inn Hotel in Wichita. There was a beautiful view out our window of a big pond with lots of ducks walking around on the ice and floating in the frigid water!
Friday night we ate dinner at Carrabba's Italian Grill. Where I tried calamari for the first time! I was surprised that I really liked it! Of course, it was fried...and there's not much that tastes bad when you fry it! The whole dinner was really good and we left there stuffed! After dinner we did a little shopping and then stopped by the grocery store. Since there was a microwave in our hotel room, we wanted to get some popcorn...and of course we needed ice cream too ;)

Saturday morning we ate a wonderful breakfast at the hotel before we headed out for some shopping. We even made a trip to Carmax to drive a Durango and an Explorer (we're not sure which one we'll end up going with...but we know that we won't be able to make it much longer using the truck). We were really impressed with our experience at Carmax. It was the best car shopping experience we've ever had!

For lunch we decided just to eat at the food court at Towne East Mall. We settled on Metro Grill and were sooo impressed!!! It's a stand set up in the middle of the food court with 2 guys working at it. The owner seems like he would fit in on the streets of downtown Boston. He would yell at people in line, "Talk to me!" and then they would holler their order to him. The sandwiches that we got were delicious! I've never eaten so good at a mall food court! I'd go there again just for the experience of eating at Metro Grill!!

After walking around the mall (and making a few purchases), we headed to the Warren Theatre to see The Bucket List. What a good movie! It made us laugh and it made us cry. I'd definitely recommend it!

Then it was back to the hotel to get dressed for dinner. I think it's fun to get dressed up to go out...and Mike always looks so hot!! We called ahead to Redrock Canyon Grill and were told to be there at 7:35. When we got there, we still had to wait 45 minutes...but that was better than 1 hr 45 min. that people just walking in the door had to wait! We found seats at the bar and the time passed quickly as we talked. I had salmon for dinner...the best salmon I've ever had!!! Boy was it good! The only bad thing about dinner stemmed from my desire to dress up! I had worn the same dress a few weeks earlier to church...with the same hose. Well...I think my belly has grown enough in just a few weeks that I can't wear hose anymore! They were digging into my belly making me pretty uncomfortable! It's a good think the food was so good and my date was so good looking or I may have just gone to the car and stripped them off! lol

Sunday morning (after eating another great breakfast), we enjoyed being lazy at the hotel and watching TLC (something we miss very much since we don't have cable)! We hung out at the hotel until check out time. As we were about to leave, we decided to take a walk around the pond. I'm so glad that we did! Not only did we discover a beautiful waterfall, there were also some cool shops on the other side of the pond! Here's a picture of Mike in front of the pond with our hotel behind him.

Here's one of the ducks Mike captured landing on the pond.
Staci in front of the waterfall.
I had been looking forward to eating Chicago style pizza all weekend. We were saving it for Sunday lunch in case we had leftovers and wanted to take them home. Well, as we walked around the shops by the pond we stopped in William Sonoma. Not only did we love everything in there...we also LOVED the guacamole dip they had sitting out to sample! As we left there, all we could think about was Mexican food!! So we decided to forgo the pizza in order to eat guacamole and fajitas at Abuelos.

I think that Mike and I both have a lot of working out to do in order to make up for all the food we ate this weekend...but it was definitely worth it! Those of you with kids now how hard it is to enjoy a good sit down meal when the little ones are with you! I guess we got a few months of sit down meals in this weekend!

It was so wonderful to spend time alone with Mike without the distractions of every day life. I didn't think it was possible to fall more in love with him...but this weekend I did! Thanks, Mike, for giving me such a memorable birthday weekend! I love you!