For Christmas Kevin gave me one of my favorite gifts yet.  He arranged a "girls weekend" for me and my sweet friend Amy in Dallas.  Amy and her family (sniff) moved to Dallas (sniff) this past summer (sniff).  Caleb and Grant are great buds (sniff) and Amy is just a sweet, amazing friend (sniff, sniff).  I know I've mentioned it before, but we've had a rough go of it with friends moving away and now we are having a hard time feeling connected with our church and other families.  So when Amy, Ben and the boys came and we hit it off- well, it was like a breath of fresh air. 

Anyway, they moved this past summer and Kevin arranged with Amy to get me out there and give us a weekend to just relax and have fun.  I flew out on Friday morning and got in to Dallas in the afternoon.  Amy picked me up and took me to our hotel - the Gaylord Texan.  The idea is that we'd be able to relax away from our kids and our homes and we'd be able to do whatever we wanted.  I know, Kevin is the greatest.

Part of the hotel

 
Me and Amy after exploring the hotel and eating by the "river"

We spent the whole first afternoon/evening relaxing and talking in the hotel room, exploring the restaurants and shops in the hotel and eating at a restaurant next to the indoor "river."  It was unreal to be away from home and without responsibilities. 

On Saturday we went to the spa/salon and relaxed, then headed to one of the malls (uh, hello - "one of the" - very unlike Gainesville!).  We had lunch got a "makeover" at MAC and then just shopped until it was time to have dinner.  We walked through stores like Cartier, Tiffany, Valentino, Lush (need one of those!), Lily Pullitzer (sp?), anthropologie, Williams-Sonoma and others.  And Amy made me go into and try on things that I normally wouldn't.  I loved it!  Oh, and I totally bought myself a belt and buckle while I was there.  Hello!  I was in Texas for goodness sakes!  By the end of the night we were just beat.  We headed to Amy's so I could see their place and then we drove back to the hotel to crash.

Sunday was just relaxing at the spa again.  We didn't have a lot of time before I had to get to the airport (little did I know I'd be sitting on the tarmac for almost 6 hours).

All in all, it was such a wonderful weekend.  I am so thankful to my husband for not just arranging and paying for it, but mainly for thinking of it and understanding what a huge blessing it would be to me, and Amy too!  I love time away with Kevin but there was also something special about time away with a good friend.

Kevin sent me flowers, too!

 
Overlooking Grapevine Lake.  Our original room had a view of, well, a wall.  When I mentioned it, the bellhop arranged for us to move up to the top floor to get a better view!

Gotta love Texas!

In the hotel.  This sweet Harley rider took this for us.  There was a convention there that weekend!