This past weekend was the best weekend of my life so far - it was absolutely amazing!!! My incredibly sweet and romantic husband secretly planned a weekend getaway for the two of us - totally without my knowing about it! He came home from work on Friday, told me to pack a bag and then we took the kids to his parent's house for the weekend. He then wisked me off to a weekend in Dallas at one of the nicest hotels I have ever set foot in! We stayed at the Joule - a very modern and beautiful place. One thing that I'll never forget about this place was the fragrance that you smell when you set foot in the door. I'm not exactly sure what it was and how they got it to smell so good, but it was wonderful! We started the weekend off with a candlelit dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Charlie Palmer's. It was super yummy - and Brad treated me to one of the most delicious (and expensive) glasses of wine that I've ever had. Once you've had stuff that good, it's hard to go back! We then made our way up to the top of the hotel for a night swim in the heated infinity pool - so COOL! To be in the pool at night right in the middle of all lit up Dallas was incredible! We didn't stay out there too long because it was pretty chilly. The next morning we tried to sleep in, but after getting up with children for the past six years, that is rather hard to do. So, we decided to go ahead and get up and go get some breakfast. We ended up at Le Madeline - one of my favorite places! After that we went and strolled around Snider Plaza over in Highland Park and then headed over to Knox street for some more shopping! It was nice to just walk around as the 2 of us - we felt so strange not pushing a stroller around and not having to make several bathroom stops. We then decided to drive around and find a nice place to sit and have a cup of coffee. We found one of the neatest places that I've been to - it will definitely be a place that we will revisit. It is called Chocolate Secrets - a place where they make their own homemade chocolates (absolutely to die for they are so good) and all kind of different types of coffees, lattes and teas! On the weekends they have live jazz bands at night! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit there and can't wait to go back! Later that night we broke down and hadn't planned on having yet another expensive, fancy dinner, but we simply couldn't resist. Our very favorite place to have dinner is Fearings at the Ritz Carlton in Dallas! Amazing food!!!!!! We even got to talk with the head chef himself, Mr. Dean Fearing! Again, can't wait to go back again sometime hopefully in the near future! We then decided to walk from there over to the American Airlines center to see all the Mavs hype and watch the channel 8 news broadcast. It was so much fun! We ended up walking literally all over Dallas for about 3 hours or so just exploring and enjoying the sights and sounds of Dallas on a Saturday night! It was so much fun - I felt like a little kid again! We were able to go up into the "W" hotel and look out over Dallas from the pool deck about half way up the building. Usually they close off that deck at night, but one of the workers there let us go out for a couple of minutes to enjoy the view - awesome! Anyways, we ended the weekend with a visit to our favorite place to grab breakfast, Einstein Bros. Bagels. We then headed over to Scurry to collect our sweet children from Netta and Papaw! We sure missed them, but SO enjoyed living it up in the big D for the weekend! It was a weekend that I will truly never forget! Thank you my sweet Brad! I love you!!!
A pic of me when we first got to the hotel
Our vanity - I think this sink is so cool!
Our bedroom
The view from our room onto Main Street in Dallas
Me and B
The infinity pool in the day time - this picture really doesn't do it justice
Brad all dolled up for dinner
Me all dolled up for dinner
Brad and his "compliments of the chef" lobster corndogs
Chocolates and coffee - who could ask for more!!!
Brad anxiously awaiting his main course at Fearings
My main course - mmmmmm......so good! Especially love the deep fried asparagus!
Brad's main course - it had lobster and steak
One happy guy!
Atop the "W"
They would turn down our bed at night and leave us these chocolates on our pillows!
Our goody bags from the yummy restaurants we dined at!
