Kid-free Weekend = Livin' It Up

Thanks to Mom Dixon, who volunteered to have the kids up for the weekend, Danny and I lived it up like no other. I called it "The Weekend of Amy" (like "The Summer of George" for you Seinfeld gurus) and it truly was my weekend: doing things on a whim*, throwing caution to the wind, and completely indulging myself in many ways. My kid-free weekend started Thursday morning when Mom and Ben met the kids and I at the Casa Grande outlets for the exchange of passengers - the halfway point between Mesa and Sahuarita. Once the kids were on their way to Grandma's, I had my chance to do some serious shopping all by myself*. It was awesome to stay as long as I wanted with no time or schedule restrictions*. I found some sweet deals too and it was a successful shopping trip. When Danny got home from work we had a very quiet, uninterupted dinner* and then a close set of tennis*, followed by a movie here at home.

Friday was superb and I had the whole day here alone at home*, which I don't think has happened I think since Dallin was born. It was strange and wonderful at the same time. I slept in*, ate breakfast, decorated the house, and hung pictures for the better part of the morning. Yes, it's taken me this long to do it. I went to the fitness center*, had lunch, finally showered, and got ready for our date*; the first one since moving here. Danny planned Friday's date and it consisted of eating at a Mexican restaurant (I even ordered the carne asada dish and ate it with my hands and tortillas like I used on the mish*) and going to the science center on U of A's campus to see the planetarium. That is a cool place with a neat space and a mineral exhibits. The best part was going into a dome theater where they project the night sky and show you all sorts of stars, planets, and constellations. We even got to look through a giant telescope* to see the moon. It was a really fun date. When we got home we stayed up late* and watched some of the opening ceremonies of the Olymics that we'd recorded while eating peanuts and drinking Crystal Light* just because it sounded good to me.

Saturday was even more fun because Danny was around. We slept in*, watched more of the opening ceremonies, had pancakes, and just lounged around. We made a much needed grocery store trip and decided last minute to go see a move in the theaters* - Dark Knight (really dark and violent, if you ask me). We hurried like never before and made it to our really good seats with about a minute to spare before the lights dimmed for previews. After that, we raced to our dinner reservation at Outback*, (thanks for the gift cards, Cathie) to start our second date, the one that I'd planned. Even though we were a few minutes late, they seated us right away. We had a TO DIE FOR dinner and I even orded my steak medium*! After dinner we raced again to La Encatada Mall (a really high-end mall in north Tucson) to see the local Brian Dean Trio play some blues music*. We got there right as they were tuning up their instruments and we decided to watch from the second level of the mall for free instead paying $20 to watch up close. They were fun to watch and we had a good time making a lot of jokes about them. The weather was extremely pleasant* to top it off and it was a super fun date.

Basically, the weekend was amazing and we got to do a ton of stuff we normally wouldn't have gotten to do if the kids had been around. On Sunday, though, we were so glad to have them come back home as we missed them while they were gone. Thanks, Mom, for making such a fantastic weekend possible!

* indicates things that never or almost never happen for us