Anniversary Weekend 2013: Savannah

The four of us are all home and under the same roof again. And we are so thankful for the great weekend we all enjoyed! My hubby and I had a wonderful time in Savannah celebrating our 8th anniversary and my boys (and puppy dog) had a super fun weekend with my parents. Double yay!!

 

As you know, it's always been a struggle for me to be away from my kiddos overnight. It doesn't come natural for me and I always have anxiety about it. However, once a year on our anniversary is something we've committed to and this year I just prayed about it a whole, whole lot. I am so thankful for God's faithfulness and the peace He supplied so I could truly focus on spending time alone with my husband and enjoying our weekend together. We declared this anniversary getaway the best ever since having babies! (Our all time favorite is still Disney World back in 2007.)

 

We started our morning Friday by packing up and going out to breakfast as a family... which we never do, so this was a special treat. It was a great start to our day before we got on the road to B'ville to drop off the 3 babies. Once everybody was settled in we gave hugs and kisses and hit the road. It was still hard to leave them (even though I knew they were in great hands, it just makes me sad everytime), and I may have almost cried once we were in the car, but the rest of the trip I did great. I didn't even call and check in every other hour! 

 

We arrived in Savannah shortly before 3:00 Friday afternoon and were able to check into our hotel right away. Once our car was parked it stayed in the same place until we were ready to check out. We did lots of walking all weekend. The first place we went was River Street. We shopped around, went in almost every single store, ate ice cream, shopped some more, ate a delicious supper, and then made our way up to the squares for more ice cream! We had such a fun day!!

 

 

After ice cream at Leopold's we were both feeling tired of walking so we went back to the hotel for a little while before venturing out to River Street again just in case we could see fireworks. Turns out they only do fireworks the first weekend of every month. It was still fun being out at night. The bridge and water were so pretty!

On Saturday morning we started our day with a tour of Savannah. Which we loved! It was very interesting and entertaining. We chose an "on/off" tour so we could ride around and get off and then back on the trolley/bus whenever we wanted. This turned out to be our transportation around the city on Saturday and worked out perfect.

We spent most of our time Saturday (when we weren't on the trolley/bus) at City Market. It was so much fun and such a neat place! We did more shopping, visited Paula Deen's store, ate at an outdoor pizza cafe, and did lots of people watching. We also rode the tour bus back to River Street and then eventually back to our hotel.   

We had a little bit of a lazy afternoon before getting ready for our dinner reservations at the Olde Pink House on Saturday night. It was wonderful! We took a pedicab there... a bicycle that actually served as our taxi. So fun and unique!

Dinner on Saturday night was probably my favorite part of our whole trip. I am such a sucker for fancy restaurants (as long as I can recognize what's on the menu). I LOVE getting dressed up and going somewhere romantic, special, and a little fancy. Such a treat!!

Our food was delicious and I loved the atmosphere. It truly was an old pink house! And our waitress filled us in on lots of history from the house. Plus we learned on our tour that the Olde Pink House was the only building in Savannah that survived all 3 of Savannah's fires.

One of our favorite parts of dinner was at the end when they surprised us by bringing us a candle and a special "Happy Anniversary" gift... chocolate, fruit, and whipped cream. Yum!!

After our delicious dinner we walked around a few of the squares (I can't keep up with them all!) and sat and listened to whoever was playing their instruments in the middle of the squares. I thought it was pretty romantic. I especially loved the man playing Just a Closer Walk with Thee on the flute. It was so good.

Then, we stepped waaay out of our comfort zone and went to a jazz bar. Jazz'd Tapas Bar to be exact. Our waitress recommended it and we had a great time. It was very upscale "nightclubish." As if I'd even know what that's like since I've never been to one, BUT, if I had, I imagine it would be just like this one. We loved the music. Very upbeat and jazzy. We sat and talked and listened to good music and just enjoyed ourselves. It was something really new and different for us but we really liked it so we decided we'll have to step out of comfort zones more often.

After sleeping late Sunday morning we enjoyed a late breakfast in City Market that was delicious. Pancakes, grits, and bacon. Yum-O. Once we were good and full we headed home to see our babies. By Sunday I was starting to really miss them!!

We got to my parents house about 2:30 yesterday afternoon while Austin was napping. Both boys gave us big hugs and huge smiles when they saw us. Priceless. I told Terrell I knew they had a great time though because they weren't ready to leave the second they saw us. In fact Garrison definitely would've stayed longer. And I think that's a good thing.

They loved going out to eat, visiting the zoo, going to church, and getting lots of extra love and play time with Granna and Papa. My parents sent us these 2 pictures from the zoo on Saturday afternoon.

We are so thankful to Granna and Papa for taking care of the boys and Bailey and for both of our parents for their generous anniversary gifts. We planned our trip with a pretty tight budget in mind and then our wonderful parents surprised us with "gifts" that allowed us to truly experience Savannah without worrying too much about the budget. It was wonderful and we are so appreciative!! This year's trip was definitely one of the best!