In His Steps: Six Years

April 8, 2006. The day I married the most amazing man. Six years later, we're still going strong.

Our first anniversary fell on Easter weekend, as well as this year. We haven't done anything really spectacular to celebrate our anniversary since the first one when we took a trip to Dallas. Hopefully in future years we don't make special celebrations only when it falls on Easter. That first anniversary we bought tickets to Six Flags and spent the day at the theme park and then watched a Casting Crowns concert afterwards.

This year the plans were very different. We both agreed that we needed a trip, just the two of us. Something more than a one night date. Casey really wanted a whirlwind three day trip to some great big city. He mentioned San Fransisco first and I laughed at him. Then he mentioned Chicago and I actually entertained the idea for a couple of days but convinced him it really wasn't good timing with me being seven and a half months pregnant and all. I really do want to visit Chicago with him some day, but I want to be able to walk without hurting and truly enjoy seeing the sights.

Thanks to our crazy whirlwind schedule I was thinking more along the lines of a quiet bed and breakfast. I thought the time relaxing would be well needed and deserved after how very hard Casey has been working this semester. He stays up until 2 am nearly every night working on his college course work. And, I knew for sure I would enjoy a quiet weekend of rest in my condition.

So, I spent some quality time on the Internet scouring bed and breakfasts within driving distance of my parents' house. Eventually, I stumbled upon a place in Excelsior Springs, Missouri about thirty minutes northeast of Kansas City that was a big beautiful chateau of a bed and breakfast. It was new construction, over 30 acres of countryside, a pond to fish in, and very modern bedrooms and baths. The name of it is Orchard Hill and you can visit their website here. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quiet getaway.

The drive there was a little concerning because it is so far out in the country and we took the back roads to get there. After we got there we learned there was of course an alternate route that was much nicer. Thanks Google maps for sending us on the very, very scenic route.

Because it was a holiday weekend, we had the whole house to ourselves and we spent the majority of our time lounging around, sleeping in, watching satellite television, and on Saturday afternoon we went fishing. The first night we were there I had a hankering for ice cream so we asked the house manager about any nearby Dairy Queens and she said there weren't any but she'd be happy to go into town and buy us a carton of ice cream. She wouldn't let us pay for it and served it up on a tray complete with a Happy Anniversary card and brought it up to our room while we were getting settled in .Then, for breakfast the house manager made a huge spread of food complete with farm fresh fried eggs just for us.

We ate out Friday night and Saturday night in Kansas City. Saturday we ate at Carmen's Cafe in Brookside Plaza. You can visit their website here. They also have one in Leawood, Missouri. It was so off the hook good. We have never splurged on a restaurant like we did for that one, but it was very worth every penny. Definitely not somewhere you load up the whole family and go to. Save it for a very special occasion and savor every bite. Casey did. He said it was hands down the best steak he's ever had in his life.

Here are a few pictures we took while we were there. I didn't bother getting out the camera but once as the whole idea of being there was to just sit back and relax. I should have thought to take one of us together, since it was our anniversary and all, but I didn't.