Vacation from the Ordinary

This weekend, Matt and I took a little vacation. We didn't travel far and we didn't stay long, but it was exactly what I needed to recharge and refresh.

We left Violet with her grandparents on a bright, sunny Saturday and then headed to Atlanta for a whole day's worth of fun.

Superstar Violet, ready to spend the day being waited on by her grandparents.

First up, lunch with friends before heading to the Fabulous Fox to see Wicked. Lunch outside on the patio was lovely. It was so good to catch up with some of our friends. We've gone from college days to weddings to baby showers with these couples, and it is still bizarre to me that we're now sitting around chatting about jobs and kids. We are getting old. But it's nice to still be on common ground.

Al fresco dining with friends - there's nothing better!

After lunch we headed to the theater, and Wicked was just as good as everyone has raved. Both Matt and I really enjoyed it, and it's always fun to do something outside our usual routine. Heading to the fancy downtown theater definitely qualifies as outside our norm!

After the show, Matt surprised me with a room at the W hotel!

Once again, talk about being outside our norm! The W is super modern and sleek, like nothing we'd ever have in our own home. That's one of the fun things about visiting - we get to live for a night in a decor we'd never have in our own place. The room's color scheme consisted of dark gray (almost black) walls, a purple leather couch, a plum-colored bathroom, bright chrome light fixtures, and a shower in the middle of the room with glass walls and no door. Crazy. And fun.

Swanky lobby ceiling fixture - more shiny chrome.

We checked into the hotel, poked around the pool and bar (we definitely did not have enough cool factor to stick around) and then headed to Grant Park to have dinner with my brother Lukas and Danielle. They've just moved into a new place after their stay in Chile and it was fun seeing their adorable apartment and grabbing some dinner at a restaurant down the street. Poking around their neighborhood reminded me of when we lived in the city, ages ago before we bought our house and had our child and became boring respectable. I love our life now, but I'm glad we have some city living under our belts! Anyway, the four of us shared a wonderful evening together, sharing and laughing and eating. I love my brother and his wife, and I love that I can say that. Over the years we've gone through periods where we've had more in common and less in common, but right now I feel a special closeness... Danielle is heading back to school to start a whole new career path (sound familiar?) and Lukas finds himself in a new job he's trying to navigate (again, heard that before?) so we had a lot to talk about.

We finally retired back to our hotel, enjoyed a good night's sleep uninterrupted by any baby drama, and awoke to the sun reflecting off the glass buildings in downtown. We skipped over to one of our favorite coffee shops, Octane, and shared what might be the yummiest bagel in the history of mornings before finally heading back to Peachtree City to collect our daughter (who didn't seem overly impressed to see us, by the way!)

Octane on a Sunday morning.

It was such a nice break from the usual, I didn't find myself once fretting about work or bemoaning the fact that the weekend was already drawing to a close. It really proves you don't have to go far or spend a week's vacation to get that extra charge in your batteries. It was exactly what I needed, and hopefully it won't be the last time we get to take a mini-vacation away from the ordinary.