Weekending - November 3, 2023

Birthday month was kicked off in style this weekend!  Eric's birthday was Saturday and mine is coming up in a few weeks.  This year is a milestone for me so we are celebrating big.  My friend Linda in Kansas City hosted us this weekend and planned a fantastic weekend!  Let's take a look ~

Friday afternoon Eric and I drove to Kansas City and were greeted with a house full of birthday decorations.  It was so fun pulling up in the driveway and seeing the happy birthday sign on the door!

Inside there were streamers hanging from the ceiling and birthday signs everywhere.  It really set the tone for a joyful and celebratory weekend!

Even our bedroom had special decorations!  It was so fun waking up to the birthday greeting!

We wasted no time getting the festivities started.  Soon after we arrived, we were off to dinner.  Linda had a reservation at a restaurant we hadn't been to before called Roots Seasonal Cuisine.  Great food and cocktails!  A few of my KC friends joined us and we had a wonderful evening!  

During dinner, Linda had brought some 80s trivia for us to play.  What great memories the questions brought back!

Saturday morning we leisurely got up and drove to get Starbucks and breakfast in our jammies.  Believe it or not, Eric and I had never had breakfast biscuits from Chick-Fil-A.  Oh my gosh!  Those little things are so scrumptious!  Can't believe we haven't discovered them until now!  I see a lot of morning trips to Chick-Fil-A in our future.

After finishing breakfast, we got ready and headed to the West Bottoms area to do a little shopping.  

Besides the shopping, we discovered two things that made our hearts happy - food and live music!  There was a food truck outside one of the shops called Fully Loaded.  They had loaded baked potatoes that were to die for!

As we were meandering around, we stopped to listen to a band that was set up under a bridge trellis called The Uproot.  They were good!  I would definitely seek them out to hear them again.

While we were listening to the band, I couldn't resist taking a picture on this road.  

Saturday night we had reservations at one of my favorite spots - J. Alexander's.  Linda had arranged for more friends to meet us for dinner.  During dinner there, Linda had questions for me to answer and all my friends answered too.  Questions like what's your favorite memories of each person at the table, what's the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you at work, and many others.  So fun!

The Chiefs were playing in Germany on Sunday, which meant the game was starting at 8:30 am.  This was the perfect weekend to have an extra hour on Sunday morning due to the time change!  We had reservations at a local bar, Lakewood Local, to watch the game.  Eric gave me an early birthday present and they were perfect for game day!

Watching the game with a room full of other KC fans was the way to go.  We munched on a loaded nachos platter and the loaded tater tots while the Chiefs beat the Dolphins.  

And we had to have a shot to celebrate the Chiefs' victory!  This was the best shot I'd had in a while (not that I've had a lot of shots lately).  They were called mini beers and they were made with Licor 43, topped with a little bit of heavy whipping cream.  Yum!

After the game, we packed up and drove home.  On the way, we stopped by my mom's house and had dinner.  When we got home, we watched the new movie on Prime that was filmed in Hermann, Missouri.  Hermann is a neighboring town to where I grew up and it was pretty cool seeing familiar sites on television.

This weekend was so magical.  Celebrating this weekend was an absolute blast!  We had a weekend full of joy, laughter, and a sense of appreciation for another year of life.  Linda did an amazing job gathering our friends and planning the locations for us to meet.  The whole experience was heartwarming and reminded me how much joy is in our lives.  I feel overwhelming gratitude for having friends and family who love me as much as they do!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!  I'm back to work for a few days before our next birthday celebration begins.  Stay tuned to see what adventure is next!