Adventure with the Adventurers: Take 2

the weekend was so relaxing and enjoyable even though i had no idea what the plans were at all. i just knew our final destination was around the Cincinnati area. but doug was in on a lot of the planning and knew i'd love everything that was planned. but, still. i don't like surprises. at all. i just don't. it's a control issue i have, i suppose.

anywho. suzi picked me up friday at 11 and i still had no idea where we were headed. we ended up in the next town over to J.Nicole's Day Spa where suzi treated me to a full body Swedish massage with aromatherapy for my {belated} birthday. WOW. if you go ask for Nina. she's awesome. it was SO enjoyable and i had two entire days painfree afterward. a miracle for me since i live in chronic pain every day.

friday night, nikki met up with us in cincinnati and we went to dinner at Hoggy's where had the coolest waitress and we sat and laughed for a few hours. many jokes were made about how disturbing, yet comical, it was to sit in a room where one wall was a mural of horse hineys in a stall with the added embellishment of real horse hair hanging down as the tail.


wierd right?


we were out of there about 10:45 and plugged Beelistic into the GPS--the one place i requested to go while we were away to do something i've wanted to do for years. little did we know that it was near the Univ. of Cincinnati and in a not-so-nice vicinity. we got there about 11ish and proceded to meet the most interesting man i've ever met. seriously, the conversations we overheard there are absolutely not appropriate to repeat, but ones i'll never forget. if you're in cincinnati, kevin jump is the one you want piercing you. very professional and super funny.


i left a happy girl with a little more sparkle on my face. i love it. i LOVE it. i love it.

(photo of kevin from his website)

saturday we went to panera for breakfast where i ate a breakfast of champions---the cinnamon crunch bagel chased down by a mango smoothie........mmmmmmmmmm. yummo.

then we proceeded to spend 1 1/2 hours in traffic to go 6 miles. fun. NOT. lots of football games going on downtown. i had no idea what the plan was for the day, but we ended up at the Cincinnati Art Museum. they had a few incredible exhibitions displayed right now but i couldn't take pictures of anything made after 1978. it was semi-enjoyable. the security there is tight and super rude and overly suspicious of everyone walking around.....hovering in personal space. so i was mildly annoyed.


i fell in love with this piece though. something about it just grabbed me.

nikki left around 2 and we went back to the hotel, took a nap, checked on my class, checked email, etc. then went to dinner closeby and came back to the hotel to relax at the pool for the night.

sunday we went to IKEA. it was a madhouse....super busy, tons of kids (it was kids eat free day) and they were out of everything i wanted (that i could afford anyway). grrrrrrr. i bought a few odd and end things and a yard of fabric.

and i leave with a broken heart because i couldn't leave with this couch.....


or this fabric........


or this rug....

then sunday night i came back home to reality.....two cranky kids and a house that wasn't like i left it. not fun.

totally worth going away though since it might be 2 years before we do it again. that's been the routine anyway.