Spa escape

I love packing for a trip and bringing along a few tokens from my friends-

Question cards from Sara, and coffee/wine cup from Kristen...

Where was I going? 

I was headed off for the night with Christine! Our first trip away together and lucky, lucky us...

Back in December while Brian was deployed, he gave me a very generous gift certificate for my birthday to take a friend with me to the spa... selfish me didn't want to take a friend along, and wanted to use their portion for myself. But a friend did sound fun... 

January rolled around and so did Christine's birthday, and a light bulb went off for me- maybe Jose would like to give her a similar gift certificate and we could go together! He was all over that idea. 

So March rolled around and off we went to the Lorien Hotel & Spa-

It's an adorable little boutique hotel in Old Town Alexandria. 

Christine picked me up at 10am and we were off. (Sidenote- easiest trip to pack for ever! I woke up, skipped out of swim practice and packed just one bag, for one night, for just me...) And in 25 minutes, we were already there!

I was in charge of the bubbles- so I grabbed this off the wine rack-

It says Champagne on the front right? Well, it was a red wine... what the heck? 

So much for mimosas, how about coffee and Bailey's while we shop? Okay! And we even found a Guinness & Bailey's cupcake at Alexandria cupcake- 

 After a bit of shopping, it was time for our first spa appointments at noon, here we go-

Since being at the spa for 4 hours is a bit much, we decided to go get lunch in between at this little gem of a place right next door- 

It was exactly the fresh vibe we were looking for-

 And then back to the spa we went for our second round of services!

Knowing we wouldn't have time for a nap, we asked for a coffee maker to be brought up to our room... check out this set up-

The hotel offers complimentary happy hour in the lobby, so off we went! And while we sipped our wine in the lobby/library, I busted out the question cards...

When we got back up to our room, look what we discovered-

We thought for sure that our husbands sent it- but they swore it wasn't them. Okay then whatever! 

Time to head out for the night...

First drinks at Brabo-

Then a nice walk to Restaurant Eve- 

 THE FOOD WAS INCREDIBLE!

A few pictures of what we ate-

Dinner took a while, so now it is after 11pm.... the big debate- should or shouldn't we go out?

Guess what we decided on?

Ready?

 HA! We decided to head back to the room, have a final final in bed and watch some trash tv- check out the time on the clock! We couldn't have been happier...

Sunday morning we woke up feeling great (so thankful we didn't stay out late...) and we headed to breakfast-

 I usually go for something way heartier, but this was just a beautiful way to start the day and left me feeling perfect.

And then we headed back to bed! Yup, we went back to the room and climbed back into bed to just relax, and watch some more trash tv. This time- Hoarders. Last night it was LIVE PD. Don't judge.

We grabbed lunch before we headed home, and were back with our families by 3pm. Wow. What an escape- pure bliss. We felt spoiled, relaxed, indulged, loved. I know I for one came home a better mother and wife because I had this time away...

It was such a gorgeous day that I grabbed the kids and took them to the marina for a bit. Brian needed a bit of alone time now, and we had plenty of bread to get rid of-

And you might ask how Brian spent his night while I was away? When Jose called and canceled their plans because he was sick, he opened a good bottle of wine and a souvenir HE took home from the LEGO gift shop- 

Check out this giant manual-

The finished product-

He told me that building that was like therapy for him... win win for us both! 

Now when can we do this all over again?!?!