Tuesday, July 28, 2009

My Birthday Celebration

We had a great time on my birthday. This year we sort of haphazardly through our plans together and it turned out to be the best birthday ever! Jeff wanted to take me to the Studio Movie Grill where they bring your dinner to you in the theatre. I wanted to see The Ugly Truth. Jeff invited Guy & April to come along with us and Hilari & Lewis kept the kids over night for us.

I had heard about The Glass Cactus being a really nice and happening club. I mentioned to Jeff that I wanted to go there some time. He did a little research and found out that an 80's band called the M80's was playing. So we made plans to go there too.

April is the queen of "good deals". She stayed up until 3AM one morning searching for a good room rate at the hotel that owns the Glass Cactus, the Gaylord Texan. This is a very posh and expensive hotel. She was able to secure a rate for us for $79.

With all of these great plans, April & I needed a new outfit. We went shopping separately and both ended up buying little black dresses, completely coincidental and totally awesome. We both had the same idea of wanting to get dressed up. I bought jewelry and shoes to match. I did let Jeff pick out the shoes. He has great taste in shoes!

After dropping the kids off at Hilari & Lewis', we met at Robert & Tina's house (April's parents) to take some pictures before heading off to the movies.


It isn't often that we get an entire over night sitter so you can probably understand why we went a little over board with pictures and planning this event. It was fun just being together and focusing on us having fun and not entertaining children. So much of our lives have been about what the kids want. I think we are starting to figure out how to make time for the two of us.



















After taking pictures, we left for the Studio Movie grill. The movie was really funny. It didn't get great reviews but we thought it was hilarious and we laughed out loud. All of us agreed we thought it was a fun movie and it just really set the tone for our evening.

We left the theatre and made our way to the Gaylord Texan. We valet parked the car and checked into our rooms.

On the way to our rooms we stopped for a quick picture in the enormous atrium. Look closely at the green contraption. It is actually a person dressed as a giant walking plant. You can see her face just above Jeff's head. It was a little freaky when we passed by.

To avoid a cover charge at the club, we quickly headed to our rooms, which were right next door to each other. We put our things away and then popped open a bottle of wine and a bottle of beer and relaxed a bit. There was a big leather chair in the room that looked really fancy. It reminded me of a chair that a Texas oil tycoon might have in his room. Jeff and I decided to pretend we were rich and took turns posing in the chair for photos.












Jeff says that if he were rich this is how he would sit in his leather chair and drink his beer. While we were having our little fantasy, Guy & April came knocking. We let them in and they played along too.

After our little photo shoot, we headed down stairs to meet the shuttle to the Glass Cactus. Once we got there we were greeted outside and asked if we had reservations. We explained that we did not have reservations. Bare in mind that there was no one in line at this point to get in the door. Without reservations we had to "step to the left" and walk through a winding railway like you would wait in if you were at Six Flags. Again, no one in the line. We did as we were told and walked this way and that through the meandering walkway and in through the front door. It was so funny. Why we couldn't walk straight on the path to the front door without a reservation just cracked us up.


Once inside, we quickly learned that there were few to no options for seating inside. Jeff and Guy decided we should attempt to get a reserved table. The rules for this table meant that we had to pay $50 per person to reserve it. This would make the table $200 for the four of us. The reservation fee went toward our alcohol purchase. We were basically guaranteeing that we would spend at least $200 sitting at that table. Here is a picture of our table.

While we waited for the band to come out, we took a walk around the club. There was a beautiful wooden decked patio that over looked the lake. Guy ordered us a round of drinks and we stepped outside to watch the sunset over the lake. Another photo op.





As the sun fell, the band started to play and we headed back inside to sit at our $200 table. The band was awesome. They were dressed in all 80's attire and did a really great job making us feel like we were kids again! I think Jeff danced to every single song, even when the band was on break. Jeff danced even while he was sitting in his chair.

I couldn't believe my feet held up. I was wearing the tallest high heeled shoes I have ever worn. The shoes captured a bit of attention on the dance floor from a few girls.

Jeff loved telling them that he picked them out as they complimented them. As it got later, more and more people crowded the dance floor. Jeff wanted to be right up front by the stage. He would drag me through 100 people just to be up close. People would look at us like we were crazy. I would just apologize as I am whisked past them. A couple of girls shout back "we'll let you get in front of us because we think your shoes are cool". People are so goofy some times.

Here are some really bad pics of us dancing. It was fun dancing, but hard to take pictures.


We tried to carry on conversation, but it was impossible to hear each other over the loud music. I was really trying hard to hear but hated to keep saying "what?" so I just pretended to hear what was being said. I hope it wasn't important LOL.


I love this picture of April laughing. She has such a pretty smile.

We loved the 80's music. We were joking around when the song "Turning Japanese" came on.


Jeff wore us all out dancing. I think he danced every single song that played. He asked perfect strangers to dance. He even asked the guy in a business suit seated at a table next to us. I should probably also include that we had all had a lot to drink and Jeff had a lot more!

The lemon drops might have been the thing that did us all in, but they were fantastic!

I think my husband might have issues. He has always had a thing about shoes. I think he would wear them if he could get away with it!

The next morning we got up pretty early and headed out to pick up the kids. I had several errands to run before going to a birthday party and I needed to finish an outfit for Elli. On our way out we took a few pictures of the hotel. The picture below is of a mini train that runs through the atrium. It is incredibly detailed. The next picture represents the other side of the atrium.

Near the train is a coi pond and over looking it is a woman made of Texas post cards.


We had a great time. I can't remember when I have had so much fun. Especially considering how our plans all came together at the last minute. Jeff's birthday is next. I think we are going to try to find this band again!

1 comment:

  1. Your pictures are great as usual. Thanks for inviting us. We had a wonderful time and were very happy to get to celebrate your birthday with you!!!

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