So to celebrate this totally awesome moment in my life, my husband decided to plan a full day of fun-- without my knowledge. Now, what makes this really special is that he NEVER plans anything without running it by me. We've been a few places and done a lot of cool things, but I'm always part of the planning process. Even when he calls himself surprising me, he ends up telling me all the details before it can happen because who else is he going to tell? I'm his bestfriend right? LOL! So the fact that he planned, kept quiet, and arranged for my mom to keep my son all without me knowing anything was impressive within itself. When he finally let me in on his little secret he told me that the theme was romance, and he didn't disappoint!
Our day was absolutely perfect, and it all started here:
The vineyard? You know it!
Now, if you know anything about me then you know that I love me some wine. Our first stop was to the Canadian Wine Country for a vineyard bike riding tour. Worrddd? I didn't even know that was a thing!
Of course I had to get my pose on in front of the vines ;-)
And then it was off to taste some wine! The tour consisted of traveling to 3 different wineries, where we would have a tour and tasting at all 3. Awesome right? Well, we weren't just on regular bikes. Nope! The hubby thought it would be nice to rent a tandem. Let me tell you, it's not as easy as it looks. It felt like learning to ride a bike all over again for the very first time. Pedaling and not steering is the weirdest thing in the world...add to that a bunch of drinks, and oh boy!
Holding Steady :) Yea, they made us wear those dumb helmets...
The bike ride was definitely an exercise in trust. At one point, as we turned onto the freeway, I thought, "If he does one wrong thing, we're both going down". I literally had to depend on him, but God had us covered ;-) A little while in and we had the hang of it. We even developed our own little system for mishaps. It basically just consisted of me just yelling "coast" whenever I lost my footing, lol. But whatever works right?
The thing I loved most about the tour is it combined some of my favorite things. There's no way you can go wrong with wine, the country (beautiful scenery), and historic homes. It was amazing! We were able to take in our surroundings in a way that we never would have been able to, even by car. I mean, how often are you this close to the side of a country road?
It was a wonderful day for a ride
Beautiful homes with nothing but land!
Working Hard on a Saturday Morning
Lavender Fields? Come on!
I was absolutely in seventh heaven! And as if that wasn't enough, there was wine! DUH! Each winery had a different flair and a different story. From the small family-ran winery on the farm, to the sleek and modern hot spot, I loved them all!!!
Me probably still wishing I worked there. Did you know there's an actual job to test the wine batches every hour? Where in the world do I sign up!!
That middle spot, I hit that up!! Girls Night Out special.
This Winery was gorgeous, so modern and elegant.
Loved the scene.
Nice Tasting Setup, felt like I should have had on my Sunday best ;-)
Eatery
We even happened upon this scene. It was about a 40 foot drop down to Lake Eerie. The view was Gorg! Even caught a glimpse of a few islands.
After thoroughly enjoying ourselves we headed back to the first winery to have lunch. When I say that lunch was amazing, trust me, it was AMAZING. First off, the scene was awesome! It had all types of farm charm going on :-)
Swoon right? I wish I could eat all my meals here.
This wasn't just any type of lunch though, nope. It was on some real fancy, Top Chef type of stuff. The award-winning chef came out before each dish and thoroughly explained the process/ingredients/ favors to us. It was as educational as it was good. It was a total experience, not just a meal.
This salad was perfect. I don't even eat beets and I ate the darn beets!
Lord, take me back!!! Traditional Argentinean Meal.
And what a yummy way to end it!!
Of course, we had more wine, and the old school jams playing softly in the background really set the mood. It was amazing...have I said that enough? There's something about sitting in the great outdoors with horses in the background, eating an amazing meal that just kinda makes your day. #perfect
As soon as we were done eating my husband whisked me away because we had another activity to head to, this time closer to home. Now this is where things get a little dicey. He planned things right down to the minute, but unfortunately, he overshot it a bit. Because he did everything without my input I couldn't assist with the timeline so we cut it close...real close. We were actually twenty minutes late for our next activity :-( The hubby hates being late, so it was kinda stressful for a second. He was not trying to miss our activity. Even though we were still late I have to give him a "A" for effort. I would have never thought that you could make it from the border to Oxford in just 30 minutes. SMH.
Thankfully, God was with us and we made it safely--and I'm so glad we did because he'd set us up to go for a hot air balloon ride. *SUPER SWOON* I've always wanted to go hot air ballooning so it was awesome to knock two things off of my bucket list in the same week :) I felt like a kid at Christmas. The day absolutely could not get any better. I was more than ready to get in the air.
Super excited as we waited for the crew to blow up the balloons
The balloons were huge!!! 7 Stories!
Fire it up!!!
Now, I was all for going on the balloon ride, but I have to admit, it is a bit weird at first. It's a surprisingly smooth ride, but once you realize that you're soaring over the treetops in essentially an oversized picnic basket, it can be a reality check. And then you go up even further! After a few minutes, the jitters wore off (at least for me) and I was able to let go and capture some pretty good shots. For a minute, I almost forgot where I was. I was too busy enjoying God's beauty :-)
Perfect photo opp!!!
"And I'll take to the sky on a natural high, loving you more till the day I die!"
I mean really, we could see all the way to Detroit while up in the air.
The other pilot was fooling by the water :)
This is the life...
Sunset shot
Honestly, it was an amazing experience!!! The hubby wasn't really feeling it, but he did it for me and that made it all the more special ;-)
A few points to note:
- They are not playing when they say that you might want to wear a hat. It felt like a fire breathing dragon was breathing down my back the entire time...it was hot yo!
- There is no set landing space, you go wherever the wind carries you until you can find a clear spot. We actually landed in someone's backyard :-)
- It was an extremely smooth ride, but a little bit of a crazy landing. It goes without saying that if you're afraid of heights this isn't the thing for you.
Afterwards, we had champagne with the pilot and were given some of the nicest keepsakes to remember our special day :-) Then, it was time for dinner. All in all, the day was AMAZING! The hubby truly pulled out all the stops and I was more than grateful. To have someone so supportive and proud of my accomplishments is truly a blessing, and now I feel like I can't complain about anything for at least another month, lol!
After the long nights of edits and not coming to bed until six in the morning, the long drawn out conversations about my perceived inadequacies, the uncertainty and anxiousness..it felt good just to be done. The process was behind me, and we were actually celebrating a goal crossed off of the list. It felt good, I mean, real good.
I'm hoping that this will be the first of many more celebrations in the future, but for right now, I have some beautiful memories to carry me over. Thank you Darius for making my day!
If you visit my website, you'll see this quote in my gallery. After this weekend, this statement couldn't be more true.
I was very impressed. And that is why I've been MIA. We're doing a few things around the house, so hopefully I'll have updates on that soon, but for today I just wanted to swoon. What's one of the best dates you've ever been on?
