This year for my birthday, instead of giving Max ideas of gifts, we decided to go do something together instead. There really wasn’t anything I’d had my eye on, or was really wanting, so the thought of having a birthday experience rather than a gift was so appealing – and even more appealing? The thought of a weekend activity/getaway that I didn’t have to plan!!

Life got busy, as it tends to do, and the months rolled by… We finally picked a weekend when we knew we would already be in Houston. Another month or two went by without a solid plan of attack for what we’d do once we got there.

Then, just in the knick of time, Max knocked it out of the planning park and came up with an amazing line up of things to do!

On a very gray Houston day, we started out at one of our favorite restaurants, Brick & Spoon. We were worried that we’d be in for a long wait, but we walked up and sat right down!

Max wasn’t all that excited when he realized I’d probably be taking photos throughout the day, but I told him “It’s my birthday, and you can get over it.” And he did… for the most part. 

Seriously… such great food!!! I had been craving those beignets as soon as Max told me we’d be making a stop here. 

After breakfast, we headed to the St. Arnold Brewing Company for a tour and a little tasting. If you haven’t been, and you’re in the Houston area, you should definitely go! Our tour guide was fantastic, and the atmosphere is great – so many groups of people eating, drinking, playing board games, or just laughing with one another.

LOVE those front doors!! 

This one just cracks me up…

What a handsome guy!!! And he was already two-for-two on the activities for the day. It was fun to get to go back to St. Arnold’s together, since that is where we had our rehearsal dinner. Sweet, right?!

After St. Arnold’s, we headed to go see A Christmas Carol presented by The Alley Theatre. Max knows I enjoy plays, so he made sure to get one on the day’s agenda… even after a little hold up getting to the theater, the show was so good and I loved the whole experience! Max may have slipped up and showed his real excitement level for more photos, but he pulled it back together pretty quickly.

 

Next up – dinner at The Grove (which we could see from our hotel room at the Hilton)!

Our waiter was so nice and brought over a delicious little treat after he found out we were celebrating my birthday! 

It was perfect timing for eating at The Grove, since the Field of Light display was set up right outside the window at our table. Field of Light was such a pretty public art piece. I’m glad we got to see it!

 

As if all of that hadn’t been more than enough already – we capped off the night with a concert at House of Blues!! We saw Micky and the Motorcars & Reckless Kelly – they were both great performers and we loved the show. Not as great? The fact that you have to have a press pass to have a camera in HOB… but it was good anyway 🙂

All in all, it was such a great birthday celebration, and I’m so impressed with Max’s planning skills!! I’m going to have to have him step in and plan future trips for us! But just in case you were wondering… all of these grown up, kid-free activities can’t take the kids out of us: