Happy Little Spoon

Champagne, romance sweets, and a beautiful card

My husband and I just celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. He surprised me with a beautiful new bracelet, to accompany my necklace he gave me for our sixth anniversary, and a stay at the Alyeska Resort and Ski Lodge in Girdwood, Alaska. I gave him a FitBit Ionic.

Isn't it beautiful?!

Fancy Smart Watch

Small but wonderful

Seven Glaciers Restaurant on the mountain

Comparing the two, I feel I came up short on the gift-giving side, but he uses that FitBit all the time! He's always checking his steps, how he slept, listening to music, and such. And yes, he did wear his new fancy watch during our stay at the swanky hotel. I love my FitBit Blaze though, so I figured with my hubby wanting to stay fit with his new job position, a fitness watch would be ideal.




My husband did outstanding this year. It was a fantastic gift! Top floor room, king-size bed, champagne and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us, dinner at the beautiful Seven Glaciers mountain restaurant, swimming in the heated saltwater pool, soaking in the hot-tub.

Coffee, snow, a chair, and a view!

I can't begin to express how ecstatic I was during our entire stay! I had no clue what he had planned.

Aside from when we got married, we have never gone too far for our anniversary. Not that we couldn't, we just didn't have anywhere we really wanted to go. We also try to be frugal. For us, dinner, a movie, and a quiet night in is our idea of the perfect date.

Our first anniversary was very different from this one. My sister was in town visiting and helping with the boys, and I was hugely pregnant with our daughter. We went to Olive Garden early, finished within 30 minutes because we had terrific service, and walked around Walmart for an hour before going back home.

Not so glamorous, was it?

On our 5th anniversary, we celebrated early because he was going to Korea for a year. Our close family friends took the kids for the night, we went out to eat, rented a movie, grabbed the fixings to make loaded nachos, and went back home.

Our forever home will have a fire pit. 

In the tram, coming back down the mountain to the hotel after dinner. 

Seven Glaciers' Wall o' Awards and some of their wines. 

We love doing things together at home, with the kids. It doesn't take much for us to be happy every day, including our anniversary.

That is why this one was so amazing, especially for me. The hubs was able to get a great deal on the room with the romance package. The mountaintop restaurant was a little over the top for us. I did try caviar though, and amuse-bouche. I'm okay with never having caviar again. Definitely not my thing.

The Stanley Hotel. I took this picture the morning we left. Isn't it beautiful?

For my 30th birthday, a very personal anniversary, my parents gifted the hubby and I with a stay at the fabulous Stanley Hotel (remember The Shining by Steven King aka my favorite author EVER?), in Estes Park, Colorado. Let me just say this, if you are ever in the area, definitely go visit, or stay the night. It is beautiful!

Amuse Bouche = Phenomenal!

Scallop Bisque, that is a scallop with caviar on it

Hubs dinner: Snake River Farms Wagyu New York Steak. My dinner: Alaskan Paella and a glass of Cherry Tart Pinot Noir

We didn't go crazy on spending while staying at Alyeska. Aside from the exorbitant, but worth it, cost of dinner, we maintained our thrifty ways. We explored all of the shops inside the hotel, sat around the fire pit outside, people watched, and just enjoyed being together. Sadly, we didn't bring the gear to hike around. I wish we had! I think we would have enjoyed walking part of the trails and seeing the beautiful winter landscape. I may have even tried skiing.

See the caviar? Not my thing. I did eat it though!

Cheese plate

Baked Alaska for dessert!

No, I've never been skiing. Crazy, right? I've lived in Alaska twice, Oregon, Colorado, and Wyoming. Never tried it. I do enjoy sledding and tubing with the kids, and ice skating.

Clearly, we didn't stray far from the hotel during our stay. That's okay though, I'm fascinated with art. Especially Native Alaskan art. The Alyeska Resort is filled with beautiful statues, photographs, and paintings. I would have been happy just sitting in front of some pieces all day. They are that captivating.

Walk into the hotel and look up. This is the surprise you get!

Being the bibliophile that I am, I also could not resist spending twenty minutes, it was probably a lot longer, reading the titles and synopses of books I came across. My to-be-read pile is immense, that does not mean it was easy not to add to it. There were few familiar titles, several more that I plan to add to my already healthy list. Had our stay been longer than it was, I am relatively sure to have splurged on at least one title to read in the sauna. Or in the hot tub. Or by the fire pit.

Both of these are now on my list!

Barely contained restraint on my part in this area.

My kids love the My Side of the Mountain books by this author!

It was a pleasant surprise to sleep as well as we did at the hotel. The hubs and I are used to waking up randomly during the night when staying in a new place. Or getting up earlier than usual. Not this time. The mattress and pillows were comfortable and clean, the rooms were quiet, and we could close the doors to the entry allowing just the right amount of light in the room to not be bothered by it. I have to have a small amount of light in the bedroom at night. My bladder hasn't been the same after three kids and before sunrise relief is expected. My legs and toes can't take late a night crash into furniture, thus requiring night-lights.

Wake up to snow and mountains

Hubby's Breakfast

My Breakfast

We did encounter one problem at the hotel. Order in room service for breakfast, or get dressed and go to the restaurant? As pleasant a thought as room service is, we opted to go sit in the restaurant. The Pond Cafe has terrific breakfast choices! Their buffet was traditional, with a create your own omelet section. The hubby and I decided to order off the menu, and neither of us regrets that choice. He ordered the breakfast burrito with eggs, potatoes, cheese, peppers, onions, and Reindeer Sausage. I had a bite, it was terrific! I opted for the pancake breakfast, complete with two pancakes, two eggs, and bacon. I know, not a unique meal by any means, but still delicious.

Sleeping in caused breakfast to be more like brunch. We perused the hotel shops one more time before gathering our things to check out. There was more to see in the small town! We found The Bake Shop so I could purchase one of their hand-thrown mugs, and wandered a bit before heading back to the highway. Alpine Bakery was our destination, but we decided to swing into The Great Alaskan Tourist Trap. Google reviews aren't positive on them. However, I enjoyed the atmosphere and talking with the owner. How else are you going to hear tales about bare-assed bears harassing the trashcans of Girdwood?

Alpine Bakery is a quaint shop with tasty pastries. The hubby and I decided to treat ourselves, and the kids, with donut bars and fritters for breakfast the following day. Pro tip: the apple fritter, original cake doughnut, and blueberry fritter are divine!

I love this man!

Hanging out in front of the fire pit

He says it would be perfect if it swiveled, rocked, and reclined.

All in all, it was an excellent anniversary gift! I could not have asked my hubby to surprise me any better than he did. Do I expect the same, or more, for next year? Of course not. Next year we might be more than happy to lay in bed with a cup of coffee or tea while watching t.v., and playing card games (Sleeping Queens, Sushi Go, or Uno, Lil Monster's usual choices). Maybe we will take the family out to a movie and dinner, or order in and have a Star Wars or Harry Potter marathon. We could even decide to go back to the hotel, bringing the kiddos or not.

All of our anniversaries have been awesome in their own right, and memorable. I am excited to see how many more beautiful memories and adventures we will go on in the coming years. 

*I am not affiliated with Alyeska Resort or any of the shops wherein the hotel, or in the town of Girdwood, Alaska. All opinions are my own, from personal experience.*

*Disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click and make a purchase.*