Back in July I purchased a groupon for a night at the Gaylord – because Vann spent his birthday alone in the city I wanted to plan a fun date night for the two of us and the deal was so great I just couldn’t pass it up.

Unfortunately our childcare fell through at the last minute, so our romantic evening turned into a family mini-vacay. Not a huge deal, but it DOES change things. However, despite the fact that Charlie screamed in the middle of the night, woke up the baby, and ended up having to sleep in between us, it was pretty fun seeing her “take in” all of the sights and sounds.

The Gaylord is a spectacular hotel. It’s so beautiful and has this whole self-contained, climate-controlled, biospheric feel – the whole resort is encased in glass. It’s kinda like a gigantic snow globe!

It didn’t hurt that they have an “Alice in Wonderland” event going on right now and there were tons of characters walking around. It was a total feast for the eyes, especially those of a 3 year old.

Coming from a Disney family – my parents took us to Disneyland in California and Disneyworld in Florida (including Epcot and the World Showcase) more times than I can count – I am anxious to introduce Charlie to that experience when she is old enough. I imagine this was a teeny picture of what that might look like.

In the end, it was a nice opportunity to “get away” – although, I’m not gonna lie and say I wouldn’t have preferred to share that time with just my hubby!!