Learn to Waltz at Home

To celebrate the start of a new school year, Hubby and I learned how to waltz for date night this week.

We didn't have a lot of time or money so went to our old friend youtube. There are a lot of great videos that teach how to waltz. I must say, I was very proud of my Hubby for lasting more than two minutes. He is a fantastic athlete, but lets just say that dancing is just not his thing.

While watching the video, he did a lot of this...

Staring at the screen and looking very confused. And while he did that I looked at him while thinking "Really? Is it that hard?"

Instead of forking out money for a babysitter, we waited until it was Sweet B's nap time. Then went out to the living room to get our waltzing groove on. 

 All in all it was fun. He made a lot of progress. We both did.

Free date at home AND dancing with my Hubby? I'll take that any day.

Good luck this year Mein Schatz!

Dream house hunting

Nap time date again.

Since hubby had to work tonight, we opted for a day time date. We thought it would be fun to drive around and explore some neighborhoods that we aren't familiar with and look for dream house ideas.

I only have a few photos because the battery in my camera died on our drive but we found some beautiful homes! I never thought we could live here after we are done with school but now I am having second thoughts...

This one was awesome! I went online to check it out when we got home and the interior is even better. There is a gorgeous spiral staircase and lovely fireplaces. Not to mention a great location.

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This was absolutely adorable. Hubby and I fell in love. There wasn't really a place to pull over and take a picture though. Lame...

I actually don't particularly like this next one. Like, at all. But its so Virginia. At least to me.

Our date this week? Spending time "house dreaming" together. And the best part is that its free! Can't beat that!

Drive on the parkway

Hubby and I found a new way to have dates without a babysitter.

Go durning nap time.

Now that we have a car that works, we have been itching to GO somewhere. ANYWHERE. Why? Because we can! Not only that, but we're no longer afraid of breaking down. That has happened way too many times. I think I will pass on those experiences from now on.

Anyway, we piled into our new beauty and hit the hills. We happen to live right at the base of the blue ridge parkway and had never been up there. Since we left right at nap time, sweet B slept for the whole date. It was nice to have some one on one time with hubby but still have our little one with us. It is beautiful up there! We found a lookout spot and stopped for some photos.

We mostly enjoyed taking our new ride out for a spin on the twisty roads. You like? Because we sure do!

I never could figure out why they called these the blue ridge mountains until we moved here. Now I get. So blue! And so beautiful! Doesn't it remind you of that Louis Armstrong song "What a wonderful world"?

Our date wasn't on Friday Night this week. We didn't have a sitter either. But I wouldn't have changed one thing about it. It was fun and we had "us time". Thats all that matters.

My new challenge is trying to balance school schedules, sports practices and work into our dating plans. Wish me luck and hope I don't fall!

Sharing my nap time tip at:

August Catch-Up

After an extended period of absence, the date nights have returned! Being out of a camera and car, combined with crazy schedules made it pretty difficult for awhile. But with a new camera and car (yay!) we are back in business.

Did anyone ever make these growing up?

I know I sure did. As kids, my brother and I loved to make forts.We would play in them, sleep in them, and never ever clean them up like we promised Mom we would. Sorry Mom! They are just too fun, right?

For one of our family friendly dates, we decided to recreate some of those memories. After making our little fort, books were read, stories told, songs sung and just enjoyed each others company.

On another day, we all went to our local shopping district down town. We had a ball walking up and down the city streets window shopping. Our little one especially did. She is loving the whole walking thing.

I really enjoy spending time with my little family. Sometimes sitting at home under a blanket is as good as it gets. More dates to come. I have a lot of catch up to do since we have a camera now! See you next Friday Night for Date Night!

Tennis

Bad news. Our camera charger is nowhere to be found. That means I have no pictures to post about our latest date! So in the mean time, I will make due with what I have.


Our FNDN was actually on Saturday this last week. Hubby has been taking Summer classes and had a final on Friday and Saturday. Weird, I know. So, we opted to leave Friday for studying and Saturday for date night.


When hubby got home from his last final, he came home to find three envelopes on the table. Each one had different date activities in it. Option #2 was chosen.

We put Sweet B to bed at 7:30 and had a wonderful neighbor babysit for us. We jumped in the car and headed to the university to play some tennis.

Tennis is a favorite for us. It was our first date and we played/traveled on the team together while engaged our freshman year. After playing for a bit we grabbed a soccer ball and kicked it around for awhile. I must admit my energy was a bit low. I don't know if I will ever get used to this humidity thing. And gnats. Oh my goodness the gnats! In my eyes and ears. Up my nose and in my hair! Ugh!

Once we were sweating profusely, we decided to head home. After some very cold showers. We ended the night with "Jeeves and Wooster". A very funny British show based on the work of P.G. Wodehouse.

Sorry for the lack of photos this week. Cross your fingers that the charger will appear before this Friday!

Game Night and Movie

One of the things I love about being a Latter Day Saint, are the ward functions. We have a particularly lovely ward and our date was going to be attending the ward BBQ. However, things did not go as planned...again. As the time to leave drew closer, the weather got worse. I looked out our window to see this.

It was raining. Not just sprinkling either. I mean it was raining. It made me a little concerned for hubby too. He was not back from class yet and we do not have a car at the moment (it's in the shop). I opened the front door to see if I could see him emerging from the trees.

The picture doesn't do it justice. It was raining so hard! (Notice our empty car spot) When he did get home, he was completely soaked to the skin.

I really need to work on my photography skills. This picture doesn't do it justice either... Anyway, there went our plans for walking to the BBQ. Lets see, rain, wind, severe weather alerts for our area with the tornadoes heading our way and no car? I don't think so. Time for plan B. Game night at home! It turns out that staying at home was the best option for us anyway. Sweet B had had a low fever start the night before and had looked like this all day.

For a little girl who is all smiles, a face like this means she really isn't feeling well.

First, we pulled out the Uno cards. For those of you with kids, you know that playing any games at all, let alone cards can be difficult. That's why we gave the little one her own card so she could feel included. Within 2 seconds flat it was here.

Surprised? Me neither. I wish I could say it ended the evening looking like this.

But no. This was a before photo. The after photo wasn't possible. Its in too many pieces in the trash at the moment.

Next, we decided to move onto a board game. By the way, I won our 9 rounds 5-4. I totally rock at that game. We put the little one in bed for some much needed rest and pulled out monopoly.

We didn't last too long. Still fun though. I'm pretty sure I won that too.

And to end the evening, a movie. We decided on Alias Jesse James.

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What can I say? We love Bob Hope! I would let you know how it was, but I fell asleep before it was over. What I did see I liked.

Even though our plans were foiled again, we still had a good date night. Whats better than playing with your spouse and watching a movie together while eating nutella by the spoonful? It was just us and I loved it! No babysitter, no money spent, no problem.

Karaoke and Car show

After carefully planning out our first official FNDN, my plans were quickly tossed out the window when my husband called from down town. He had gone to pick up a quick bite for dinner only to find that right next to our favorite sidewalk bistro a car show was being held. There was also karaoke and people line dancing in the street. Who can turn down dancing and classic cars? He came home to get me while I frantically tried to find a babysitter. After spending way too much time on that, we finally decided to take our little one with us. Bed time can be postponed every once in awhile right?

We spent so long looking for sitters and debating on whether or not to take our little girl with us, that by the time we got there most of the cars were gone and the dancing had subsided.

Not all was lost. There were a few cars left and the karaoke was just getting started.

Hubby hopped in line to grab some dinner while Sweet B and I waited a safe distance from the speakers.

(You will have to excuse the terrible quality of the pictures. Neither of us are very handy with a camera.)

Sweet B listened and clapped along to the….music.

We got our dinner and decided to head home. While karaoke can be fun, it’s not always beautiful. Who knew "I'm a Survivor" only has a chorus with no verses? Plus the little one was sleepy and some people trying to sing were getting a bit too tipsy. Definitely time to go.

After Sweet B was down in bed, Hubby and I sat out on our deck to eat dinner. It was the perfect temperature too. We sat and ate while looking out across the beautiful Virginia sky watching the sun go to bed.

To end the evening, we decided to watch Road to Bali. It doesn’t get much better than Bob Hope and Bing Crosby! While it was good, it wasn’t the best "Road" movie I’ve seen. It was clean and funny though so it was worth it.

(Source)

A Friday gone, but a memory gained. Date night isn’t about spending money, it’s about spending quality time with your spouse. We had our little one with us and that made it even more fun! Things didn’t go exactly as planned, but that made it exciting! Go out and see what you can find in your community. Like us, you may be pleasantly surprised!

Linking up to:

 Love notes by lauren