March Date Night

I'm not always sure it is okay to publicly pat myself on the back, but when it comes to the 12 Dates for Christmas, that is exactly what I'm about to do... Making the 12 Dates of Christmas was one of my best ideas decisions ever!! I honestly cannot think of a more amazing present I could have given Adam/our marriage! It is so gratifying to know that at least once a month, we get to spend a prepaid, preplanned, stress free night together. No worrying about schedules, jobs, or money. With life's crazy demands, any time with my husband is a blessing, so a full night is just what the doctor ordered.

When Adam opened his envelope this month, he found a $50 Visa gift card, a Panera Bread card, and the following note.

March
Let’s take this date night to new heights!

 You and I have a date with a rock wall. 

I’ll spot you if you spot me! 

Climbing = no makeup date! 

This month I planned a physical date at Climb Iowa in Grimes, followed by a "we have chalk all over our body so let's not go someplace nice" dinner at Panera Bread. We both climbed a bit back in college, so I thought it would be a perfect date for us. Adam was working on a case, so the date started later than planned, but it still worked out perfectly. Thankfully, the gym was pretty empty when we arrived, so we were able to auto belay the whole time. 

Blurry cell phone pic, but look how high I am!

I mentioned we had both climbed in college, right? Well it turns out college was a long time ago, and we were out of practice! The gym staff was awesome and gave us a great rundown of the belays and rules. Rule number one: the auto belay must be clipped to something at all times. Apparently it is fairly difficult to retrieve the belay if it snaps up to the ceiling. We kept joking and laughing that we didn't want to be that guy. The walls are marked with different routes and we tried our best not to cheat, but I only made route once or twice. The rest of the time, I used whatever rock pleased me to reach the top! In the beginning, I  thought we could climb for a couple of hours, but my hands were sore after about 45 minutes. I felt like such a wimp! After a few more runs, Adam mentioned his fingers were also feeling less than awesome, so we called it. I'm still not sure if he was actually feeling it, or if he was just trying to be nice to me.  

It was pretty obvious that we didn't want the night to end so soon, so we went to Dick's Sporting Goods to kills some time. It turns out Dick's has a mini putting green, so we pretended we were interested in buying some new clubs and played around a bit. Even though it was, yet again, off of the original plan, I think that may have been my favorite part of the date! A smile was permanently on my face. That smile lasted through dinner at Panera and the drive home.

P.P. was pretty happy to see us when we got home, and the three of us cuddled for a bit before I needed to head to bed. Happy family time! 

Looking forward to next month!

P.P. is always glad to see us :-)

Our little family