love day

dawson goes on a snowmobiling trip every presidents day weekend, and most years this also falls on valentines day.  to be honest -GASP- i don't mind at all!

i know i sound like a holiday hater, but i'm not.  we always celebrate before he goes and it's even better because restaurants aren't crowded and we can go wherever we want.

plus dawson always sends me some sort of present in the mail AND diana took me and jen to grand america to get massages and facials.  now i just sound obnoxious because i'm really getting more spoiled than i would if dawson was actually in town, so i'll just stop here.

anyway, our valentines day celebration (aka love day) was fabulous.  we spent the day together and went to mazza for dinner where we dipped our fries in so much garlic aoili sauce you could smell the garlic on our breath from a mile away.

i love my valentine and am so grateful that he is mine forever.  and that he'll still kiss me even when i have garlic breath.  now that is true love.

date night

date night... a night out with the snows was much needed so britt and i made a plan and gave our husbands no choice in the matter (luckily they are easy going and like each other so it wasn't a problem).

sugarhouse park... we decided to call it family night and instead of going as couples to a restaurant, we brought little crew and the pups with us.  aren't we grown up???

the dodo... a to-go order of turkey sandwiches and dirty bird salads were perfect to picnic with at the park.  the dogs ate the goose poop that was on the ground by us and were just as happy with their meals as we were with ours.

shaved ice... not quite the same as ulu lanis in maui, but close enough.  we got smalls that were the size of your head and successfully put ourselves in a sugar coma.

the movies... we dropped off the babe and the pups and went to a movie at the theater which is now $9.25 PER PERSON on weekends.  a complete travesty.  we wanted to sneak in like high schoolers but somehow thought better of it.  luckily the movie was hilarious and we laughed our butts off.

flashback...  to TEN years ago when britt and i would walk to the snow shack by her house and meet other middle school boys and awkwardly flirt.  the snow cones and men in our lives have both improved immensely.

conclusion... date night with the snows is still easily one of the best nights of the month.

timmy

all night i was hoping to hear:

"...when you think tim mcgraw, i hope you think my favorite song..."

but alas, no surprise appearance from t-swift was to be had.

nonetheless, it was a fun night planned by the girls for "fathers day".

$7.00 mini pizzas, blankets on the lawn, and cute husbands were all we needed.
tim mcgraw concerts also remain to be the only place dawson will sing outloud with me.

now just as a side note.
i was thoroughly appalled by the apparel of some of the young ladies at the concert.
i KNOW their daddy's didn't see them leave the house in those outfits.
maybe i am getting old and prudish,
but denim shorts with the button folded open and a bra top is just too much skin.
however i was very grateful for my prudishness and covered belly,
as we were stuffing our faces with chips & queso, pazookies and molten lava cakes at chili's afterwards.

gone campin'

we decided for date night we were going to go camping.

here is a rundown of how it went:

the only eagle scout (in our family of 3) was the official fire starter,

and i was the official camp chef and put together the tinfoil dinners.

one of us was more successful than the other at their job,

but i am not going to tell you who.

dash was in heaven.

he was sniffing up a storm, chasing critters, playing with ants, roaming the mountainside, etc.

the little guy was really in his element, that's for sure.

we, however, were not quite in our element, seeing as we forgot a vital part of camping.

camping chairs.

but we made up for it with our exquisite s'mores.

reeses s'mores were a hit, as were the original s'mores.

my hands-down favorite though was a coconut marshmallow, with cookies'n'cream chocolate.

i ate such an absurd amount of them that dawson had to stop me,

and seriously informed me that i might have a problem.

i didn't get any pictures of s'mores because obvi my hands were covered in mallow.

i am also sad i didn't get any pics of our cute little 3-man tent,

which is perfect for our little family.

this is the only pic i could get in the dark tent of our whole family.

thank goodness dash has white eyes or we would have lost him.

dash, who was a little hesitant with water last summer, was fearless this year.

we threw his stick out into the water about a hundred times and he would get it every time.

of course i didn't get a picture of him doing his doggy paddle,

but you can get an idea from the terrain and the pics of how dirty he got.

we had so much fun on our little getaway.

it's hard to imagine our family as anything other than me and my two boys.

no, this is not foreboding a pregnancy announcement.

more like trying to imagine taking a spur-of-the-moment mountain getaway with a bebe,

and realizing that the pigs would be flying us there on their backs.

having a dash > having a baby

for now.

42.

not pictured: husbands

we have been so awesome at going on date night lately.
last weekend was even a TRIPLE date with our favs, the snows and the newlywed ALLENS!
britt and i had been craving stella's goat cheese and honey appetizer,
(we have this odd obsession with goat cheese. sounds weird, tastes delicious)
so that's were we went.
would you think i'm lying if i told you all 3 of us girls ordered the exact same thing
WITHOUT talking about what we were ordering beforehand?
coincidence? i think not. best friends since BHS is more like it!

after that we went to see the new jackie robinson movie, 42.
caitlin and johnny had seen it the night before, but that didn't stop them from seeing it again.
they were just THAT inspired by jackie. and can you blame them?
we thought the movie was so so good.
good enough that we ourselves were inspired to go to the ballpark the next day!

we hit up none other than BHS with my dad, uncle freddie and alex.
after a game of flys up (where i was greatly disappointed in my catching skills) we had batting practice.
alex hit a homerun, dawson and the old guys ALMOST hit home runs...
and i barely hit it out of the infield (i know, it was embarrassing to me too).
what was even MORE embarrassing was the next day when dawson asked me,
"hey miss, uh, are you sore at all today?"
i wasn't going to be the first one to say that my shoulders, arms, and abs hurt so bad i thought i was dying,
but since HE brought it up....
for the next two days we had to refrain from laughing because our abs hurt so bad.
and of course for some reason the next two days we were the funniest we'd ever been,
which made it even harder not to laugh.

moral of the story?
our bodies are aging at an exponential rate, and everyone should go see the movie 42.

conference weekend

^ started off with a date night with our favorite couple. ^

dinner at copper onion, ice cream at nielsens and movie.

with matt's tiny meal portions, matching saved by the bell denim, 

surprise parking tickets, and being child-locked in the car,

it was a night full of lots of laughter and quality time spent with the snows 

(even though i was so sad i didn't get to see baby crew.)

^ we also took advantage of the limited sunshine and took dash up millcreek ^

that dog is small but mighty.

he tackles 5 mile hikes like they were nothin.

we are so excited to be outdoorsy this summer and have him tag along.

^ we went laser tagging for elise's brother marcus's birthday ^

it brought us all back to our middle school days.

i'm not going to say i got last place, but i'm not saying i did well either.

^ and what conference is complete without a conference breakfast? ^

french toast casserole with buttermilk syrup, fruit, sausage and eggs.

the nicols came over and we put ourselves in a food coma

and were quite proud when we stayed awake through all of conference.

best 2 weeks of the year

after china we decided to have a smaller "14 days of birthday" than last year.
we may dream of having a money tree in our backyard, but i keep checking and it never seems to be there.

so this year involved a few less pricey activities and A LOT more food and treat eating.    

trust me, i'm not complaining. 

so here is some of what this year involved..

 half-off sushi:

^^^ i thought a mullet was a good look for a date

 movie night:

nielsens:

catching up on downton abbey:

making daw's favorite cookies:

daw showed me what he ate for 2 years,

at this authentic peruvian restaurant:

exploring ikea:

celebrating both our bdays with friends:

yay for both being 24 for two weeks!  and yay for being 25 now so i can boss dawson around again!