Date Nights

I have to admit. Date nights have come a lot easier nowadays that we have more accessible babysitters in hand. But even before, when we had to actually make several calls to find a high school kid that would watch Ethan for a few hours or drive up to Ohio to visit the inlaws, Mike and I always tried to make time for ourselves – even if it was just dinner and a movie.

I read this article from the NY Times several months ago about reinventing date nights that got me thinking then about whether we do enough "exciting" things over the mundane "we're in the same room" kind of spending time together. The article talks about finding a way to “inject novelty” into the relationship whenever possible – thinking outside the box, so to speak. I just recently looked it up again, and it just made me giggle about some of the things that Mike and I have done outside of the sirloin steak and a movie scenario.

My favorite “dates” (in no particular order – and of course, includes some from our pre-Ethan era):

· Calling in sick to work and crossing the border to Mexico.

· Almost dying in a mosh pit at the Warped tour.

· Spending the day driving around in a golf cart at Catalina Island.

· Renting a ridiculously priced beach house at Hermosa Beach for the weekend.

· Riding the world’s tallest and fastest roller coasters at Cedar Point.

· Sightseeing in New York City.

· Horsebackriding on the beach in Rosarito.

· Going skydiving for the first time, and then pursuing skydiving lessons to get our licenses together.

· Visiting the historic Gettysburg.

· Taking a moonlit gondola ride through the marina in Redondo Beach.

· Getting beach-side massages in Cancun.

· Touring the pits at our first NASCAR race.

· Stealing a government vehicle and sneaking out of a military base to go to a party.

· Eloping in Las Vegas, and then dancing to our "first dance" in a casino parking lot.

· Listening to a live jazz band in DC.

· Watching the sunrise on a hot air balloon and following it with wine tasting.

· Night snowboarding in below freezing temperature.

· Cave tubing in Belize.

Notice a lot of my favorites include most of our travels. They come far and few inbetween, but we do try to have at list one big trip every year. Of course, we won't pass any opportunity to check out a local restaurant we both haven't been to, or just catching the new release at the drive-in. Every once in a while, Mike convinces me to do something a little more active like play tennis -- but I tend to favor the eating over the exercising. :) I'm kidding... sort of....

I'll take what I can get! Even if it's just cuddling to watch a DVR episode of House. :)

Our latest conquer: Going to Disneyland just to eat at the infamous Blue Bayou restaurant.