loving and liking

matt & i try to have date night once a month. we all know how important this is and how hard it is at the same time, right?! i do know that one of the greatest gifts that i can give my children, is a mom & dad who love AND like each other. a mom & dad who work well together. a mom & dad who respect each other. a mom & dad who love God above all other things. a mom & dad who believe in marriage, family, love, and fun.

right before matt left for the dominican republic, i snuck a "while i'm away" box in his suitcase. i filled it with a few "old" pics of us & the girls, snacks, and toys/treats for the orphans. i included a note saying i would plan our date night for when he got back. matt "plans" so much at work, that its almost a burden to be left planning all the time at home.

so, i did the find the babysitter, plan the meal & escape plan thing. and when it was time for the date, i was so excited to use this for the first time:

the deck night deck is centered around 3 styles of attention that couples need. there's a short quiz included so you can find out what you & your partners favorite style of attention is. matt & i hadn't taken the quiz, so we got in the truck, randomly picked out 1 card from each of the 3 areas, then decided which we would do. all of our choices were actually fun & something that we could've done that night...but we chose the progressive dinner.

so we went to our favorite swanky little restaurant for drinks. who was the bartendar? oh, just my new personal trainer. oops. he said he wouldn't hold against me anything i had tonight. =) we were only having one drink anyway! i chose a pineapple upside down martini...delicious & worth the extra time on the elliptical machine!!

we then followed with a different restaurant for appetizers. we tried a new "mom & pop" place for our main entree. then, went to a chocolate company for coffee & dessert.

it was so fun and refreshing to be out with my hubby, to re-connect and to experience so many different atmospheres for just one meal. looking forward to next month already...