Date Night

Date night.... what does that mean to you?  B.B. (before Beckett) it usually meant dinner out and sometimes a movie.  If we got crazy we might do something like go to a friends house for dinner or attend a community event.  I don't think we ever even called it a "date night."  It was more like "let's not cook tonight" or "let's go do something fun night."  Pretty typical, right?  But now that we are A.B. (after Beckett) I look back and think "wow, did we really appreciate getting the freedom to whatever we wanted WHEN we wanted?"  For the most part, yes, I think we did.  We intentionally waited 7 years to have children, just so that we could enjoy each other and do what we wanted for a bit.  I'm glad we had that time.

Anyhow, now that we aren't so footloose and fancy free "date night" takes on a whole new meaning.  While we are very lucky to get to see our families who gladly watch Beckett for us, that doesn't necessarily coordinate with every time we want to go out.  If you are paying a babysitter $10 an hour to go out, then you better make your time worthwhile.

So, to get to the point.... I have been trying to make it a mission to spice up our date nights a bit.  Yes, we will occasionally go to dinner but anymore neither of us really want to go to a chain restaurant and we aren't crazy impressed with the local cooking around here either.  Sometimes I think I do a better (and healthier!) job at home.  We have been making conscious efforts to do different things.

Our most recent date night was pretty fun.  We went to the Dallas Arboretum's Chihuly Night.  We packed up some frosty beers, Scholtzskys sandwiches, and our picnic blanket and headed out.

It's really a perfect summer event - tour the garden while seeing amazing art, listen to music (Journey tribute band - ohhhh yahhhhh), and have a picnic!

Nice white pants, dude.

Check out the sunset over White Rock Lake!

On a sidenote, while we were sitting and enjoy the view/picnic/music, I happened to check out and slightly obsess over everyone else's picnic gear.  People were fancy - we were wayyyy outpicnic-ed.  But check out some of the cool things I saw - 

First up, check out these two awesome wine holders!  You just stab them in the ground and voila!  WHERE do I get this???  It is a necessity for our upcoming Florida trip.

Now that's a picnic basket!

This cooler had it all - rolling wheels with a handle, side pockets, padded bench on top, and a little drink station in the back.  Well done.

Ok, back to the date night... Here are some of my favorite exhibits.

It was a really fun night, and definitely something "different" to do.  I'm scouting out more fun dates, so if you hear of something then please let me know!