Date #7: Slumber Party!

For our first date of March we pulled out the couch bed, stocked up on junk food and movies, and had a great time filling out trivia books about each other. The plan was to have a movie marathon and stay up all night. We made it to about 3 or 4 am so I think we did pretty well! This is one of the most fun dates we have done in awhile. It felt great to get out of the usual routine, laugh and be silly while we splurged on movies, treats, and less sleep. We watched Bend it Like Beckham, Life of Pi, Ghost Dad, and The Sound of Music. 

Joe dominated at the trivia - how embarrassing. 

Date #6: I Love to See the Temple

For this date the plan was to go do a session at the temple and then get some Thai food. The Thai food was the real treat for Joe - he hardly gets any of it with me in the house. Unfortunately for him my tender first trimester stomach was repulsed by the idea and so Joe, being the wonderful husband he is, settled for Dairy Queen. What a sweetheart!

Home Sweet Home

Last month I had the privilege of going home to go through the temple with my little sister, Lauren, in preparation for her mission. I got to be there for an entire week and although the weather was cooler than I was hoping for I had a blast! Everyone in the immediate family was there except Joe and John Michael. We played games past midnight every night, stayed up even later talking, ate great food, celebrated my birthday, went to the temple, and got to go to an Imagine Dragons concert.

The awesome cookie cake Emma made for me. 

Us waiting for Imagine Dragons to start playing. Did Alta Genius REALLY need to play for so long?

 Some great pics my Mom took of Aja and Dan while they performed.

 After party at Whataburger. I'm so glad I made it here during my stay, but unfortunately I wasn't so lucky with Chick-fil-a.

Our ward family and immediate family outside of the temple after Lauren went through for the first time.

I truly had a blast seeing everyone back home. Lauren reported to the MTC the following week and from her letters she sounds like she is having an amazing time. She is thrilled that her companion will go running with her every day, has spotted Elder Holland, and has already sang in a small group in front of all the girls in the MTC for Relief Society. All she needs to do now is get Spanish under control and she's on her way to Cali!

Date #5: Tchaikovsky and Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day early since I was flying down to Houston to see Lauren one last time before her mission. We decided it would be fun to have Valentine's Day on the same night I had planned our date to see the Spokane Symphony play Tchaikovsky at The Fox. Joe treated me to chocolates and roses and surprised me with a sweet, but short video he had made.

In return I had made Joe a box full of compliments and candies for his use on days when he feels low. After treating ourselves to some chocolates we left for our dinner reservations and then on to the Spokane Symphony. From the outside The Fox doesn't look like much, but as soon as you walk inside you are transported to the early 30's. We were blown away by the unique beauty of this theater. Plus the music was sublime.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

See my review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith here.

The Chosen

See my review of The Chosen by Chaim Potok here.