Happy Valentine's Day! A Year's Worth of Dates

Happy Valentine's Day, my friends! We've been busy crafting away, making little pom pom love monsters and heart-shaped cards for all the kids in Ez's class, as well as felt roses for his teachers. I always remember making elaborate Valentine's Day cards with my mom growing up and I was so excited to continue this tradition with Ez and Declan once they started school. 

To celebrate this day of love, I thought it'd be fun to recap the past year's worth of date nights and weekend getaways, which don't always get a lot of mention on the blog. Fun fact: we've never hired a babysitter for Ez and Deck. Not once. Thankfully, we do have a few willing family members who take on the job for free (seriously, thank you so much!!) and we managed to do a couple getaways and staycations last year. 

First up, and I'm not sure this should really count as a date, but we like to take opportunity when it presents itself, even if we are mid-move with just hours to pack up half a household. So, in true Joe and Nina fashion, we made the most of our move last January with a mini dinner & cupcake break, followed by scrabble & wine to celebrate our new place. Cheers to that!

Last Valentine's Day we decided to go all out with a weekend getaway to Monterey, where we explored the wharf, and the beach, and, possibly my favorite part, we met a super playful otter putting on a show for us just as we were about to leave. 

In March we opted for a staycation, and wandered around Sacramento, checking out coffee houses, bookstores, the Governor's Mansion, and basically all the stuff we've always wanted to explore that don't include a playground 😉

A family trip to Disneyland may not seem like a date, BUT, if you go with enough family there's always a chance to sneak off for a mini date to ride the big kid rides while someone else watches the kids. Definitely one of our favorite date spots (as if you didn't know that already!)

Between May and June we were too busy doing family stuff for a real date night, but we made up for it in July with a movie date to see Wonder Woman and a birthday weekend getaway to Tahoe & Reno. Gambling, a cirque du soleil type performance, LOTS of good food, and kayaking - one of my favorite birthdays yet. 

September was one year married for us!! We celebrated with sushi (pretty much a given on 9 out of 10 of our date nights) and our first movie at the Tower Theater (Wind River - surprisingly good), a trip to the California Museum, and, of course, cutting into our year old cake (also surprisingly good). 

November was DISNEY WORLD!! We had a pretty good day date around Epcot, which is basically THE dream date spot. Tons of great food, drinks, and beautiful scenery. I wish we lived close enough for regular date nights there. 

Somehow, in the midst of Christmas shopping, and wrapping, and colds, and family time we snuck out to see Lady Bird, which I've already raved about on Instagram because it's all filmed in Sacramento. Being able to watch it in Tower Theater and recognize all the landmarks was such a special experience. 

And that brings us back to January, with not one, but two date nights. First up was a trip to see Star Wars, which at first we liked, but as the movie sank in, we realized we didn't like it so much after all. Then we capped the month off with another staycation where we tried a new to us restaurant and went to see the Sacramento Contemporary Dance company, followed by a cozy night watching Chicago and playing Mario Kart. 

What a year we've had! Fitting in romance between potty training, and the preschool plague, and all the other madness that comes with raising two rambunctious boys is not easy, but I'm so lucky that Joe always makes it a priority to schedule in time for just the two of us AND come up with creative date ideas. 

Happy Valentine's Day to my bff, partner in crime (and parenting), the funniest person I know, my soulmate. Men like you are one in a million, and I definitely won the lottery with you. 

PS - Did I mention how lucky I am? ❤

Date Night: Dancing & Dreaming

Last weekend we were able to drop the kiddos off with my family and have a night to ourselves. We didn't have any grand ideas about what to do with ourselves so we came up with a plan on the fly which involved good food (a must for any date night), dancing, Mario Kart, snuggling at home with a movie, and, my favorite part, dreaming about our family goals for this year. 

Funny story: one of our top goals is that we want to be more intentional with our family time and use electronics less. We actually got a white board just so we could write down our goals and have them visible daily. About twelve hours after we wrote that down, our internet went out. Just broke, out of the blue, for no apparent reason. Turns out one of the wires in a completely different room had come unplugged and we had no electronics for two days straight because we'd forgotten that cable even existed. Apparently that white board means business, once it's written down it is going to happen, one way, or another 😂 

Back to date night, we got lucky because Sacramento was doing a Dine Downtown event where you could order from a special three course menu at a bunch of restaurants in the city. We'd been wanting to eat along the river for awhile, so this was our perfect chance to try it out. As you can see below, everything was DELICIOUS. I highly recommend Rio City Cafe if you're in the area:

I got the endive salad and salmon over parmesan risotto, Joe got the clam chowder (so, SO good!) and chicken schnitzel. For dessert we split both of the options, but the creme brulee was the definite winner. And the view wasn't so bad either:

After dinner we got tickets to the Sacramento Contemporary Dance Theater's show benefiting Camp Grizzly, a camp for deaf children. Honestly, we had low expectations going in, since we hadn't heard much about it beforehand, but it completely blew us away. It was so, so good, and we were both completely immersed the whole time. Joe loved it so much he wanted to go home and watch a "dance/musical type movie" so we watched Chicago, an old favorite of mine. 

Date nights are kind scarce around here so we make sure to squeeze a lot into them - in case you hadn't noticed! What are some of your favorite date night activities?

Kidfree Staycation

I remember after Ez was born it was a long, loonnnggg time before Joe and I took a date night. And even longer before we spent a night away from him. All that first baby stuff about how we didn't want to let him out of our sight and we genuinely just wanted to spend all our time together as a family. Fast forward to having an almost 2 year old and an almost 4 year old and we'll take any chance for alone time that we can get. My parents and brothers were kind enough to watch the kiddos this weekend despite the fact that nearly every time they do Declan brings some kind of death illness into their house. Everyone was healthy this time around so knock on wood we finally broke that curse. Thanks Gangy, Grampa, and the uncles!

Joe and I opted for a mini staycation and decided to explore Sacramento without worrying about strollers and naptimes and carrying around a bag full of snacks at all times. After nearly four years doing this parenting gig I've kinda forgotten how light it is to travel without kids. We actually had a free hand to carry around Starbucks. #itsthelittlethings

We dropped Ez and Declan off around noon on Saturday and then came the big question: Now what?? 

We didn't have a plan but we were determined to do stuff that we wouldn't be able to do with two crazy, rascally toddlers in two. So first things first we headed straight downtown for a caffeine pick me up at a cute little cafe with homemade coconut macadamia milk. So, SO delicious. And we actually sat down and drank out of real, breakable cups. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around enjoying all the random art scattered around Sacramento, venturing into shops with tons of breakable items that we'd normally steer clear of (hello BevMo's 5 cent wine sale!!), eating at restaurants without kid's menus, and stopping to smell (and photograph) all the beautiful spring flowers. 

We also stopped by the Leland Stanford Mansion, built in the 1850s and full of tons of cool history - and breakable items. Sacramento has so many beautiful old Victorian era homes and I've always wondered what the insides looked like. This was our chance to finally wander around one and check it out. Not only was the home restored as close to its original state as possible, but it actually still had most of the original furniture as well. It was just like stepping back into the 1800s and it gave us a fun glimpse into the past. 

We capped off our evening with cupcakes, wine, and a Netflix movie. A perfectly relaxing end to a perfect day.

By Sunday we were well rested, the house was in a rarely seen state of organization, and we were so ready to hug our babies. There's nothing like a kid free day, but the reunion is always the sweetest part. 

Valentine Recap

Valentine's Day came a little early for me when I got a sweet, chocolatey delivery on Friday afternoon. Joe knows me too well. As you can see below, Ez helped himself to some chocolate covered Oreos as well:

On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Ez got to open his gifts. ALL of them. We got him that cute plush Lightning McQueen for $5 from Kohls - a total steal since I've seen similar ones for $20 at Target. We also got him two books, a balloon, a sippy cup and a heart shaped cookie. Then he got a ton more goodies from the grandparents. Shirts, chocolates, a toy car, heart-shaped rice krispie treats - that is one very loved boy!

Joe got a scrapbook from me. During the move I found a bunch if ticket stubs and mementos I'd saved since we started dating. I decided what better time to actually organize all those than for Valentine's Day? It was so much fun to look back over the past three and a half years at all the fun stuff we've done together.

The grandparents all got handmade cards from Ez:

On Saturday afternoon Ez was invited to his very first Valentine's Day party. We met some friends at a park, ate some cupcakes, decorated treat bags and exchanged Valentine's. Ez loved it!

Saturday evening was just for us parents. Ez had a date with his grandparents while Joe and I went out to a fancy, delicious dinner. We saw two other kids in the restaurant, and no offense to Ez, but I think it would have been a far more rushed, less enjoyable meal had he been there. I'm sure the feeling is mutual and Ez had a better time running around with the grandparents than he would've had in a dimly lit restaurant that didn't feature mac n cheese on the menu. 

The restaurant had a special Valentine's menu and Joe and I split everything we ordered. We started with lobster bisque and this hilariously tiny chopped beet dish. We were a little worried when we saw that huge plate with two bites of food on it, and were wondering if we'd need to get second dinner afterward, but thankfully the rest of the meal redeemed itself. The lobster bisque was the best I've ever had, the Chilean seabass was perfectly cooked, and the mushroom risotto was fantastic. For dessert we had Nutella bread pudding, which was alright, but the highlight was the vanilla bean cake with ice cream. It sounds super simple, but it was seriously the best cake I've ever had. Joe let me finish that one off, which is why he's my Valentine ;)

After dinner we went to get coffee and browse books at Barnes and Noble. The perfect end to a perfect evening.

How was your Valentine's Day? Do you love the holiday or find it cheesy? I'm somewhere in the middle, I do love romantic cheesiness, but I don't necessarily love the prices and crowds on Valentines Day.

Here's a little look back at some of our past Valentine's Days:

Valentine Weekend in Santa Barbara

Ez's 1st Valentine

Valentine's Day & the Beatles

Date Night

Last Friday Joe and I got all dressed up and fancy to go to a gala that his company helped organize. I don't remember the last time I got so dressed up, but it was probably pre-Ez. The gala was held at the Park Plaza Hotel in LA and everything was gorgeous. There was an open bar which was completely wasted on us. I did drink my fill of cranberry-sprites though. Yay... We stayed and mingled for about an hour, made sure to say hello to all of Joe's bosses, and then we left and got dinner at a vegan restaurant near our house. It turns out fancy isn't really our thing. Even though we skipped out on the gala, we had a great kid-free evening just catching up and talking about random stuff that wasn't completely related to Ez. 

And then we went home, put on pjs, and got to cuddle with this little goober:

The best of both worlds.

Linking up with Jess for:

Our Weekend: Runny Noses & Playgrounds

I know the title of this post sounds a bit like a bummer, but any weekend that starts like this:

and ends like this:

is pretty much a win in my book. 

However, if we go back to Friday, Ez and I got to spend a really fun 100 minutes or so (but who's counting?) at the doctor's office, listening to a little girl's squeaky dog-toy-sounding shoes run back and forth across the room (seriously, who invented those???). The squeaky shoe serenade was also punctuated with lots of wailing coming from the exam room. So you can imagine that by the time it was finally Ez's turn to head into the exam room, he and I were both a little shell shocked. He started wailing during the physical exam, and that's the easy part! By the time he got his shots he was screaming bloody murder. When we were finished and walked back out into the waiting room everyone commented that they could hear him and how sad it was. I always feel like I need chocolate or any form of comfort food after I leave these appointments. And to make the whole thing a little sadder, Ez got an insta-runny nose while we were there. At first I thought it was just from crying so hard, but it stuck around all weekend, and he was definitely a little more fussy and not into sleeping as a result. My poor baby :(

This weekend was filled with lots of extra snuggles for our semi-sick little guy, and that's never a bad thing. 

After a perfectly lazy Saturday morning spent lounging around and doing nothing, we dropped Ez off with his Grandma Kat and Joe and I had a parent's night out in Long Beach, starting with a delicious seafood dinner, followed by a spooky, scary night wandering through Dark Harbor, which is 6 different mazes at the Queen Mary. Three of the mazes are actually aboard the ship, and those are my most favorite. I'll go into more detail and share more pics on that later. One thing I will mention about our parent's nights out is how funny it is that we spend our alone time talking about Ez. Once you have kids, there's always a magnet pull on your mind and your heart to wherever your kid is (as I'm sure all you parents know). 

Sunday we had another play date at the mall, and Joe got to meet baby Abbie for the first time. This was my second time meeting her, but my first time holding her - she is soooo tiny and so precious! I don't think Ezzy was ever this small, and I'm pretty sure his head was much bigger. My little pumpkin head... Joe definitely got baby girl fever. Meanwhile, Ez and Wyatt made the cutest little buds, running around like they owned the place, and teaming up on Joe to try to break his barriers and escape the confines of the play area. Joe made trying to escape so fun, that it became the activity of choice, trumping all the slides and tunnels. Either way, Ez was worn out by the time we left, and wound up taking a 3 hour nap. Whatever works...

We capped off our weekend with another trip to a playground and some grocery shopping. What kind of fun did you and your family get into this weekend? Any Halloween activities yet?