Mt. Bierstadt and A Shift in Momentum

Dan and I have been taking time together. We realized we want to have time alone to talk and just enjoy each other. We want to consciously focus on living why we fell in love. This means having fun, hiring a babysitter, and getting out together kidless!

Talk

When we were dating, we talked about things that seemed like nothing...they weren't too serious of conversations. I remember Dan telling me how he liked the color of my hair (and he threw in that he thought I should stop highlighting it...sorry, just broke that streak -- again!). He joked with me about dressing up gangster and riding around Provo that way to the "gangster store" by Macey's. We just laughed together and I thoroughly enjoyed the fun he brought to my life.

Dates

When I think of our dates, we often had friends along but it was almost always something fun and usually outdoors. We night skiied at Brighton, blasting fun music (I turned on the "Step Up" soundtrack, which was sort of a bar I'd set that he had to pass...he had to be okay with my crazy side that loves intense music). We went night skiing together and even crashed some Stake Dance for a song or two so we could slow dance up at the skii lodge. I loved watching him go off jumps but what touched me the most was that there was a part that was unlit and I wasn't comfortable going there, so he stuck with me instead of with the group. I loved that he already sacrificed for me. We loved hiking and lighting the Y at homecoming -- a jolly good time with live music and hot chocolate afterwards. Watching the volleyball game was super fun, going to plays, guitar concerts, and bowling were other favorite dates. Oh, we even played tennis together which hasn't happened since we got married.

A Change of Momentum

Our dates usually found us outdoors and doing something physical...that's something that we've been missing since we got married and even more since we had kids. But you know what? There's no reason it has to be that way. Life is more fun than we give it credit! We tend to make things to serious, too stressful, and to not enjoy each other! So we wanted to change that. We hired a babysitter for a 3 hour date on Friday night and ate dinner out at a new place and watched a movie together (Sherlock). It took us out of our daily routine and got us deeply involved in the plot. Sometimes it's just nice to be transported to another world for a couple of hours and to just be together. Then Saturday we have a great friend who also has a daycare business, so she took the girls all day while we hiked Mt. Bierstadt. We had a blast! We had some good discussion, then some good music. We went back to all our favorite songs from dances (think Yeah!, Temperature, Pon de Replay, Run It! etc.) and just enjoyed the fun times. As we hiked, we mostly were just together, achieving a goal and being connected to earth. We weren't as connected to the earth as the one girl who did the whole 7 miles barefoot though, haha. I loved powering up the hill and getting to over 14,200 feet! Then standing at the pinnacle and appreciating our success together. It was so fun not just to do it, but to have a time goal and beat the suggested time range -- hiking all the way up in only 2 hours and 10 minutes. It was a great experience, full of fun. Then we topped it off by watching the BYU game with friends and family till midnight. This is really a momentum shift in our marriage because we are really happy adventuring together!