An Almost Box Social (11-18-11)

Through a series of running into the right people at the right time the beginning of my sophomore year of college, a group formed. A group that met together every Sunday night to play games and be together. This event became known as a "Box Social" and we're still not exactly sure what that means. Well, I'm not sure anyway.

Marriages happened and people moved away. The Box Socials died a sudden death.

Until last Friday when most of the core Box Socialites realized we'd all relocated to northern Utah and we figured we needed to get together and see if the fire was still there.

Rewind. Before you can fully enjoy our date night, you must know how it started. And you must know I'm horrible with directions. Jeff and I planned to have Jeff ride the train into Woods Cross so that we could drive down to Salt Lake together. I'd just pick him up at the station and we'd be on our way. Simple. Perfect. Eco friendly.

Well, eco friendly until I find myself driving around for forty five minutes trying to find the Woods Cross train station in a blizzard in the dark. Not to mention, I had the stress of knowing my husband was stranded out in that blizzard waiting for my arrival.

I almost cried. I really didn't think I'd ever find the station. I had to call my Dad so I could have personalized navigation through the very confusing Utah grid system...

I eventually found my nearly frostbitten husband. He said he would have expected nothing less from me.  And then he gave me very specific directions on how to drive to Salt Lake while he blasted the heat and rubbed his hands together for extra warmth.

We met our friends at The Macaroni Grill and it was as if we'd never been apart. Allow me to introduce you to: Kenz, Andy, Joe and Brianne.

And now allow me to note that my Mom was a saint and took Eli for a few hours so we could fully enjoy our meal and company. (Thanks a million, Mom!)

My favorite part of the night was when Brianne asked me if we had a name picked out for the new baby. I told her we're thinking about the name Carson. To which Kenz said, "I've only met really nice Carsons, so I think that's a great name. Wait...was that stereotypical?"

Joe answered, "No. It would have been stereotypical if you would have said ALL Carsons are nice." Then one way or another everyone started calling Kenz a "Carsist."

Eventually Joe said my favorite comment of the night which was, "Is there a less offensive name we could call Carson?"

To which Jeff said, "Yes. Carson is only the name they use amongst themselves."

It was hilarious. And after typing this out I'm realizing it was probably a "had to be there" moment.

 Kenz and Andy quickly took advantage of the creative outlet.

We were noisy and obnoxious and that's how you know you've had a really good time. It was fun to get the group together again.

Jeff High - "Getting to go to a restaurant without Eli...wait...is that bad?" (We love you, Eli. Even if we don't always want to wrestle you when we go to fancy restaurants.)
Jeff Low - Almost being stood up on our date.

Sarah High - Carsist.
Sarah Low - We paid $5.00 in parking and I knew there was free parking somewhere close. Staying true to my inner lack of direction, I just didn't know exactly where that free parking was.

UNO Fine Date (11-11-11)

We didn't really realize our date was on 11.11.11 until just now when I typed the title of our date. But I'm really regretting not taking advantage of that theme! I guess we'll have to wait for the next 11.11.11 to start the tradition of playing UNO on the one filled date.

Despite our missed theme opportunity, we still had a fun time. Ever heard of IKEA? I could spend all day there. We were on the hunt for some storage boxes for our entertainment center and we didn't mind rummaging through the whole store in the meantime.

Everything in IKEA is cheap and cute! It probably makes my top 5 favorite stores list. Especially because you can get fro-yo for $1 as you're leaving the store. Can't pass that up.

Luckily we had our IKEA date when Jeff's parents were in town for a BYU game. They were so nice to let us barge in on their dinner with Ben and Laura.

Ben and Laura had arranged for a babysitter to watch their kids during their date. When Eli started acting up I was wishing we'd gotten a sitter and I was feeling bad for ruining their childless date...sorry!

Would you believe me if I told you Eli loves salsa? No? He was quadruple dipping his chips in it! He got a bit restless so Jeff gave him a lollipop to try to keep him entertained and he even started dipping that in the salsa! Mi nino es loco!

When the lollipop didn't entertain him anymore, Grandpa Excell saved us by getting him some Skittles to munch on. That did the trick!

Sarah High - Watching Eli dip everything into the salsa.
Sarah Low - I had a headache most of the night.

Jeff High - Finding the storage boxes we went to IKEA for.
Jeff Low - Eli at dinner. It's always a battle.

Geocaching (11-7-11)

Our date started with a nice dinner that I thought looked fancy (despite mac and cheese being part of the meal) so I took a picture of it:

And then we hit the neighborhood to go geocaching. Never heard of it? I'll let Wikipedia do the explaining.

If you were too lazy to click the Wikiepdia link, think treasure hunting with a GPS. I brought the treasure maps.

And then I tried to include Eli in a picture. These are my new favorite pictures -- the ones with Eli lurking in the shadows.

Or I also like the date pictures with items strategically placed in front of Eli's face...

So here's Jeff being cold and looking for the capsule.

On the geocaching website, all the pro geocachers called anyone who wasn't geocaching Muggles. I thought that was funny. So we were calling everyone Muggles all night.

It's hard to be inconspicuous to Muggles when you're circling a tree searching high and low. We were not successful in our treasure hunt. We tried three geocaches and we didn't find a single treasure! Bust!

It was a fun date, but we agreed it would be a better summer date with more daylight and more warmth.

Jeff High - Calling everyone Muggles.

Jeff Low - Not finding anything.

Sarah High - Keeping an eye on the compass as we drove around town to find out where we needed to go.

Sarah Low - Changing a stinky diaper mid treasure hunting...cramped in the front seat of the car.

Oktoberfest (10-29-11)

So maybe I didn't do a post about my date last week. We were in Cedar and I arranged breakfast with our friends one morning. That counts, right? Anyway, Jeff was a better planner this week than I was last week.

We had a German night as we celebrated the German drinking holiday of Oktoberfest.

Jeff got busy in the kitchen whipping up authentic Wiener Schnitzel and German Potatoes.

It's always nice to have someone else worry about dinner and it was fun to get a taste of Germany.

Next we carved/decorated pumpkins. I didn't want to deal with the mess of clearing out the innards of my pumpkin so I got creative with some extra paint and glitter I had lying around.

Jeff took the traditional approach with a cleaner twist -- rubber gloves.

Mid-carving we continued our Oktoberfest celebration with German mugs filled past the brim with (root) beer (floats).

Okay, so we could only find one German mug which was really an Austrian mug but let's not get too critical.

As I got the glitter out for this creative project, I thought about how my mom never let me play with glitter as a kid. I always thought she was so mean. I always told her I'd clean up the mess. What's a girl's childhood without the sparkle of a little glitter here and there...and EVERYWHERE!

I sure am glad I didn't waste my time pulling out my pumpkin's guts. Because then I wouldn't have been able to spend the second half of my night walking around the kitchen cleaning up the effects of the glitter bomb that must have happened mid decorating.

If you walked in our house right now, you'd probably think we put glitter on the ceiling fans and purposely gave our house some shine. And that's after trying to do some damage control. 

Mom, I'm so sorry I doubted you and your glitter phobia. I'm afraid my daughters (assuming we eventually get a girl or two) will live the same glitterless childhood I once had.

Jeff's pumpkin ended up being much cleaner and much more creative! Check out that T-Bird!

I'd say we've gotten a lot better in our pumpkin accessorizing than when we were first married.

Sarah High - Jeff came over to my side of the table to carve for a little bit as he checked out my glittering techniques. I saw his pumpkin nearing the glitter tube I had on the table, so I warned him not to knock over the glitter. Jeff was in a pumpkin carving zone and didn't hear me. Just as he said, "What?" his pumpkin bumped the glitter and it spilled all over the table. Then I realized being a mother gives you the skills to see disasters and messes that are about to happen. I was glad to see my skills are so keen.

Sarah Low - I glittered the house mere hours after I had vacuumed the floors. And I hate vacuuming.

Jeff High - That his German meal turned out.

Jeff Low - His pumpkin fell apart after being outside all night.

Back to Our Roots (10-14-11)

We're trying to soak up every last minute of nice weather so we took advantage of the sunshine and started our date off with a walk.

Actually, we really started our date off by dealing with a...tiny...water valve unplugging issue while trying to turn off our sprinklers for the winter. Let's just say we flooded the neighbor's lawn, water was spraying everywhere, Jeff's hands were bruised and we had to make a quick call to the city maintenance man. It was a bonding experience -- perfect for date night.

The walk helped dry us off.

And then after Eli was snug in bed, we whipped out the Monopoly board for the first time in three years. Monopoly has been the biggest source of conflict in our marriage. After a few tense games at the beginning of our marriage, we shoved it to the back of the game closet and silently vowed to never touch it again.

But we figured we're so much more mature now. And less competitive. Surely we could handle the stresses of a game of Monopoly now.

But once I got a little money in my hands, I was back to my old greedy ways.

We have some major pet peeves with each other and our Monopoly strategies. Jeff builds up hotels in the blink of an eye. And he NEVER lands on my properties after I get houses on them. I won't make a deal unless I'm getting the very obvious better end of the deal. Jeff will do anything for Boardwalk and I'll do anything for those worthless railroads. I don't know why I love them so much. All my old first married Monopoly memories came back very quickly.

After a deal Jeff was slightly hesitant about, we traded properties and got Bankruptcy Alley going.

Despite our pet peeves, we played nice.

The game went back and forth for a while, leaving each of us hungry for the win. Just as we were both sick of rolling those die and praying we'd skip all the hotels on the board, Jeff landed on my most expensive property and solemnly calculated his losses. Game over.

Yay for me.

Eli was a cute sleeping baby in his new P.J.s the whole time. Is it just me or does his head look really flat in this picture?

Monopoly night was a success. I'm glad we dared to dust it off and give it another go.

Sarah High - Winning the game and watching Jeff try to scrounge up enough money to pay me.
Sarah Low - Jeff landed on all the railroads first and bought every one of them. I had to pay $200 whenever I landed on a railroad by my second time around the board.

Jeff High - Going on a walk.
Jeff Low - I won't make a fair deal.

Love Lab (10-7-11)

Whoopsie. Between General Conference, a BYU football game and visiting family...I missed my window of date night opportunity last week. We did spend a lot of time together, but we didn't officially "date." Since our break, we're back with new vigor.

Our night started with taking arms-length family pictures as we were waiting for 5:30 to roll around.

Eli thought this activity was entertaining. He would come pose with us, wait for the flash, run around the house, and join us again for another picture. By the end, his smile was a little forced.

We were waiting for 5:30 to roll around because we were scheduled to have dinner with my Dad so he wouldn't be so lonely on his last night without my Mom. My Mom went on a 10-day cruise with her parents and sister -- leaving my Dad home every night eating pickles and ham for dinner.

We never turn down a free meal, so we were happy to keep him company.

With stuffed bellies, we continued our date at home...in the love lab. Jeff's brother recently read, "The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work" by John Gottman and he recommended we read it. (Maybe he thinks our marriage needs work? I chose not to be offended.)

I actually vaguely remembered my Marriage and Family Relations teacher in college talking about this Gottman fellow in most of his lectures. And after seeing the book, I'm 99% sure it was one of the many novels in my education that I was supposed to read, but politely declined. And now I'm realizing why I only got a "B" in Marriage and Family Relations. Not because I was bound to be a bad future wife, but because I didn't take interest in Gottman's ramblings on his "love lab."

John Gottman set up a "love lab" where couples could go and live for a week while being videotaped and assessed. Gottman did this for 30 years and then created a book on what makes happy marriages. He would record their behaviors and then follow up on them years later to see if they were still together and then he would find connections between marriage behaviors and divorce rates.

Being married and reading the book by choice makes it significantly more interesting.

When I saw he had exercises for married couples to work on together, I knew it would make the perfect date night. I was right.

We played "20 Questions" where we picked 20 questions out of a list of 60 and saw if we could answer them about each other. Then we played "Survival Game" where we had to choose 10 things we would take with us if we were stranded on a desert island. Then we talked about how we met, our engagement, our wedding, hard times and good times.

Turns out we know each other pretty well. And turns out these activities made for a fun, reminiscent date night. We survived the love lab.

Jeff High - Taking pictures before dinner.
Jeff Low - I beat him at the 20 Questions game.

Sarah High - Hearing all the things Jeff actually remembered I had said when we played 20 Questions.
Sarah Low - We got stuck waiting for a train to cross on the way home. Which was actually more funny than it was low because every time we get stuck behind the train we start cursing my brother who works for Union Pacific. But I do hate getting stuck behind a train. Especially when said train is only going 10 mph.