Re-disc-overing Our Love (6-22-12)

I am so excited to be back in the dating game! I wanted the first date after our break to be fun and summery and something we haven't done for a date night yet. What says summer more than having a pleasant dinner picnic in your backyard?

It was the perfect picnic menu. Light, refreshing and delicious. We have some robins who made a nest in our backyard, and they kept us company with their new baby chicks as we enjoyed our meal.

Don't let my cropping of Eli in the above pictures fool you. Our children did accompany us on this date. But we tried to ignore them as best we could.

By "ignoring" our children I really mean taking our date to a park with a huge field next to it so that Eli could slide to his heart's content and we could play a little frisbee golf. Yes I said frisbee golf. It's exactly what you're imagining. You hit a target with a frisbee. Lowest score wins.

Frisbee golf is one of Jeff's favorite activities. He and his friends have created a course looping around and through SUU's campus.

Eli made himself hard to ignore by being super adorable as he followed us around being our caddy.

See. Caddy cuteness.

It was fun to come up with what our "holes" should be. This one was one of my favorites. We had to hit that bench which ended up being tricky because you had to throw a perfectly straight throw to avoid hitting the trees. Needless to say, I hit a tree. I also kind of love this picture.

Here's another favorite hole. We had to throw it through the picnic table to hit the tree right behind it.

Check out my stance. I actually did a lot better than I expected myself to. My brother Abe had taught me a few frisbee moves before I went to college. My training definitely paid off.

Did I mention is was 100 degrees outside? It was pretty darn hot. We enjoyed cooling off with my favorite summer treat -- snow cones!

It was fun to spend an evening outside doing summery things and refreshing to re-disc-over our love post baby.

Sarah High - The park ended up being the greatest frisbee golf course and it was extra great because we had the whole park to ourselves.
Sarah Low - I kept spilling my snow cone on myself.

Jeff High - Eli being the caddy.
Jeff Low - How hot it was.

Date Card!

Look what just magically arrived on our doorstep:

Straight from Chris Harrison.

Fine. I wrote it without the help of Chris or any TV producers. Even though we won't have a camera crew videoing our date tomorrow, I promise to provide plenty of photographic footage.

Excelladaters has finally returned after our three-month-we-had-an-adorable-baby-so-give-us-a-break hiatus.

Stay tuned.

Baby Date (3-23-12)

Okay, okay. I know many a website that claims you shouldn't talk about your children while on a date with your spouse. It's a time to escape the everyday yada, yada. So for everyone who thinks even talk of the children should be forbidden from date night, you'll probably be appalled by my date this week.

Because when Jeff got home from work on Friday I said, "Our date night is going to be Operation: Get Ready for Baby!" To which Jeff said, "Oh great. So basically you have a list of things you want me to do and you're calling that our date?"

He knows me too well. Although, I did remove installing the car seat and assembling the stroller from the night's activities to try to keep it more date-ish and less to-do-ish. My idea evolved to going to Wal-Mart to pick up snacks for the hospital and then come home to look through family names and try to finalize a name for baby. Fun, right? I thought you'd agree.

This is our hospital survival kit. The Goldfish and Fruit Snacks are Eli's special treats for the week of new baby, the bottles are obviously for #2 (Jeff refuses to use any other kind of bottle), and we plan to survive off Gatorade and candy.

When I was pregnant with Eli I bought a Gatorade as a part of my hospital bag. I don't buy Gatorade often, so it's a real treat when I finally get my hands on some. I resisted the many "cravings" I had for it leading up to Eli's birth, and then after I had Eli it was such a treat to feel like I finally deserved my Gatorade.

I'm hoping that bottle of Gatorade gets me through all the pushing this time around, too. If not the Gatorade, then the Sour Watermelons should help.

Then we looked through Jeff's family tree to help us decide on a name. We think we have one. But we've been very wishy-washy so things could change.

Here I am at almost 37 weeks pregnant.

I feel much more prepared for the baby now that we have a tentative name and our hospital bags nearly ready to go. Now I just need to figure out a way to get Jeff to get the car seat installed...

Bountiful Excursion (3-10-12)

We have a few recurring themes going on here. But hey, we do what we love when we go on dates together and boy do we love Chuck-A-Rama!

We went to the temple and then my parents took us to Jeff's favorite restaurant for his belated birthday dinner. The whole way down to Bountiful Jeff was telling me random bits of information he's learned about Chuck-A-Rama in the last few months. He knows the weekly menu, how to pay lunch price and get the dinner menu, and all sorts of insider information. It was adorable.

And I wonder why my face looks rounder and rounder with every picture that's taken of me...

After Chuck-A-Rama we went to our other favorite place -- Costco! Then we went home and I fell asleep at roughly 9:00. If there's two things a pregnant lady needs, it's food and sleep!

Jeff High - Going to the temple.
Jeff Low - Chuck-A-Rama and Costco were super crowded and crazy.

Sarah High - Listening to Jeff declare his love for Chuck-A-Rama on the way to Bountiful.
Sarah Low - Being too tired to function after 8:30.

Doughnut Retry (3-2-12)

I guess by this point I no longer need to remind you that we love doughnuts and we love cooking? Okay, good. Although, I do think our love for doughnuts is getting blown a little out of proportion on this here blog. But we had to master the ultimate Krispy Kreme imitator, so another doughnut date evolved.

We knew just what tools to use to make our doughnuts.

And this time we fried them instead of baked them. It's still healthier if it's homemade instead of store bought, right?

It was instantly decided that fried doughnuts taste much more Krispy Kremey.

And if I was embarrassed with the number of doughnut holes I ate last go-round, I'm not even going to try to remember how many I scarfed down on this date.

So if you haven't yet, make yourself a batch of doughnuts with your sweetie. We promise it won't disappoint.

Homemade Mini Golf (2-24-12)

Our date started at our most frequented restaurant -- Chuck-A-Rama. Jeff is starting to refuse to go anywhere else. And I don't mind finishing off a meal with all the ice-cream I could hope for.

Friday nights at Chuck-A-Rama are crazy! We braved the line and were shocked to see Eli was such a happy boy confined to our arms for the thirty minute wait. Then he kept himself happy by sitting like this for half the meal.

Jeff was a happy man. Did you know Chuck-A-Rama now serves Green Smoothies? Okay. Not really. But Eli loved that green slushie almost as much as he loves his Green Smoothies.

With stuffed stomaches we went home to continue our date there. (You know it's busy season when Jeff's beard comes to visit. He started growing it a few weeks early so it's already in full bloom.)

I am going to have a hard time paying for mini-golf ever again. We made our own mini-golf course and making the course was half the fun. We started with having a paper cup be the hole, but then we realized Eli's toy (in the left of this picture) had a perfect spot for us to hit the ball into and it was a much sturdier option.

Hole 2.

We got creative on hole 3 and constructed a ramp. This was our favorite hole and we played it twice. I got a hole-in-one the second time!

Hole 4. Complete with sand traps and bunkers.

Here's a blurry hole 5. We had a ramp going down and then a ramp going back up. Jeff got a hole-in-one on this one.

Jeff won by one point. Shucks.

Jeff High - Beating me at golf.

Jeff Low - After seeing a long line at Chuck-A-Rama, we drove around to find another place to eat, but then we ended up going to Chuck-A-Rama anyway and the line was way longer after we went back.

Sarah High - Getting a hole-in-one.

Sarah Low - My visiting teachers came over right before our date and brought me cookies. I ate about seven cookies before we went out to eat. Not the best idea especially when you're going to a buffet.

Malt Tasting (2-17-12)

We arrived to Cedar City last Friday in just enough time to make it over to Bulloch Drug's Soda Fountain before they closed. Jeff was dying to try a malt and the old-fashioned feel of Bulloch Drug was just the place to make his malt dreams come true.

I chose to forego a malt and stuck with the safe bet -- a shake. I worked at a little burger joint in high school where I made one too many pineapple malts to ever want to taste one of those nasty smelling things for myself.

Sure I felt weird asking the shake maker to take our picture, but look at the cute picture we would have missed out on if I would have chickened out.

Jeff liked his malt! It only confirmed my fears that he's turning into an old man right before my eyes.

We drove around Cedar City for a little bit afterwards to check out our old apartments and reminisce. It was a quick date so I opted out of high lows.