Date Night

Last night Austin and I went out alone on a date for the first time since...well we can't remember.  We have gone out a couple times since we had Jeremiah.  Once with Dan & Erica and once to dinner with the Doten's and Brent.  We had some inspiration from a marriage series at church where a visiting pastor from Woodland Hills gave two lists of 4 topics of dates to do in 4 weeks (adventure, dream, laugh, etc).  Under each topic of date there was 10-15 types of dates.  We did a combination of a few of them.  We went out to a new restaurant(s) and while we were out we brainstormed and made our couples bucket list (adventure and dream themes).   Our couples bucket list is a list of things we want to do together.  And since I really like lists...we also made a list of Date Night ideas to make a Date Jar I had seen on Pinterest.

We went to dinner at The Green Truck Pub in down town Savannah.

It is a little place out of the normal historic district with delicious burgers and veggie burgers.  It is a "natural" place and brings out the Georgia hippie crowd to remind us of Eugene.  Ironically for our first date night out alone we were sat in this little restaurant right next to a couple we went to church with for a few years and haven't seen since they changed churches just over 2 years ago.  So we all talked together some and did our own thing too.  It was cool to get caught up with them though.  Now for the first list...

So far our bucket list includes:

• Build a house together
• Spend a week on an island with no plans
• Go on a mission trip
• Europe trip (Italy, Germany & ??)
• Go to a football game at Mile High Field (and snow board while we are there)
• Build a house to donate (though Habitat or some ourselves, this will likely be once we retire)
• Trip to see Biblical sites in Israel

We have a few other items that we are still brainstorming.  For example, Austin wants to scuba dive and I want to do a half marathon but we haven't committed to doing those together.  It was a fun experience and added some interesting conversation to dinner.  

After dinner we went to The Melting Pot for dessert.  

It is a great place to go for either a cheese fondue appetizer or dessert only.  Each costs about $10 per person.   The entire meal there would take way too long for my patience level and is pricey for what you get. While at dessert we worked on our date night lists. 

We made a list of "dates" in the following categories.

Yellow - Family "dates"

Green - At home dates for after the kids go to bed

Blue - $10 or less dates

Pink - $10 to $75 dates

Purple - > $75 or requires planning dates  

We then put all the different ideas we have so far into the jar so we can pick one in the category we are able to do that weekend.  Here are some examples.

Yellow - Ogeechee Wildlife Center, Children's Museum, Bike ride on Hilton Head, pool day at home, beach day, water park day, 

Green - Camp Fire and S'mores, Board game night, plan our 15 year anniversary vacation, Movie night he picks (includes theater style snacks), etc.

Blue - Picnic dinner at the beach or park, 

Pink - Dinner on the water, bowling, drive in theater, 

Purple - Murder Mystery Theater, Cooking class, spa day, etc.

So now we have our Date Jar (on right).

Next to it in the picture is our New Year's Jar, also off Pinterest.  Throughout the year we right memorable events on pieces of paper and place in the jar.  On New Year's we will read through them all to help us remember the amazing year we just had.  Yes, I like Pinterest.
We didn't take any pictures of the two of us out, but that is pretty standard.  It was a fun night out on the town and we look forward to doing our other dates and bucket list items.

Any ideas you can share in the comments for additional date nights?