Love Lock

I got a text on Wednesday from Matt.  It simply said:

Date night FRI. CDC Childcare is booked.

YEAH!  That’s always a fun text to receive!  And later he even told me he had a little surprise for the date which never happens.  He had picked the restaurant (sushi… yum) and there was a surprise afterwards.

All day yesterday I wondered what my surprise was going to be.  He had told me not to get all worked up since it was such a small thing, but I didn’t care… it was a surprise and I love surprises!

Because I knew we were going to a place with a buffet, I decided to work out extra hard during my Insanity and my run so I could eat without guilt.  Even with my buffet meal, I went to bed with 236 green calories!  (That means I didn’t scarf at the buffet even though I had a little bit of everything I wanted.)  But this post isn’t about my “Made to Crave” journey so enough about that…

I got ready for our date about the time he was due to be home and every single car that passed by our house had me peeking outside to see if it was him.  I truly love that after 17 years I still get excited for our date nights.

We had a little errand we had to run before we dropped the boys off so we loaded up the crew and went to Mainz Kastel.  Hayden got his long-awaited red Chuck Taylors and we did some Christmas shopping.  I can not wait to give them their Christmas presents this year.  I’ll be brief and say that this is the biggest Christmas gift they have ever received from us, or from anyone, for that matter.  In an effort to keep the surprise, I’m not going to write it here.  Chances are, one of them would read this and find out.  (I am horrible at keeping surprises.)  Suffice it to say, I am thrilled about this gift.

We then dropped the boys off at the CDC and headed straight for the restaurant.  We enjoyed the food even though the sushi was off a bit.  Not quite as tasty as it usually is.  We were still pleased with our meal because the Mongolian Stir Fry (build-your-own and a chef cooks it) was beyond amazing.  It evened out!  Our conversation was great, discussing everything from leaving ChapelNext, a church we will miss tremendous, to future dreams of maybe starting a church someday, to our upcoming trip to Italy.

After we left the restaurant Matt told me we were going drive toward the bridge that crosses the Rhine River.  We parked about a half-mile away and walked to the bridge and then over it.  We did this in San Francisco on our honeymoon, so it sort of reminded me of that.

When we reached about half way Matt stopped and pulled out a lock he had brought with him.  He said that when he had been running the bridge last week during one of Hayden’s soccer practices he noticed that there were locks on it, similar to the ones we had seen in Paris. Here is our lock that signifies our love!  

Here’s Matt about to throw the key into the river.

We had a fantastic date and enjoyed every minute of it!  I have to share this one adorable thing Parker did, because, after all, he’s only 2 for a single year… when we arrived they had put him on a mat to go to sleep. He was awake still and as soon as he saw us he whimpered, ran to us, hugged me, turned RIGHT AROUND and said, “Thank you for watching me.”

I make him say that every time he stays in the nursery at church and this was the first time he did it on his own!  My sweet little man!

Here is a picture of a bridge in Paris.  Quite a few more locks on it than on the Rhein River Bridge!