Dating

On Friday night we left our children in the care of our friends while we went to the temple. We never leave our kids with babysitters so they were really excited about this, though they didn't quite know how to call it. Miriam said she was excited for the Farneses to come "watch over" her. 

I was so worried that Benjamin would scream the entire time we were gone, but he apparently behaved marvelously (which is more than I can say about his behaviour today). 

We had a bit of trouble pinning down a weekend and kept changing dates on the Farneses, but they were so accommodating and even told us to go out afterwards (we went to Cici's Pizza—classy, I know), which was lovely. Andrew and I haven't been out together, alone, since.... Wow. I frankly can't remember. I know we went to the temple in April when Karen came to watch the girls while I was in Utah (obviously we went before I'd left) and we've done plenty of things together as a family. I really think our last "date" was the time we went to Kneaders for breakfast either right before or right after visiting Benjamin in the NICU. The last date we went on before that was when Auntie Emily babysat for us when we went to Arabian Nights at BYU, just a day or two before Benjamin was born. 

So, that about sums up our out-of-the-house dating for the past two years. Fortunately, we have plenty of board games and movies and neither of us minds staying in most of the time. Still, it was nice to go out for a change. 

Our temple trip was lovely, even if we didn't make it there in time for our session (we got stuck in traffic). Instead we did sealings, which was just as nice. 

The kids had a blast with the Farneses and now that I know Benjamin can handle being separated from me (and I know that I can handle being separated from him) for that long we'll have to try going out more often. To that end, I recently entered a babysitting swap with a friend (who has two girls and a boy who are just about the same ages as our two girls and boy). We'll see how it goes!