surprise!

last week shaun came home from work and asked if we had plans for saturday. i said nope. he said okay, i'm taking you on a date. and then said that his sister was going to watch the kiddos over night!? what a blessing!!!

i was super stoked to have a date with my husband! it's been before evaleigh was born that we had a date. so it's been waaaaaaay too long. we both think it is highy important to have dates. and up until before evaleigh was born we had been going at least once a month. so i was excited to start up our 'tradition' again. :)

saturday morning we frooze our tookies off at a local craft fair. but i found the girls some cute necklaces. and they had really yummy steak sandwhiches to eat for lunch. the girls packed their bags earlier in the morning because they were excited for 'kimmy's house' and wanted to know when 'later' was. soon 'later' came and we dropped the kiddos (minus evaleigh) off. they were super excited. i love being able to leave them without having to worry if they're crying and missing me. i'm sure they miss us, but they've never had an issue with us leaving or sleeping over at someone else's house. that's a huge bonus!!

we took off for our date night. i had booked us a room at a hotel the night before. we haven't stayed at a hotel without all of the kiddos in about two years. so it was fun to have the baby and be able to sit and relax a bit. our room was SO nice. it was a two room suite. with a fireplace, whirpool tub, and all the fun goodies. it was a bit pricey...but worth each and every dollar! plus we don't do this all the time...but when we do again, we'll be staying there again! ((the only thing that we weren't impressed with was breakfast. but eh...that's minimal!))

evaleigh must've known we were on a date. she slept almost the entire time we were gone. she only woke up to eat. and then went back to sleep. it was amazing! we ate at a new mexican restaraunt. we wanted olive garden, but the wait was an hour and 45 minutes...yeah. NO. supper was great though. then we went to world market. i've never been in that store. but it is SO fun...so i'm sure i'll be going back. we stopped at culver's for some ice cream on our way back to the hotel. we enjoyed some ice cream. evaleigh enjoyed some nursing. and then we talked with evaleigh a bit. she was awake and smiley. and it was fun to have some one on one time with her!

then it was bedtime for evaleigh. (i've started putting her to bed when the other kiddos do, and wanted to keep her on the same 'schedule') so she put herself to sleep...with her new 'trick' of sucking her thumb. :) and i filled up the whirpool. ahhhhhhhhhhh i asked shaun if he was coming in...usually he doesn't because...well i don't know why. but i said if he didn't i may fall asleep! lol. he came in and we both relaxed and BOTH almost fell asleep. he admitted to me he has no idea why he's never come in a whirpool/hottub before because it was so relaxing!!

we enjoyed some music from my  iPod too. i brought it along and we just listened to the  music and remembered our 'first dance' from our wedding. i have the song that we danced to on it. and we even danced. :) it was so fun to connect with him. i enjoyed every minute of cuddling, talking and laughing together.

the next morning we went to a local church. that was fun too. it was nice to hear the message without the distraction of five kiddos with us. evaleigh slept and ate and slept through church. so it was perfect. it was fun because i also ran into some mom friends from the homeschooling coop there. it's nice to see them outside of the group stuff.

we then went and met up with our kiddos and the rest of shaun's family. we had a quick lunch. and then headed out to a local apple orchard. which has the BEST caramel apples. :) we had a great time there. i think we were there almost 3 hours!! we headed back to shaun's sister's house and had supper together and worked on putting together some things for shaun's grandparent's anniversary this weekend.

so it was a surprisingly eventful...in good ways...weekend. and reminded me how blessed i am to have such a great husband and family. :)

i have pictures to post...but my camera is in the van...and it's freezing...okay maybe not quite that cold...but it's cold outside, and i don't feel like going to get my camera!! got to love wisconsin weather.