Valentines Day 2019

Today was another great Valentines Day with my loves! Valentines Day is my favorite holiday.  I know it's commercial, cheesy, unauthentic, blah blah blah. I love everything about it despite what people (myself included once upon a time) may say.  I love that it's smack dab in the dead of winter and gives me something to look forward to between New Years and spring. I love the pinks, reds, golds, glitter, hearts, flowers, and decor. 

Obviously I do my best to show Matt and Natalie as much love and affection as possible each and every day, and I do a pretty good job most days, but I absolutely love the excuse to be extra mushy one day a year. I'm not sure when we began doing it, but when Natalie was pretty young Matt and I started taking the day off, getting a sitter, and going on a day date on Valentines Day. Now that Natalie is in school we can skip the sitter. We don't usually have a concrete plan on what we're going to do on our dates, we just see what we're up for. 

Last year we went to Natalie's school on Valentines Day and were the mystery readers for her class in the morning, then we were planning on going to lunch and then bowling or a movie I think, but Matt wasn't feeling very well so we hit up the grocery store and I cooked us a nice meal while we hung out at home. 

This year we decided to take a drive to the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. I made a playlist of songs to listen to on the relaxing ride and I also brought along a couples quiz book. I thought we would find a new restaurant to eat at in a little town we frequent, but I am a creature of habit and chose one we've been to a few times. 

We ate lunch and headed up to Skyline Drive. Unfortunately the roads were closed due to fallen trees, so we headed a different direction and were lucky enough to find a state park we never knew existed. The park was empty and the scenery beautiful. We explored it a bit, hoping to find some wildlife. Before we left we went down one more road and spotted something on the side of the road. Exotic wildlife?! No, turns out it was just a stray cat. We stopped to watch it anyway and saw it catch a mouse before darting off into the woods. 

Matt's mom picked Natalie up from school and when she got home we gave her a little present, then headed out later for pizza at her favorite pizza place. Since we're complete suckers for our sweetheart we ended up at the bookstore after dinner and got her a book. It was such a nice day and I enjoy when Matt and I get to spend time alone as just husband and wife, not parents. We always laugh and have fun in such simple ways and I love it! 

22 weeks pregnant!