Our Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was really special this year. First of all, we don't have any babysitters. With Isaac's special needs, I don't trust anyone who's not familiar with Isaac and his needs, and he doesn't trust anyone he doesn't know. That leaves family (my mom) to be our sitter, and she lives an hour away. That also means that if Dan and I are lucky, we get to go out on a date once a year.

This year, Valentine's Day happened to fall on a Saturday that Daniel had off! I explained to my mom that because of work and school obligations, we haven't been able to do anything special for V-day since 7 years ago when Dan proposed and I'd made a homemade dinner. I asked her and her husband if they'd watch Isaac for us for a couple of hours, and they agreed! It's been a very long time since I've looked forward to a day as much as I looked forward to V-day this year! I became weepy everytime I thought about how I was actually going to be able to spend V-day with my husband. My mom took this picture of us before we took off for the evening. I like how it shows baby Brooke, but it would have been nice if the camera had taken off XXX number of pounds from me and if Dan hadn't posed with robot hands :)

We dropped Isaac off at about 4:30 and made it to the Olive Garden by about 5pm. Only to be told there was a 2-hour wait (YIKES! We needed to pick Isaac up by 7!) So we got back in the car and began driving around, trying to figure out where we could spend a nice dinner. There's a Marie Calendar's not far from the Olive Garden, and since neither of us had been there before, we headed there. They were busy, but just normal busy for a restaurant on a Saturday evening. I had a tri-tip steak and Dan had a pot roast. YUM! They had a sale on pies, and since the cost of ordering 2 pie slices was the same as ordering a whole pie to go, we ordered a whole cherry pie to go. We had a really nice time, and even made it back to my mom's place before they'd had a chance to finish their dinner. Isaac didn't like the idea of being left behind, I guess he thought Mom and Dad were going to leave him at Grandma's house for good! When Dan and I tried to remember the last time we'd been on a date, neither of us could remember, so it's no wonder Isaac was worried.

Since V-day fell on a Saturday, Isaac's class had a Valentine party on Friday. Isaac picked out his own Speed Racer valentines, and I even helped him sign his name to each one. He came home with a bit of candy, but like me, he's not a fan of candy unless it's chocolate :) The small box of chocolates he received, he finished it off today after lunch. And Mom and Dad were so good, neither of us did a taste test!