What a GREAT idea!

Shortly after Dave and I transplanted our family to Eagle Mountain, my brilliant sister, Melanie (turns out she's older AND smarter), came up with a simply fabulous idea, and four and a half years later, we've hardly missed a week. Her idea? Date night of course. The arrangement is simply wonderful in every possible way, so if you're prone to jealousy ... consider yourself warned.

Every other weekend Dave and I get a date night on Friday night, and as of the last year or so, it includes a sleepover for the kids until 9:00 Saturday morning. So, twice a month, we are kid-free for approximately 17 hours, and we can do WHATEVER WE WANT. Sometimes we go out with friends and sometimes we go alone, but we always have fun.

So these pictures are from one of our "there are no good movies playing and it is too cold for a bike ride or tennis" dates and guess what happens when there are no good movies playing and it is too cold to be outside? We spent nearly $300 on groceries, a new coat for Dave, new shoes for Dave, new pants for me, books, Christmas presents, treats, etc. Movies are only $16 and biking and tennis are free. What the heck?!!

Sometimes Dave isn't off work or done flying by the time I drop off the kids, so then I get a few hours alone shopping before date night even starts. Awesome. So we get to go to dinner (we have to eat - right?) at a place without a playground or nuggets or little juice boxes. This last weekend we picked Chili's for one of Dave's typical "bigger than my head" hamburgers with bacon and a whole bunch of other junk on it, and I ordered some seemingly harmless chicken dish with tomatoes and cilantro that was really good, but then there was this weird gristle thing in the chicken, and that was the end of that ... So, Dave, as usual, was regretting his menu choice before we made it home, and mine came home in a to-go box for him to reheat for lunch. No surprises there. And did you know Chili's is now charging $2.99 for their FREE chips and salsa? When did that happen?

Anyway, we love movies, so we usually go to a movie after dinner, but sometimes shopping, tennis, biking, and coming up in two weeks, the Celine Dion concert that Dave bought me tickets for last year for Christmas (yeah!!!). Of course, like any other couple in their 30's with four kids, we almost always stop by Wal-Mart or Smiths or some other highly functional store like that in the middle of the night for things like garbage bags or toilet paper. We are kind of night owls when it comes to date night. I think our record is like 2:30 a.m. or so. I can't believe we can even stay up that late anymore. It is kind of fun to be out like teenagers again, and when you can sleep in until 9:00 ... why not? This last Saturday I had a spinning class at 7:00 in the morning, so we didn't stay out too late, but we still had a great time.

So the flip side is that every other Friday night I have nine kids at my house which includes 8 boys ranging in age from 11 to 1 and 1 firecracker little 5-year-old girl who holds her own just fine. Since we got the Wii, the older four are taken care of, and it turns out, when left to their own devices, they will play that thing for six hours straight (we tried it). They barely took a break for food or drink. I don't get it. Since we started the sleepover program, baby Dallin is in bed by 7:00, Chase and T.J. are down at 8:00, London and Cameron are in bed by 8:30, Austin, Jackson, Colby, and Landon are down at 9:00, and the rest of the night is ours (Cafe Rio and a Redbox movie). Could this get any cooler?!!