So I took my wife on a date last night.  Sure it was a Monday night, but we take what we can get.  With 5 kids, we have to purposely carve out time for ourselves.  There are times when all the stars align and we get a day or weekend to ourselves, but we are careful to not just wait for those times.  It’s amazing how time can pass before you realize you haven’t planned a date.  We hired a sitter last night as it was the one day in the week where the kids didn’t have any activities.

I don’t want to brag (but I definitely am!), but I pulled off a pretty awesome date.  Like, taking your lifelong crush out for your first date, kind of date.  I asked her if she wanted to go out last week, and she said yes!  (Yes, we are still kind of moon-eyed for each other.)  I considered dinner and a movie, but then realized how even though we would enjoy ourselves, that would be fairly mundane.  I have to admit, I did need google to assist me.  I thought of all kinds of fun things, but finding them on a Monday night, well, not going to work here in our little city.  No bands playing, no art studios open, no exhibits available after 5, (these are all hints, though, dear readers!  Just not on a Monday night.)  Um, I’m sure these activities do exist around here, though, right???  We have a couple paint party shops here but none were even open.

I finally stumbled upon a really cool company called Puzzle Adventures.  (www.puzzlingadventures.com) They have designed history scavenger hunts in many cities throughout the world, and our town had one of them!  We are both history nerds so this was right up our alley!  I downloaded the program and it’s a timed adventure throughout downtown.  I was pretty sure she would like it but told her it may be so dorky it would be amazing!

Little buddy #5 and I picked up flowers for her during the day to have waiting when she got home.  Babysitter came at 5, and we enjoyed a gorgeous mile or so walk to downtown where we ate at a local steakhouse.  (Again, these are hints!  Local, flowers, walking, romantic, steak.  A way to any woman’s heart).  After wine and amazing steak that we shared, we headed out the door for our scavenger hunt.  It started only a block away from the restaurant.  The program gave history and then would lead us around downtown to search for plaques and signs of the city’s history.  I love my new city but I learned last night it was founded on my birthday!!!!!  What the wha!?!  Destiny!  And, the best day of the year (July 5, another hint, readers, but for selfish reasons.)  We ended up running from clue to clue, because we are dorky, like to run, and couldn’t not be competitive (there’s a time clock!).

Needless to say, we finished the course in RECORD TIME!  Of course we did!  We take this kind of thing seriously.  The top 10 finishers were over an hour behind us.  Oh ya.

It was the best date night ever.  Only downside is trying to top it, but now we have a new goal.  And, this puzzle adventure idea is exciting.  I foresee us doing it in cities we visit.  They have team versions, kid versions, and my favorite, drinking versions.  Can’t wait to do some kid dates with it, too.  What a great way to learn a city’s history!  Anyway, we walked home and snuggled up to watch a funny movie.

As for dating your spouse, I highly recommend it.  We didn’t really have a dating phase, so we are committed to dating now.  I mean, when we were friends we were technically dating without knowing it, but nothing like planning special evenings out or trips.  I hope we never stop having special nights out.  We have 5 kids.  Whether you have 1 or 10, it’s needed.  It’s so easy to commit your family life to kid activities and have the kids be the center of the universe.  Once in a while, it’s great to get out and have fun.  Life can be so challenging sometimes in this big, beautiful, chaotic, blended home.  It can be hard.  It can be easy to focus on difficulties and stress.  But, the more we can have fun together, the better off we are.

My wife leaves soon for a 5 week class across the country, so we are trying to soak each other up as much as we possibly can.  I get to bring #5 and visit her over Thanksgiving so I’m pretty excited about that (and doing the scavenger hunt there!).  The other promise we’ve made to each other is that we make being together a priority as much as possible, even if it means more schedule shuffling, complicated arrangements and money spent on airfare and hotels.  It’s worth it.  I want her to know being with her when I can is always worth the trouble.  And she does the same for me.