What a Fun Weekend

April 22, 2006. Six years of marriage. Katrina and I were walking with the kids tonight and we talked about how we never would have guessed where we'd be today when we got married. So here we are- a three year old and a one year old, our own little home in a fun neighborhood, a good job and I'm still in school. The school part is the only part we kind of expected but I really hoped to be done before now. Anyway, I think we're really blessed and we have a lot to be thankful for.
So since today was our Anniversary, I had a few plans to celebrate. About a week ago I booked a hotel so we stayed in a nice room last night. Nothing too fancy but much better than we had expected. The room was about as big as our first floor and everything was in good shape. We started our evening by picking up my sister, Harmony, to watch the kids. We went to dinner at the Art City Trolley and then we weren't sure what to do because none of the movies that are out look too fantastic to us right now. So Katrina remembered a friend telling her about a place in the Riverwoods where you can buy pottery and paint it or decorate it yourself. So we headed over since Friday night is date night there and admission (normally $8) was half off. The place is called Color Me Mine and it was a lot of fun. We each made a big mug and we ended up paying about $28 because we chose some $10 mugs. We were there for two hours and it was really a good time. They even had live music playing the whole time. After you're done with the pottery, they glaze it and bake it for you so we'll pick ours up on Tuesday. If I'm feeling ambitious, I'll post pics. While I'm remembering, Tuesday is also Free Ice Cream Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's. If you live near one, be sure to head over on Tuesday.
After our pottery painting session, we headed across the street to Border's Book Store where I spent a half hour being amused by a book entitled "Why Do Men Have Nipples?". It was a book about medical curiosities that you never ask your doctor. Pretty interesting stuff. In case you're wondering, men have nipples because our embryos are patterned after the female sex for the first six weeks of development, at which point males receive their male chromosome and start to develop into males. The nipples, however, stay.
We checked into our hotel after that and we were both in the mood for ice cream so we headed over to the Maverick gas station where, for $1.49, you can get a good sized soft serve ice cream and load it with sprinkles, nerds, candies and more. So we each had one of those and we even made time to do a little reading. I'm reading the DaVinci Code and it's really gripping. I don't have a lot of time to read so I like this one, because every time I read, even if it's a just a few pages something good is going on and there aren't any lulls in the action. Katrina's reading a book for her ward book club but it has some long name and I haven't the foggiest what it is.
In the morning we slept in, got ready and then headed to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast. We had French toast, eggs, sausage, etc. and it was mediocre. Then we did a bit of shopping at Wal-Mart, then walked over to a little strip mall by Wal-Mart. Katrina went to the Scrapbooking Store and I went to the Video Game Store. Neither of us bought anything but it was fun to look. I have an XBox that I got for free but I only have one game so some day I'll have to get another. After that we went home.
Katrina took Harmony home and then took Addie to a ModBe party. It's one of the many modest wear for girls types of parties or something. Anders and I took out the trash, bought a new tube for my mountain bike, fixed the tire and then headed out on our first father-son bike ride. It was a lot of fun. Anders has a sweet BigWheel and he's pretty fast on that thing so we rode on the path that circles around our whole development. It's quite a long ride for a three year old but we did it and he handled it like a champ. We each got a little pink in the arms from the sun but we could both use some color, so it's OK. We came home, had some Tunafish Casserole, bathed the kids and then went on a walk. The walk took 80 minutes because we saw some friends outside their house so we chatted for a while. Then our neighbors were out on a walk with their kids so all three families were there chatting. I've currently got some brownies in the oven so I'm going to end my night on a sweet note.
So it has indeed been a fun weekend. It was great to spend some time alone with Katrina just hanging out and having fun. I wish we could do that more often. I've got two conferences coming up in the next month and a half so I'll be out of town for four days each, so it was good to have this time together now. That's it for now. Rock On!
-Nizzle.