Sweet Treats at Home

After work on Friday, Kim planned a fun evening at home.  We have at a very busy last couple of weeks traveling to Seattle each weekend, so it felt really good to stay home and relax together.  With Crossfit and a general want to be healthy, we tend to watch what we eat. We try our best to stay away from dairy, gluten, and processed sugars.  This doesn't mean that the cravings for sugar go away! We figured better if those sugars are ones found naturally, right?  Kim planned an evening around healthy ice creams!  She had 3 ice cream recipes picked out for us to try.  Two were banana based ice creams, and one used coconut cream.  We started with the coconut cream because it took the longest to make. Still a pretty easy recipe, but it calls for more freezer time.  After you mix it all together you freeze it and mix it a couple times over a few hours until the consistency is good.  We also added a scoop of the protein powder I use to give it some flavor and substance.  The next two recipes were very similar to each other. They used frozen bananas that you blended.  The texture is awesome!  Also the bananas are sweet like ice cream. We made one with bananas, coconut milk, almonds, chocolate powder, homemade vanilla extract, and coconut flakes. Almond joy deliciousness!  We made another with banana, vanilla, and frozen blueberries!  This one was awesome.  It tasted like a blueberry sherbet ice cream.  This and the almond joy were my favorites.  The first one is good but not worth the extra work. The banana ones are ready to eat right after you make them.  We now have a go-to healthy sweet fix when we need one.  Now I have left out an important detail of this date.  Kim outlined the date and added one twist, we had to be completely n*%^d the entire time.  Yup that's right mom and dad we were running around the house n*%^d making ice cream.  I just want to stay that some good old fashion n*d@^y is great in a married relationship.  Just make sure your kids are gone and you have some good blinds on those windows.  Who knew making ice cream could be so fun.

Dives n' Dessert

Jason has this thing for dive bars. It's not that we actually go to them frequently, but he mentions them enough that you might think that is our niche. Generally speaking, I don't like places that leave you feeling greasy and grimey. Yuck!  Regardless, I knew that Jason would fit a dive bar into our 52-week challenge at some point(s), and last Friday evening was the first.

We were already in Seattle for the Moisture Festival (Varietè/Comedy) at Hale's Palladium, so Jason took me out after that.  First, we headed down to Belltown to this incredibly classy pinball themed dive bar called Shorty's.  It has been quite awhile since either of us had played a pinball machine, and it took me a few minutes to get in the groove.  We ended up on an Indiana Jones machine for a few minutes, and had some moderately terrible games.  Okay, so we aren't very good at pinball, but it was fun anyways!

Our dollar bills started to run low so we didn't spend too much time at Shorty's.  We got back in our car and headed over to Ballard.  Jason and I are suckers for dessert.  So when he discovered Hot Cakes, he knew we had to go there.

It was delicious.  We ended up sharing two dishes - a hot cake (basically molten lave cake) with peanut butter goodness inside, and a warm chocolate chip cookie.  Both with vanilla ice cream.  While we were enjoying our scrumptious desserts, we discussed a few things relating to Church and theology.  It was fun so share our thoughts and ideas.  I find that conversations that end up having more 'meat' leave me feeling more intimate and fulfilled in our relationship.  Sometimes it is a challenge to have these authentic and organic conversations (especially when you think you already know these things about your spouse), but they are always worth it!

Approximate Cost:

Shorty's (drink and pinball) - $25

Hot Cakes - $15

Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory

This last Saturday we saw Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory.  Just kidding, but we did go to a chocolate factory for the full tour! We were in Seattle for a good friends big 4-0 birthday so Kim decided to make a whole day out of it.  Our first stop, Theo's Chocolate in the Fremont area of Seattle.  We parked nearby on the street at a 2 hour only parking space (This information is important for later in the story).  Theo's was really neat, they lead us through a 1 hour tour of the factory with lots of tasting!  One thing that really surprised me was to learn that the cocoa beans are surrounded with a fruit.  This fruit, similar to mango or guava, was all that was eaten, discarding the bean for many decades.  At some point they learned that they could ferment the bean with the fruit still on it making the bean easier to access and it made the flavors better.  Theo's is a bean to bar chocolate factory which means they source their own cocoa beans and take it all the way to the finished product. Overall, we had a really fun time.
What a great date. Tours and events in groups would be perfect for first dates! No matter how long you have been together I hope you realize how important it is to date, and be intentional.  After our tour we wandered around the Fremont area, and saw the troll.  We got a pint of beer at Fremont brewery and got an awesome burrito at a local cafe.  When we got back to our car, we noticed that the kind folks at the City of Seattle decided that I had been parked longer than 2 hours and to give me a $44 ticket.  $44, are you kidding me!? We sped out of there and headed to a near-by park.  Volunteer Park has a water tower that has a great view of downtown and the Space Needle. At the top of the tower we sat down and read through the first chapter of Romans.  This was a great day of fun and relaxation.

Cost: $20 2 tickets to Theo's
         $12 2 Pints at Fremont Brewery
         $6  Shared burrito at Solstice Cafe
         $44 Parking ticket

Love at 5 AM

Normally, we don't sleep in THAT long.  Normally.  But for some reason, I was feeling particularly tired last week, and daylight savings was coming up, so I was really looking forward to sleeping in on Saturday morning. 

Well, Friday evening Jason suggested we go to bed early because he would be taking me on a date in the wee hours of the morning.  Yippee!  There was a fleeting moment where I was bummed I wouldn't get to sleep in, but then it registered that my hubby was planning a sweet date.  So, what did we do? Duh, we hiked up a small mountain and watched the sunrise! And, it was glorious!

Jason was kind enough to let me know what we were doing on Friday night, so I was able to lay out some warm clothes and sleep in as long as possible.  In the morning, we jumped out of bed, got coffee at Starbucks, and grabbed some fruit from the grocery store.  We ended up hiking up Galbraith Mountain (which is right in town) where we searched for a spot to watch the sun come up over Mount Baker. 

Jason could not have picked a better day.  The moon was full and provided a bit of light as we started hiking in the dark, and the clouds had cleared up early that morning.  It was a bit chilly, but we didn't notice the cold until we sat down.

Once we found a little spot that was adequate, Jason pulled out a blanket and some light snacks, in addition to the coffee and fruit we picked up.  We set up on a cute little log, and waited for the sun to come up.  The quiet of the morning was so wonderful...the only sounds we heard were the songs of the birds.  I am amazed that we can feel so removed from the bustle of the city, while being so close!  As we waited for the sun to make an appearance, Jason read some bible verses relating to nature.  I thought this verse from the book of Psalms captures a morning like this well:

       On the glorious splendor of your majesty,and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.                                                -Psalm 145:5 

We didn't spend the entire time chatting. And that's okay.  I think there is something special about spending a few moments without the need to say anything at all.  Enjoying the beauty of God's creation together was more than sufficient to fill our silence.

Cost:
Coffee - $6.00
Fruit - $3.50
Nuts - on hand

The Dollar Date

Kim had a fun idea for our 8th date that cost us very little money.  After Crossfit on Friday we headed over to the dollar store.  Kim had figured out the cost, plus tax, of 5 items at the Dollar Tree.  She had separated this money into two envelopes, one for me and one for her. Kim's idea was we would purchase our activities for our date, and go back home for a relaxing evening at home. We had a good time wandering around the store looking at all the items $1.00 can buy.

We ended up with a chess board, a foam finger rockets, seed planters, a 500 piece puzzle, a book of Sudoku, large army men, a blow up hammer, a crystal forming tree chemistry project, a metal puzzle game, and play-doh. Really a bunch of junk, but super fun for an evening at home.  We started the puzzle when we got home, and finished it a couple of days later.  Those of you with kids at home will like what we did with the finger rockets and army men. We set up the army men on the table and then shot them off with the rockets! That was a good time.  We played another couple games of chess, Kim is getting better.  The crystal forming tree is pretty dumb, but after 48 hours we did have some colored crystal formed of the paper tree. Kim solved the metal puzzle by just pulling really hard, which I think is cheating.  Oh, and I hit Kim with the blow-up hammer a lot, because what else do you do with it,  We didn't get to all of our items that evening, but it was fun idea for a lazy night at home.