March and April Dates

With the college and pro basketball seasons wrapping up, the obvious choice for our sports-themed date in March was 'basketball.'  I toyed with the idea of going to a Jazz game, but they are such a dismal team right now that even the ridiculously discounted tickets I could get seemed like a waste of money...

Then I thought we could watch the March Madness tournament while eating at a sports grill.  I also thought about going to a local park and shooting hoops--which led to the most brilliant idea of all.  I was planning on getting S a basketball hoop for his birthday anyway (which was only a few weeks away,) so one of my proposals was that we go buy the basketball hoop for our date, set it up, and play away in our backyard.  That's exactly what we did.  Although it took a lot longer to set up than we'd expected and we didn't really play much that night (the following picture was taken a few days later while S, in the middle of a rainstorm, was trying to fix a problem with the lever that raises the hoop.  What a good guy...)

This birthday gift/date has already paid dividends.  I tell S it was the best purchase we've made in awhile.  After the kids are asleep, (and if the weather is cooperating which this year it hasn't really...), we head outside and play ball until we can hardly see what we're doing anymore.  S is thinking of installing flood lights.  I'm sure our neighbors will love us.

My plan for our April date was to ride our bikes along the parkway, but it was going to be too hard logistically to do so with taking the kids to grandma's and wanting to go to dinner afterwards, so S suggested that we Rollerblade instead.  I cannot remember the last time I went skating.  It had to have been before we got married--and we celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary this year, so do the math.  My skates were a little dusty--and so was I--but just as our adventure was ending, I was feeling really comfortable again.  I told S that we have to go again soon so that I don't lose my skills!

The rest of the date was as fun as skating.  S had grabbed a football before we left, so we played catch for awhile.  We were in the part of town where he had grown up and we had fun remembering all of our memories of people we went to school with.  My plans for dinner fell through when we found out that the restaurant wasn't open until 6, so we went to Red Iguana instead.  It was both of our first times dining there--I have had takeout on several occasions.  The food was delicious, the company was great.  We capped off the evening with a trip to S's grandparents' house so he could make sure their sprinklers were working okay.  Like I said, what a good guy!