Date Night Jar: Up Date Night

We actually ended up drawing 2 orange sticks this month (for planned at home date nights).  The first one we drew was 24 hours technology free.  And we had actually just done that the day after Christmas.  And while we could always benefit from doing it again, we decided to leave it out and grab another one.  The second one we picked was an Up Date Night (based on the movie Up).  When looking for date night ideas on Pinterest I had seen a few ideas for an Up Themed date night and since we have that movie and both like it I put it on our list.

One of the ideas I saw a few places was to make our own Adventure Book (like they have in the movie) to look at places you've been and want to go.  At first I got out just our chatbooks I've made for our recent trips, but then I decided that some of our biggest "adventures" together just have to do with living life together.  So I got out all of our photo books that I've made and laid them out.  I make a digital photobook every year that goes July to July (our anniversary) and I also made one for our wedding and a scrapbook before our wedding of memories from dating and engagement.  And we also have a few small books from our vacations.

I laid it all out on a blanket so we could have our own picnic while we watched the movie.  After we put Cooper to bed we started with the photobooks before the movie.  We actually spent about an hour going through them all and reminiscing about things we had forgotten.  It was a fun way to look back at our adventures together.

Then we settled in with some dessert and started the movie.  David had a paradise pie from Chili's and I enjoyed an Enlightened Ice Cream Bar.

After watching the movie for a little while, we spent some time dreaming of the future while the movie played in the background.  We talked about places we wanted to visit and things that might be on our "bucket lists."  Then we made some lists of places we want to travel in the next 1, 5, and 10 years as well as places we want to visit in our lifetime.  This was a fun thing to talk about and dream about together.  We're already dreaming up and planning our next family vacation-- hopefully we'll take one in the early Fall.

Because we spent so long looking through the photobooks, we actually didn't end up finishing the movie that night.  But it was still such a fun night together reminiscing and dreaming and talking about life.

We have also done one or two spontaneous at home date nights this month including this one: 

Neither David or I are really big dancers, so we don't really dance together often.  But it was fun to put on some music and do something a little different after Cooper's bedtime one night.  It's been to do some different things together through this date night jar!