Cliffhanger

I really try to think out of the box for our date nights, but this can be incredibly challenging when you live in rural West Texas. But sometimes Groupon can make it a little easier. A couple months ago they offered a coupon for rock climbing at Amarillo's Rock Climbing House and I thought that it would be a fun way to shake it up and get a workout in.

We channeled our inner Sylvester Stallones and headed out in the very cold and a little snowy weather. I am going to be perfectly honest. I did not think rock climbing was going to be very hard. I mean you have a harness and it requires just little bit of upper body strength.

I was wrong. We did not have time to take the belay class which would have allowed us to use harnesses. Instead we just climbed. Within a half hour of climbing, I was over it. It didn't help that I am super scared of heights and those walls are tall. Instead of climbing down, I jumped. I'm sure that was great for my knees and back.

We also learned an important lesson. You now how there are those douche bags at the gym who want to tell you everything you're doing wrong. They also exist in the rock climbing world. Some guy kept telling me that I just needed to go for it. I wanted to say, "Hey asshole, thanks for stating the obvious." It's hard to be charming when you are scared out of your mind but he shouldn't go into motivational speaking anytime soon.

Looking past the douche bags and the sore arms and the raw hands, we had fun. Rock climbing is hard. Next time we go, we will be taking the belay class. Then I can look legit in my gear. And isn't that what's really important?


He showed me up


Can you tell he grew up in the country?


I did a lot of hanging out on the wall


The belay wall

What do you do after working out to the point of blisters? You eat. We went to a yogurt shop that is very popular with the kids. Most of the yogurt was fat-free, so I didn't feel quite so bad. The toppings aren't fat-free, but that didn't stop me from loading up. I always say that I can't eat that much yogurt, but oddly I always find a way. I call that endurance.


My creation


These fools got to come too and get groomed

So that was our February date night. This month we are going out to dinner and then to a play. Hopefully my husband doesn't walk out. We shall see!

Fondue fun-do

Date night in February took a decidedly 70s style turn. I decided to get a little crazy and buy a fondue pot or as I like to call it a fun-do pot. I have never had fondue. The husband has never had fondue. However, we both love cheese. I also bought a fondue cookbook because I had no idea how to make fondue.


The goods

Daniel picked out a recipe for Parmesan Pesto fondue and we also decided to do chocolate because who doesn't love chocolate covered strawberries? Answer: no one. I'm not going to lie, it was a pretty tame date night. On a side note, I took all the pictures with my new camera. I can't wait for my photography class so I can figure our exactly what I'm doing.


The set up


Parmesan Pesto fondue


The best

We were supposed to watch a movie as part of date night, but then our friends came to town and we got our drank on. The end.

Vega adventures

I have a confession. November got away from me and I never really planned a date night. I feel terrible so I decided that since we have a "No Date November" that we would be doing a "Double Date December." That's right, ladies and gentleman, I decided to plan two dates for December, in addition to our trip to NYC.

Our first date was this past weekend. What do you want to do on a small town Friday night? You head to an even smaller town to have dinner, obviously. There is a restaurant in Vega that is ran by a woman who was on some CMT show. It is supposed to be really good and we have talked about going there before, but have never done it. I thought it would be fun to go check it out and that is exactly what we did.

We made the hour-long drive and arrived at Boot Hill. It is decorated like an old saloon and all the waitresses are dressed like saloon girls, which was interesting. We were one of three tables on the restaurant side, but there were lots of people in the bar.


Our bucket o' fried crap


My little bit of green


The gigantic chicken fried steak


It looks like I ate a lot but the plate was really big, I swear


Daniel looking cray cray


Date night success!

The food was good and we had a lot of fun on our little adventure. Hopefully Double Date December will make up for No Date November.

Santa Fe

Last month we decided to take a weekend trip to Santa Fe with some of our friends. We decided to leave early so we could have our date night in there.



Santa Fe is about a five hour drive from where we live, but seems like it is in a whole different country. I'm not going to say New Mexico is my favorite state, but I love Santa Fe. They have the best restaurants and it is always nice to get away.

I would post the pictures I took of our date night, but I got a new phone and all my pictures were on my old one. Fail. We ate dinner at the Galisteo Bistro & Wine Bar. It was super cozy and you could see in the kitchen, which was interesting. My one take away was that the chef didn't really do much. My kind of job. Just kidding. I had the seafood pasta romesco. It was okay. Sometimes I am very disappointed in my food choices, but I get easily overwhelmed.

After dinner we went to the Marble Brewery on the plaza. I once again made poor choices and ordered a supper hoppy beer. This wouldn't have been a big deal, but in Santa Fe there is apparently a new three drink limit. I'm not saying I wanted to get bombed, but if I am walking everywhere, let me drink (especially if a Tech game is on).

Our friends met up with once they got to town and of course we had to foray out to the casino on the rez. I do not like to gamble. I would rather shop, but our friends really really like to gamble and I am a supportive friend.

Meghan and I at the hotel

The next day we shopped and watched the Tech game, which was a beating. For dinner we decided to go to Rio Chama, which is where Meghan and Jake got married. We got quarantined to our own room, which was probably a good thing. The food was fab, as always, and they have the neatest cigar room, or VIP Lounge, if you are me.

Dinner at the restaurant where Meghan and Jake had their reception

The Browns (I look a little sketch but I blame lighting)

We had some much fun and were very thankful that it wasn't snowing. That happened to us last year and it was the pits. I think we have decided that next time we go to Santa Fe, it will be in the summer.

Hubbell & Hudson

We went to Houston for Labor Day to celebrate Daniel's birthday and my sister's birthday. While we were there I wanted to find something to do that was different and sounded like fun for the whole family. I discovered a magical place called Hubbell & Hudson during my google searches.

I first came across Hubbell & Hudson as a place to eat, but it is really so much more. It is like the best fresh ingredient market ever combined with tons of prepared food combined with a bistro combined with a cooking school. This place is my Disneyworld. I love to go grocery shopping and by that I mean at a real grocery store not our town's local United. This place had everything you could ever want to cook with PLUS you can drink while you shop! Say what? I'm not joking.

Some of the organic selections

Pre-made baking mixes

The bakery

As I mentioned, they offer a cooking school and it's sponsored by Viking so you get to use all of Viking's fancy top-of-the-line equipment. They have tons of different classes you can choose from like Southern Cooking, Italian Pasta Party and Japanese Steakhouse. They also do seasonal classes like Oktoberfest and Around the World Cookie Exchange. They are constantly adding new classes and there is really something for everyone.

The class that was being done the weekend we were there was Date Night: In the City. All the recipes we learned were adapted from different New York City restaurants. At first just Daniel and I were going to attend, but then I decided that it could be fun for all of us. We all like to cook and eat so it was kismet. The three best things about the class were that all the ingredients were already measured out, you didn't have to clean up anything and at the end you got to eat everything you cooked. It was all the positives about cooking with none of the negatives.

There is a head chef that walks you through all of the recipes and helps if you get stuck. They also feed you booze, which is nice. Everything was pretty easy to prepare and tasted amazing. I'm not lying when I say that the crab cakes we made were the best I've ever had. Plus, you get all the recipes for the things you've made so you can make them at home. Everyone had so much fun and we are all ready to go back and take another class!

The Menu
Salad greens with homemade vinaigrette
Crab cakes with ancho chili sauce
Grilled veal chops with a mushroom garlic pan sauce
Double chocolate cherry cookies with gelato

Daniel ready to start the class

The cooking school

Ready to get started

Some of the ingredients

Learning how to use a double broiler to melt chocolate

Daniel took the lead on the cookies

Grilling the veal chops

Time to eat

The salad with a homemade vinaigrette

Best crab cakes ever

We didn't take any pictures of the main course because we were too busy eating. If you are ever in The Woodlands area, you should definitely sign up for a class. I can't wait to go back!

Wreck 'em Tech!

I had plans for our September date night to be in Amarillo, but I had to make some changes when Daniel signed up for a continuing education class in Lubbock. While it wasn't most creative idea, I decided we would go to dinner on Friday night and to the Tech game on Saturday.



I let Daniel choose the restaurant and he decided on Triple J Chophouse, but it was Parents Weekend and there was a two hour wait so we ended up at Melt. I had wanted to go to La Diosa, a wine and tapas bar, after our dinner but we had spent so much time waiting, we decided to call it a night. Date night was definitely not off to the smoothest of starts.

The next day Daniel went to class and I ate Josie's and shopped, naturally. After Daniel's class we headed to the Jones and got ready to cheer for the Red Raiders! I have been a member for the alumni association since I graduated, but I have never gone to the Frazier Alumni Pavilion. Uh, we have been missing out. It's the closest place to the stadium where you can buy booze and they have all the other games on TVs. It's also super handy during half time if you don't want to walk back to a tailgate.

The game didn't get off to the best start, but Tech came back in the end. We were so glad that we stayed and didn't leave early. There were a couple times where it was just too hard to watch, but we stayed and got to hear the Matador Song. Being back at Tech makes me remember how much fun I had and makes me a little sad. I definitely experience college and love going back.

Here are some pictures from our weekend!

Josie's - home of the best burritos ever

The Indiana entrance to campus

Getting ready for kick-off

The Masker Rider and Midnight Matador

Fight Raiders Fight!

Guns up!

Tech wins 35-34

Date night basket

I am sure everyone is tired of all my Pinterest talk, but I really do love it and it gave me the best idea for Daniel's anniversary gift. He has everything he wants and if he doesn't, he buys it. This makes him THE hardest person to shop for ever so I always struggle when I am looking for birthday, anniversary and Christmas gifts. I start a list at the beginning of the year and write down anything I see that he may like or that he tells me he wants. This year the list is slim pickings, so I was looking for a creative idea.

We have talked in the past about having a monthly date night. A lot of people do weekly date nights, but we live in such a small town that this would be all but impossible. The whole date night idea never really took off, so when I was browsing Pinterest I got really excited when I saw a link to a blog where the wife planned a date for every month for a year as a gift to her husband. I had plenty of time to really sit down and try to think of dates and I decided that this would be the perfect gift, plus let's be real, it would give me something to blog about.

So this was my gift to Daniel. I have pre-planned a date for every month and for some months I have already paid for the activities that we will be doing. I am so excited to see how this date nights improve and impact our relationship. Some dates are very creative and some are the usual. I tried to plan some dates around activities we've always wanted to do or what is going on in our area. I can't wait to share these dates with Daniel and all of you!