#rushleydatenight 2
8.21.15
Every time it's my turn to plan, I spend a little bit of time freaking out because I can't think of anything to do that sounds fun enough and creative enough, and then once I figure something out, I spend a lot of time wishing I got to plan every date night because it's so much fun! So for this date, I was trying to figure out what we should do, and I remembered a blog post written several months ago by Kayla @ All My Best. She has lots of good ideas on that post, but the one that stood out to me for this date was playing with puppies at the Puppy Barn! The Puppy Barn is basically just a small PetsMart with only puppies. The puppies are for sale, but you don't have to pay to get in and you don't have to be planning to buy a pup to go in, so you basically get to hold and pet cute little pups for free! Russ always seems to love baby animals, so it was perfect! And since the Puppy Barn is in American Fork, that helped me plan the rest of the date real quick with a few of my favorite AF eats: dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and dessert at Beyond Glaze! It was a great evening spent with my love :)
**For our future reference, Russ has decided you have to get original wings (not boneless) for them to taste good, and Jamaican Jerk is not a flavor he enjoys. They also let you try flavors, so there's no need to select a new flavor "just to see" because you can try it before committing to it! I didn't like the teriyaki flavor, and should probably just stick to honey bbq always. Oh! And if we both get snack size wings and a basket of fries, that is plennnnty of food for us. No need for the small size!
8.28.15
Russ planned a classic this night--dinner and a movie! But he made it fun by taking us somewhere we had never eaten (Culver's), and seeing a movie at the dollar theater that we hadn't seen (Pitch Perfect 2). The food was tasty and the movie was hilarious.
We had a few weeks without dates because we went camping with his family and then my sister was in town from Texas!
9.18.15
First we did kind of a progressive dinner--we had an appetizer (fries) at a new place we've been wanting to try, Hot Potato, and then got dinner at another place that was new to us, Station 22. Both were good and we enjoyed trying new places. Station 22 was really slow though, and not like the best food ever. I also didn't do my research well enough, because I was thinking it was kind of a grab-and-go place, but it was a sit-down restaurant. That made this phase of the progression take longer than I had planned.
Then we were going to go to Sodalicious for drinks, but we were too full so we went for the second phase of the date: Just Dance! We had my cousin Kristalyn and her husband, Luis, over and we had fun laughing at each other and our awesome dance moves! :) We also gave them a house tour and ate cookies :)
9.25.15
Our date this time was influenced by the fact that Russ was picking up his brand new iPhone 6S in Salt Lake. So we went up to Applebee's for dinner in SLC, picked up Russ's phone, and then met our good friends (who live in SLC) for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. We waited a million years to get a table (over an hour) and then spent a million more years (1 hr. 40 mins) to get nachos and cheesecake. It was kind of ridiculous, but it was still fun because we got to catch up with Brad and Carly :) We met Bradcar in our student ward way back in 2012. They lived close so we wound up borrowing food from them all the time, and hanging out, too :) Then for a while, Carly was my running buddy, so we became even better friends. But then they moved, and even though they live only one short hour away from us, we hardly ever see each other! Our track record so far is about once/year since they moved. Ridiculous, because we really love hanging out with them. It is nice to have friends that you can go a long time without seeing, but with whom you can pick up exactly where you left off :) Anyway, so we caught up and ate cheesecake (I got banana cream, Russ got dutch apple streusel, but ironically I was back up that way again a few days later and got another kind, which will now be my go-to flavor now, so I'm documenting it here: white chocolate raspberry truffle. So. GOOD.) and then we went to see Bradcar's new house! It was super cute and they have an awesome yard and it's just so crazy how we're all growing up and buying houses and stuff haha :)
10.16.15
After a little dating hiatus due to more visits from family, I was excited to go on a date with my man again! We started out with dinner at a restaurant new to us, with Thai and Thai curry. I had never really had Thai before, so I wanted to try it out! I quite liked it, and I also enjoyed the dinner conversation.
Next, I had planned to go to this fun pumpkin patch by our house, but it unfortunately closes at sundown, which I was not aware of, and we got there right as the sun was almost down so we were out of luck! And of course, I did not have a backup plan, so we just ended up getting root beer freezes from A&W and getting a hose from Home Depot. Super romantic ;) Then we headed back home for a Halloween movie, but the movie I chose (and found online) ended up having foreign subtitles, so Russ wasn't up for that, so we checked Netflix instead. Neither Russ nor myself are very into scary movies (I've truly only seen 3 horror movies in my entire life), so we looked for a non-scary one and decided on The Addams Family. But then, whaddya know, I saw the cover of one of the 3 scary movies I'd seen before--Darkness Falls. I've talked about this movie to Russ before because, after seeing the movie around age 12, I was then scared of the dark for at least 5 years. It seriously creeped me out! But I kinda wanted to see if it was still scary as an adult, so I asked Russ and we decided to watch it! It was kinda fun because usually we don't cuddle during movies anymore, but we both stayed pretty close during this movie :) The movie was still scary, but also just kind of ridiculous, so it wasn't nearly as bad this time. And I've been doing fine in the dark since then, so that's good :)
10.23.15
My sister and brother-in-law were in town, so we arranged to have a double date to have some more one on one time with them. We introduced them to 180 Tacos for dinner, and then we went to Subzero for ice cream afterward. Both were delicious :) After that, we played Ticket to Ride. I really like that game, but somehow, even when I do really good, I never win. We usually play with my parents, and one of them always manages to win. It's really annoying! So I was super excited when I WON for the first time! Rachel came in a close second :) It was good to spend some extra time with Michael and Rachel :)
11.6.15
So I planned the date again, and again I failed at making sure something was open - Ha! I'd heard that Joe's Gourmet Burgers was good, and I was actually feeling in the mood for burgers so we went there, only to find that they're currently closed for remodeling. Fail! So we still went to Sodalicious (because that was part of the plan and it was right there) and got drinks and sugar cookies. It was our first time there (we usually go to Swig) but it was pretty much exactly the same. I thought maybe the cookies were better. But only marginally :) Then we ended up just picking up some Little Caesars pizza on the way home. When we got home, I had planned for us to watch a movie while we worked on our mantel. Earlier in the week, my brother-in-law (with the assistance of Russ) built the mantel, but we still needed to do some wood-filling, sanding, and painting. During the first movie (Sweet Home Alabama), Russ and I did the wood-filling and sanding. During the second movie (Guardians of the Galaxy), I let Russ off the hook and I did the painting :) We didn't finish, because we still had to do another coat of black and a few clear coats the next day, but I LOVE IT SO MUCH!
11.13.15
It's becoming our favorite thing to surprise each other with our dates, even if we've planned something really simple. It always makes it more exciting :) For this date, Russ took me to a new (to us) restaurant, Nicolitalia, which had super tasty pizza and really great caesar dressing haha.
Then we got Cold Stone, where we saw this member of Vocal Point who I used to say was my future husband hahaha. I went back and forth about asking him for a picture because I really wanted to send it to my friend who I used to tell the future husband thing to. In the end, I chickened out, but it was still funny to remember that memory and tell Russ about it (because like, if I actually majorly liked Vocal Point, this would totally make sense. But I didn't . . . I just happened to see them singing in Brigham Square one time and all of the guys were all into it--singing and dancing around--except one. So I like started making faces at the one non-dancer and I started dancing and I could have sworn he laughed and got more into it after that, so that's when I said he was my future husband. Haha I was such a weirdo freshman. :) )
Anyway. Then we went to the $2.25 theater (I hate inflation!) to see Inside Out, which was pretty cute :) It reminded me that I need to be a more empathetic person, because empathy is important! It was one of those simple dates that was just so fun because it was with Russ :) Also, funny story, he grounded me from my phone. Not because I was on it distracted from him, but because I was on it trying to see everything that was playing in the dollar theater (because we stopped there first to buy tickets) based on the time I knew the movie started. He was not a fan so he stole my phone and wouldn't give it back to me for the remainder of the night. Haha that goofball :)
Every time it's my turn to plan, I spend a little bit of time freaking out because I can't think of anything to do that sounds fun enough and creative enough, and then once I figure something out, I spend a lot of time wishing I got to plan every date night because it's so much fun! So for this date, I was trying to figure out what we should do, and I remembered a blog post written several months ago by Kayla @ All My Best. She has lots of good ideas on that post, but the one that stood out to me for this date was playing with puppies at the Puppy Barn! The Puppy Barn is basically just a small PetsMart with only puppies. The puppies are for sale, but you don't have to pay to get in and you don't have to be planning to buy a pup to go in, so you basically get to hold and pet cute little pups for free! Russ always seems to love baby animals, so it was perfect! And since the Puppy Barn is in American Fork, that helped me plan the rest of the date real quick with a few of my favorite AF eats: dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and dessert at Beyond Glaze! It was a great evening spent with my love :)
**For our future reference, Russ has decided you have to get original wings (not boneless) for them to taste good, and Jamaican Jerk is not a flavor he enjoys. They also let you try flavors, so there's no need to select a new flavor "just to see" because you can try it before committing to it! I didn't like the teriyaki flavor, and should probably just stick to honey bbq always. Oh! And if we both get snack size wings and a basket of fries, that is plennnnty of food for us. No need for the small size!
8.28.15
Russ planned a classic this night--dinner and a movie! But he made it fun by taking us somewhere we had never eaten (Culver's), and seeing a movie at the dollar theater that we hadn't seen (Pitch Perfect 2). The food was tasty and the movie was hilarious.
We had a few weeks without dates because we went camping with his family and then my sister was in town from Texas!
9.18.15
First we did kind of a progressive dinner--we had an appetizer (fries) at a new place we've been wanting to try, Hot Potato, and then got dinner at another place that was new to us, Station 22. Both were good and we enjoyed trying new places. Station 22 was really slow though, and not like the best food ever. I also didn't do my research well enough, because I was thinking it was kind of a grab-and-go place, but it was a sit-down restaurant. That made this phase of the progression take longer than I had planned.
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| fries from hot potato |
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| grilled cheese for russ and chicken&waffles for me from station 22 |
9.25.15
Our date this time was influenced by the fact that Russ was picking up his brand new iPhone 6S in Salt Lake. So we went up to Applebee's for dinner in SLC, picked up Russ's phone, and then met our good friends (who live in SLC) for dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. We waited a million years to get a table (over an hour) and then spent a million more years (1 hr. 40 mins) to get nachos and cheesecake. It was kind of ridiculous, but it was still fun because we got to catch up with Brad and Carly :) We met Bradcar in our student ward way back in 2012. They lived close so we wound up borrowing food from them all the time, and hanging out, too :) Then for a while, Carly was my running buddy, so we became even better friends. But then they moved, and even though they live only one short hour away from us, we hardly ever see each other! Our track record so far is about once/year since they moved. Ridiculous, because we really love hanging out with them. It is nice to have friends that you can go a long time without seeing, but with whom you can pick up exactly where you left off :) Anyway, so we caught up and ate cheesecake (I got banana cream, Russ got dutch apple streusel, but ironically I was back up that way again a few days later and got another kind, which will now be my go-to flavor now, so I'm documenting it here: white chocolate raspberry truffle. So. GOOD.) and then we went to see Bradcar's new house! It was super cute and they have an awesome yard and it's just so crazy how we're all growing up and buying houses and stuff haha :)
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| matching blue stripes for me and russ! totally unplanned haha |
10.16.15
After a little dating hiatus due to more visits from family, I was excited to go on a date with my man again! We started out with dinner at a restaurant new to us, with Thai and Thai curry. I had never really had Thai before, so I wanted to try it out! I quite liked it, and I also enjoyed the dinner conversation.
Next, I had planned to go to this fun pumpkin patch by our house, but it unfortunately closes at sundown, which I was not aware of, and we got there right as the sun was almost down so we were out of luck! And of course, I did not have a backup plan, so we just ended up getting root beer freezes from A&W and getting a hose from Home Depot. Super romantic ;) Then we headed back home for a Halloween movie, but the movie I chose (and found online) ended up having foreign subtitles, so Russ wasn't up for that, so we checked Netflix instead. Neither Russ nor myself are very into scary movies (I've truly only seen 3 horror movies in my entire life), so we looked for a non-scary one and decided on The Addams Family. But then, whaddya know, I saw the cover of one of the 3 scary movies I'd seen before--Darkness Falls. I've talked about this movie to Russ before because, after seeing the movie around age 12, I was then scared of the dark for at least 5 years. It seriously creeped me out! But I kinda wanted to see if it was still scary as an adult, so I asked Russ and we decided to watch it! It was kinda fun because usually we don't cuddle during movies anymore, but we both stayed pretty close during this movie :) The movie was still scary, but also just kind of ridiculous, so it wasn't nearly as bad this time. And I've been doing fine in the dark since then, so that's good :)
10.23.15
My sister and brother-in-law were in town, so we arranged to have a double date to have some more one on one time with them. We introduced them to 180 Tacos for dinner, and then we went to Subzero for ice cream afterward. Both were delicious :) After that, we played Ticket to Ride. I really like that game, but somehow, even when I do really good, I never win. We usually play with my parents, and one of them always manages to win. It's really annoying! So I was super excited when I WON for the first time! Rachel came in a close second :) It was good to spend some extra time with Michael and Rachel :)
11.6.15
So I planned the date again, and again I failed at making sure something was open - Ha! I'd heard that Joe's Gourmet Burgers was good, and I was actually feeling in the mood for burgers so we went there, only to find that they're currently closed for remodeling. Fail! So we still went to Sodalicious (because that was part of the plan and it was right there) and got drinks and sugar cookies. It was our first time there (we usually go to Swig) but it was pretty much exactly the same. I thought maybe the cookies were better. But only marginally :) Then we ended up just picking up some Little Caesars pizza on the way home. When we got home, I had planned for us to watch a movie while we worked on our mantel. Earlier in the week, my brother-in-law (with the assistance of Russ) built the mantel, but we still needed to do some wood-filling, sanding, and painting. During the first movie (Sweet Home Alabama), Russ and I did the wood-filling and sanding. During the second movie (Guardians of the Galaxy), I let Russ off the hook and I did the painting :) We didn't finish, because we still had to do another coat of black and a few clear coats the next day, but I LOVE IT SO MUCH!
11.13.15
It's becoming our favorite thing to surprise each other with our dates, even if we've planned something really simple. It always makes it more exciting :) For this date, Russ took me to a new (to us) restaurant, Nicolitalia, which had super tasty pizza and really great caesar dressing haha.
Then we got Cold Stone, where we saw this member of Vocal Point who I used to say was my future husband hahaha. I went back and forth about asking him for a picture because I really wanted to send it to my friend who I used to tell the future husband thing to. In the end, I chickened out, but it was still funny to remember that memory and tell Russ about it (because like, if I actually majorly liked Vocal Point, this would totally make sense. But I didn't . . . I just happened to see them singing in Brigham Square one time and all of the guys were all into it--singing and dancing around--except one. So I like started making faces at the one non-dancer and I started dancing and I could have sworn he laughed and got more into it after that, so that's when I said he was my future husband. Haha I was such a weirdo freshman. :) )
Anyway. Then we went to the $2.25 theater (I hate inflation!) to see Inside Out, which was pretty cute :) It reminded me that I need to be a more empathetic person, because empathy is important! It was one of those simple dates that was just so fun because it was with Russ :) Also, funny story, he grounded me from my phone. Not because I was on it distracted from him, but because I was on it trying to see everything that was playing in the dollar theater (because we stopped there first to buy tickets) based on the time I knew the movie started. He was not a fan so he stole my phone and wouldn't give it back to me for the remainder of the night. Haha that goofball :)
Ok, I really love this post. Jared and I have fallen off the wagon on creative date nights (partially because there are hardly any options here besides outside stuff and it gets dark at 5:00). This post got me all sorts of excited for when we move back to the Sates in May/June. I'm totally going to start your strategy of switching off planning surprise dates each weeks. They all sound so fun!
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