A fun date night.

So Brandon and I struggle with planning fun different dates. It's hard! I mean when you can't do anything outside without being completely miserable and when your apartment isn't exactly party central, it's a struggle. I volunteered to plan last Saturday nights date. I had been thinking about it forever. I had been googling, I had been researching, and I was stressing. My idea consisted of going to the Museum of Idaho (which has a dinosaur exhibit now) then eat dinosaur chicken nuggets and watch Jurassic Park. First, I don't like dinosaur chicken nuggets and Jurassic Park is considered a scary movie in my book. Are you seeing my predicament?

So. I called Brandon Saturday around one and said, maybe we should go to Chiptole today? Now, for those of you who don't know Chiptole is one of my favorite places ever. I love it. It's like burrito heaven. But Idaho does not have one. The closest one is a little north of Salt Lake.

Well, Brandon came home. We packed our bags. Then we made the three hour journey to Salt Lake.

Now, we did more than just eat at glorious Chiptole. We spent some quality time with my brother, his wife and their little girl. We also walked around temple square. And we saw Meagan, Brandon's sister.

And all in all, it was a lovely date night.

Yay for family.

Do you remember my really neat picture wall that made its debut around Christmas? (So maybe it's not that neat..but I sure like it!) Well, it's growing. And it's changing. A few pictures had to be swapped, considering the whole theme was winter and Christmas and really fun things like that. I mean, it just would not have worked if I kept my most favorite Grinch quote on the wall all year. And since I did get a super sweet camera and took some not as sweet pictures with it, it needed a change. And maybe you are starting to realize that I kind of have a slight obsession with crafts that center around decorating and pictures. Now you are probably thinking, "This girl is so silly. She could have saved herself the trouble and left all of the winter pictures up because it is still winter and will be winter in Idaho for at least 5 more months." But, don't worry confused reader, you will receive an almost sound explanation a little later.

But, the point is, my wall got a makeover. One of my favorite additions to the wall (besides pictures of our two nephews and our niece and all of the other members of our family) is The Family: A Proclamation to the World. 

See, up until this point we haven't had one in our home. I mean we do have one. It's just in a drawer somewhere. And that somewhere is awfully intimidating because usually when it's just somewhere in a drawer it is an adventure in itself to find it. And Brandon doesn't necessarily like when I embark on those adventures because I tend to empty out all thirteen drawers in a state of panic (kind of like I did tonight to all of our cupboards to find the apple cider vinegar...) and sometimes forget to put everything away. And since Photoshop and I have become such good friends I decided to make one that could fit into our 18 X 20 picture frame. It worked out quite well and I am pleased we now have one visible in our home.

If you can read that writing I applaud you. But if not just visit here and read it, it's quite wonderful!

We added some lovely family pictures and kept a few from before. Don't worry, that dashing one of Brandon still remains.

And here is the whole wall in all its glory. Just ignore my shadow there...

And here is the original print, feel free to snag it!

So, as you might have guessed our new wall theme is family. Yay for family! Brandon and I will always be pleased to announce that we love our families very much. They are simply wonderful! And since families are the most important thing of all they deserve to be recognized and remembered. Hopefully I can continue to grow our little wall with more cherished memories of family and fun times. Until then I will spend countless hours staring at the crooked picture and large gaps in our never perfect but always wonderful family collage.

Have a happy late Tuesday night!

A little recap.

Remember when I said I was going to do another post that included all the rest of our super cute Christmas decorations? Well, as you can tell that never happened. Instead just the other day I took a picture of me putting them away. Sad day. But, our Christmas holiday was quite fantastic. From the very beginning when we celebrated my birthday all the way up until yesterday. For a week of that Brandon and I traveled to the valley of the sun to spend some quality time with my side of the family. See, I would tell you about all of these splendid adventures but Brandon got me a lovely Nikon DSLR camera for Christmas and a fancy iPhone for my birthday, that also takes some pretty great photos so I figured some pictures would better communicate the fun times we've had!
Enjoy!

A little before we left Idaho Brandon spent some time holding his nephew Logan.

Our arrival, what a strange place compared to Idaho!

My parents tree Christmas morning.

Our cute little niece Fallon opening some presents..the day after Christmas.

Cousin love.

Tenille and her perfect little Kash. Seriously the cutest mom and son you've ever seen.

Waiting for the Polar Express to arrive. Yes, we traveled to the North Pole.

All aboard!

Almost all the family there! Except Seth...that little punk.

A happy little family excited to ride the train.

That little girl likes to explore.

Precious, yes?

Brandon playing with Kashden Christmas morning.

My padres super excited to board the train.

Ho Ho Ho!

So obviously these aren't quite in the right order. I blame this blasted blogger system. But, you get the picture. We had a grand time! Now I need to torture the Smith side with my camera so they can make an appearance in the next post.

Hopefully your holidays were as splendid as ours were!