The girls spent the weekend with my parents and Ben and I were able to enjoy some quiet time together. We had a memorial to attend Saturday morning, then we went off for a date together that afternoon. We tried a new poke place, Simply Poke, and our tummies were happy with that choice.  Good thing it isn’t close to our house, otherwise, I’d be bugging Ben to eat there more often.

Ben kept asking me what I wanted to do, but I didn’t really have any requests. I just enjoyed being together and being able to hold hands (we are both usually holding little hands). We thought about going to Griffith Observatory or the beach, but I didn’t really want to sit in traffic, so since we were in the area, we went to visit our first apartment.

We walked around the apartment grounds a little bit reminiscing about our first year of marriage, being pregnant with True, his last year in grad school, and how that first year consisted of a lot of sleeping (me) and studying (him). I only remember one date out; we were extremely frugal. We went up to our old floor and saw the door to our apartment. That first year of marriage everything was so new, we were getting used to living together and dealing with a whole lot of changes. It was fun strolling down memory lane.

Just as we were about to bid our apartment door farewell, Ben said, “A kiss begins with K,” and opened to his hand to reveal a little thing that looked like a ring. I just started laughing because we always chuckle at that silly phrase used by a jewelry store chain, and thought he was just playing a little joke and holding some trash that looked like a ring. As I chuckled, he kept his palm open, and I realized he was holding a real ring. Turns out in his hand was an art deco, ruby eternity ring I had been eyeing online.

It was such a beautiful surprise, and while I love the gift, I love the giver much more. There was no occasion, and just a random date on a Saturday, so this gift was really a surprise. After our little stroll down memory lane, we headed off to a nursery because Ben wanted to pick up another fruit tree. We joke that he collects fruit trees and I collect antique rings (he definitely has more trees than I have rings). While he walked around the nursery, I kept admiring my pretty ring, which I put next to my other art deco ring on my right hand.

We still had time to kill before we had to meet some friends for a celebratory graduation dinner, so I yelped a nearby ice cream place. M Creamery sounded good and it definitely lived up to their glowing reviews on Yelp. Ben and I sampled almost every flavor there. My favorites were tres leches, honey lavender, Thai tea, and strawberry balsamic (I know the girls would love this one!). Should we find ourselves back in this area, I will definitely stop by here again.

The last time we went out on a date was probably almost a year ago, so this was long overdue. We think date nights are important, but we are both okay with not going out on dates regularly. We love this article, “You Don’t Need a Date Night” and I think it describes exactly how we feel about spending time together. We consider our Friday nights our “date night,” but we stay home. We have family movie night with the girls as soon as Ben gets home, then when they go off to bed at 7:30, Ben and I start our “date night.” I’ll make tilapia ceviche or hand rolls, and we will eat on the floor of our bedroom and watch a movie together. It’s our special time, so even though we don’t go out, we feel like we get plenty of alone time together.

I love that man of mine a whole lot.