Valentine's Day Festivities

I'm always looking for a good excuse to celebrate.  Our latest reason:  Valentine's Day!

First, Andrew took Whitney to the Daddy-daughter dance at school.

They rocked the dance floor...

as much as you can with a partially-torn ACL.

Whitney has got some moves!

 She loved hanging out with friends.

Seeing them all dressed up.

But she especially loved having one-on-one time with her Daddio.

We continued our yearly tradition
of mailboxes for love notes.

 The kids weren't as into it this year,
but we shared a few nice messages.

We made and decorated sugar cookies one night.

Yum.  I wish I was eating one right now.

On the actual Valentine's Day, the kids had an early release day.
It was a beautiful, sunny day, so we headed to Triad park,
a place we used to frequent when the kids were younger,
but haven't been in a long time.
It is a GREAT park.
I just wish it didn't take 25 minutes to drive there.

All of us had a good time practicing our rock climbing skills.

I loved watching the kids help each other.

 Especially these two.
So cute.

 We've got some good climbers on our hands!

They also had sand volleyball courts.
SO fun to hit the ball around with the kids.
And it's good sand.
The girls felt like they were at the beach.
(I know where I'm taking them next time they want to build sand castles!)

We enjoyed their great playground, too.

 Love the spongy asphalt.
No mulch in our shoes!

Care Bear loved this big green swing.

And they have fun, flat trails for riding bikes.

I think this park should put me on the payroll.
Have I said enough good things about it yet?

Our other tradition is to go out as a family on Valentine's night
and then as a couple the weekend before or after.

We stopped at our second-favorite Japanese place.
Delicious.
What a fun day.

For our Valentine's date, we had to do some rearranging because of last-minute activities that came up. We went on a breakfast date.  It was fabulous.  Why didn't we think of this sooner?  I didn't take any pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it. The chocolate chip pancakes were scrumptious.