That is the sound I wanted to make several times yesterday evening! But since I'm an adult, I figured squealing like a little girl all the way around the rink was not the mature thing to do...so I did it in my head!

Anyway, we had what was probably one of our most fun date nights ever last night. At least it felt that way to me! And we go on a lot of date nights. About a month ago we made plans to go to Ashland and go ice skating at their outdoor rink. It's the closest crunchy, granola, artsy town we live by, and we don't make it there a lot. We also have never been ice skating as a couple in our five and a half years of togetherness, which probably doesn't seem that odd to some people. But I grew up skating, if not on a regular basis, at least once in a while. We had a pond that would freeze over some winters, and my siblings and I loved going out and skating! I'm not that great at it, I can't do anything very cool, but I can skate around a rink without falling on my face, and it's just such exhilarating fun! It bums me out a little that I don't get to do it all the time. 

We headed out last night planning on a pretty low key affair. We didn't do a big dinner out, we do that often enough in here in town. We drove into Ashland and ate at their Pita Pit (for those of you who don't know, it's like Subway, but with pitas and it's so much better!) and then grabbed some coffee. Actually, I grabbed some, because I had to use the little ladies room, and I feel so guilty not buying something if I use a store's facilities. I get annoyed with myself sometimes for feeling this way. I always end up spending more money and consuming more calories than if I could just pee and run! I guess that's what happens when you're a nice person (ha!). In this case it was a Starbucks, but it ended up making for a nice little pre-skate warm up. 

The rink was really close to the downtown area, and we probably could have walked, but walking around towns I don't know very well after dark freaks me out! So I made Dane drive us. It's part of the city parks department, so it is right next to one of the town's largest parks. It was really nice, there were trees all along the back of the rink, and being outside was just so much better than being inside a big ugly building. We stayed and skated for almost two hours, which was awesome. I think Dane had more fun than he thought he would (obviously he was not as excited about the whole thing as I was, but he's such a sweetie that he took me anyway). I had such a blast! 

I was also that annoying person getting in everybody else's way while I was trying to play photographer! I took a lot of pictures, and of course most of them sucked. As you can probably figure, the lighting was not great with it being night time and all, but I got a few decent ones to share with you. 

After we called it a night on the skating, we walked around the town a little bit, trying to find somewhere to warm up. We found this cute restaurant/sports pub called Louie's, so we got some coffee and soup, and that delicious dessert there at the bottom of the page. I love me some chocolate lava cake!

I love that even after being together as long as we have, we can still go out and have fun like this. It's like we're dating, only better, because we're so much closer to each other now. Being married to Dane is like being with my best friend all the time! I'm so happy that I get to have him around, and that he loves me enough to take me out and do things like ice skating, even if it's not something he really wants to do. It's times like this that make me realize how truly blessed and happy I really am!

Ok, here's the part I'm sure you'd rather get to, the pictures! And thank you if you took the time to read that entire novel I just wrote :) I hope you all have a great rest of your weekend. Oh and happy Superbowl Sunday to you too! GO NINERS!! 

Guilt coffee!