Valentine's Excitement

Let me start out by saying that my husband and I are easily pleased. You give us something as small as a bag of gummy bears and we a practically giddy for hours afterward. So it should come as no surprise that when we had a chance to go to The Gateway outdoor mall in Salt Lake City last Saturday it was like Christmas morning for regular people. Never mind that it was a drizzly, gloomy sort of day. Nothing could squash our spirits because we had each other and a bit of money to spend. While at the Gateway we found a new restaurant to try called, Tucanos Brazilian Grill. Anyone who knows our tendency towards excitability when trying new things would have never turned us loose in that restaurant, but as it was we had free range and proceeded to run around like chickens with their heads cut off yelling things like,"Have you tried this one?! Oh my gosh this is so good! This is such a cool restaurant!" Admittedly my husband is more vocal than me, but I'm sure I appear just as dorky. The couple seated next to us were pleasant to us in conversation, but were probably secretly on the verge of filing a restraining order against us. We left with a vow to take every person we know to Tucanos so we can relive the first time again and again through other people.

The day after we went to The Gateway was Valentine's Day. I am somewhat middle-of-the-road when it comes to my Valentine's views. I do believe that it is over commercialized, but I also believe that it is a great idea to have a day to remind the people you love just how much you care for them. About the only thing I expect for Valentine's Day is a card and anything beyond that is just icing on the cake. Of course my husband doesn't think that way. He comes from a long line of people whose motto is "spend money on those you love whether they like it or not." Since it is in his genes I don't blame him for this, but it does mean that on Valentine's Day I wake up to this -

Now this picture does not include the TWO boxes of chocolate or the show tickets he bought for us. Bear even got several Valentine's treats including peanut butter-flavored ice cream made just for dogs and a new plush toy to replace this monstrosity -

She has had this sheep toy for a long time and though she loves it we decided it was finally time to replace it because she had long ago managed to get the squeaker out of it and because it has a gaping hole in it's head. Frankly, the sheep toy scares me. I would get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom and it would be sitting in the hallway just staring at me. We replaced the sheep with a much more friendly-looking puppy. However, Bear has already managed to tear several holes in it and I doubt it will be as freakishly long-lived as the sheep.

Overall it was one of my best Valentine's Days ever. I love you babe.