I am a very, very lucky girl. I have two wonderful men in my life. They make me so incredibly happy! Tomorrow I’ll celebrate 8 years of marriage to my best friend, Brian (though you may call him Howie). Two days ago we celebrated 3 years since we were able to bring Patrick home for the hospital for the first time. These are my boys and I am very happy to have them in my life.
You might think it’s special when your husband takes you out for a nice dinner alone. I do, too. I love dates with my husband. We went to a Blue Man Group concert yesterday, just the two of us, and it was nice to be together just us.
But more often than not, when I go out to a nice restaurant, I am accompanied by both of my boys.
And yes, although we went alone to the concert, Brian and I took Patrick along for our anniversary dinner. We were in the neighborhood of a nice Italian restaurant we wanted to try because we’d gone to look at Christmas lights, and so, we took Patrick and we went.
Patrick is a real fan of gourmet food. He’ll go entire days where he barely eats at home.. But take him into an expensive restaurant, and he’s all about trying new flavors. He insisted on sharing my ” ‘ghetti” with me. Kind of tricky, since he’s allergic to the eggs in the noodles and to cheese.. But we managed to get by dipping bites of potato in the tomato sauce.
A few nights earlier, we were eating out and he got really excited telling me “tee tee”.. I didn’t get, till he added “gob gob gob” that he wanted the turkey from my sandwich.
And let’s not even mention his opinion of chocolate syrup. Ordering dessert is requiring a lot more caution these days.
But, for a three-year-old (and one who really barely eats) he really has pretty good restaurant manners. He puts his napkin in his lap and he is quite happy with a cup of water and a straw for most of the meal. The crayons are just a distraction, mostly, and often end up on the floor. But, so long as the people around us aren’t sitting too close or aren’t too determined to engage him in conversation, he’s really quite the nice date.
Last month, my two dates took me out for my birthday. Can I tell you this was one of my favorite date nights ever? Brian came home early from work and took me to eat at the Garden, a fairly nice restaurant on the 12th floor of the Joseph Smith memorial building that overlooks downtown Salt Lake City, specifically the Salt Lake temple.
After dinner, we went to the windows and admired the view for a little while.
Then, we went down to the temple grounds. If you’re not familiar with Salt Lake, Temple Square is a two block area of the city filled with beautiful gardens and fountains. We wandered the gardens and then went into the visitor’s center where paintings of Christ 10 feet tall adorn the walls. We wandered upstairs to see the Christus statue and then downstairs to see the exhibit on prophets and scriptures.
There is a joy that wandering around temple square with my two boys brings that is uncomparable to anything else in the world. I feel so blessed when we are there.
And so, of course I thought I was in heaven when we were back there again this Friday night to see their Christmas light display. (Patrick walked around the entire temple and touched every window he could.).. And then out to dinner. Then yesterday, a one-on-one date with the love of my life.. followed by a family date to Rumbi for dinner, where Patrick chowed down on rice and soy sauce, one of his new favorite foods.
Yes. With my husband by my side and my little boy often hanging from our hands between, I am very lucky in love.
Patrick Hoopes 