Win-tivities

By now it's probably no secret that I am not winter's biggest fan. 

But this winter has been pretty dang tolerable. 

Probably for bad environmental reasons-- its been ridiculously warm (yesterday it was 55!) 

Nevertheless, I committed this year to not let myself get in a winter slump, like last year. 

(See HERE)

We've snowmobiled, snow shoed (every week but one!), snow boarded, hiked, and biked! So take that old man winter. 

Awk-weird Valentines

Valentines day for us has almost always been weird. I have almost zero romantical expectations when it comes to this holiday, because the universe just does weird things to us on this day. I get giddy with excitement wondering what weird thing will happen to us each year. But I guess for us, its a unique kind of romantic. We bond over laughing at whatever weird thing is happening.

Year 1: We were technically broken up, but trying to work things out and get back together. So just generally awkward already. I made him a valentines day card that was apparently (in Danny's opinion) extremely vague as to how I felt about him (maybe like this:

from this)

and we ended the night at his apartment third wheeling it with his roommate who did nothing but talk about what an amazing husband he thought Danny was going to be (remember the part about how we were broken up? awk.)

Year 2: Engaged. I literally can't remember it. But we were probably weird and awk, because engaged people just are.

Year 3: Spent Valentines in our weirdo apartment in south Provo listening to the crazy lady next door having schizophrenia freak outs, and escaping for a few hours to watch Danny's sisters' high school swim meet.

Year 4: Spent Valentines walking around Chongqing, China. It was our very first day in actual China by ourselves (we'd spend a few weeks in Hong Kong and Shenzhen with a big group of whities). This could have been a cool Valentines, but mostly I just crack up laughing when I think about it.
First, when our plane landed in Chongqing, while it was still going fast down the runway, all the Chinese peeps got up and started getting their luggage and pushing each other. We met our "liason" at the airport, missed the bus to our city by 5 min, and had to spend the next 6 hours walking around the streets with him until the next bus could take us. So straight third wheeling it up. This was also the first day where I got to experience a squatter toilet and in public no less, which are the worst kind. After 6 hours of chumming it up with our liason, we took a 5 hour bus to our city. We got there late at night, it was pouring rain, and there were like 20 happy faces waiting to greet us, which was awesome. They took us to the "Sunshine Inn" where they put us up in a hotel for the night (which was really sweet). Also the hotel room had two twin beds. And a squatter toilet. Pretty romantic. Danny fell asleep about 5 min after we arrived and I stayed up watching "The Notebook" in Chinese. But honestly I've never loved Danny more. I felt grateful to be together on such a funny adventure.

Year 5: Living in Miami, FL. We spent the entire day moving into a new apartment because we had the weirdy-est neighbors EVER who would complain if we coughed. Topped off the night by hitting up "hot pot" (a chinese fav of ours, but thats kinda hard to find authentic in the US). We went with a couple from Danny's school, and it was truly the most authentic chinese ive experience here. It even had Chinese Karaoke playing, so you know that was epic. Our waitress asked if we wanted egg with our hot pot, I naively thought that meant she was going to bring like some scrambled or fried eggs (we ate tons of eggs in CN) but, alas, she cracked an egg open and put it in my bowl of oil. It was apparently for dipping. Probs not the sexiest thing to eat on Vtines.























Year 6: Danny had a tough exam the day after Vtines, and had to spend most of the night at school. I can't remember but I might have fallen asleep before he even got home. I entertained myself by working out, baking stuff, and watching TV, and taking selfies. You may recall, here.

Year 7: I am so excited to show you the card I made for Danny this year, but since he hasn't seen it yet, thought it would be unfair to post it this early. Stay tuned.

What are your best vtines stories? Weird, romantic, or otherwise?