A Real Date Night

Let me start this post by saying Larry and I don't do typical date nights. We have never felt the need for an out of the house, away from the kids kind of date night, we both have never understood the people who talk about how you need do one once a week or month (or any regular schedule sort of thing). I've always felt so guilty asking someone else to take care of my kids and the couple of times we've done small things away from the kids, I just haven't felt like I could relax enough during our time away. That's not to say we don't like to spend time together, we spend all day long together (working in the same office all day) and then we spend each night watching a show together. We have many discussions throughout our days and we have a regular Saturday night movie night each week (if we feel we need more, we've added one Wednesday a month where we trade off who gets to pick what we do. Mostly doing a game night or Lego night or puzzles or something else along those lines). That's always been sufficient enough for us.

The mountains were SO pretty tonight!

Well my mom has mentioned she'd be okay to watch our kids for us whenever we'd need. She even took the girls, back when I had my surgery, for the whole weekend, which was very helpful! I know she loves the kids, but going from no kids to 4 kids feels like a lot. Then I thought about if my kids ever have kids I'd jump to watch my grandkids and support my kids needing time away, so I knew Mom meant it when she said she'd be happy to do that. When I saw Three Days Grace was coming to concert, I thought this might be a great chance to try it out, plus the kids are much older and a bit more independent so I know it shouldn't be too hard. The other thing that made me excited for this concert, is the last time we saw Three Days Grace we left it early (mostly because we had just gotten Minnie and I just wanted to go home and cuddle with her) and I've always regretted not seeing the full show.

I was so excited the radio played music we were
Going to see in concert. Then remembered, this
Isn't Satellite radio, it's city Radio, of COURSE
They'd be playing the concert music! Haha

With that, I sent Mom a message asking if she'd be okay watching them that night and she said of course! I got tickets and got excited about going. Later, my mom mentioned she'd love to come early so we could go out to dinner. I thought it might be fun because I keep saying how I miss going out to dinner just Larry and me and ordering only what we'll eat and not HAVING to eat what the kids don't eat. So I took her up on it (plus I wanted to try Tepanyaki again, just us).

The day of the concert, Lucy had a birthday party to go to right before we had to leave, so I took her to that and stayed for a little while (which helped because the family throwing the party is a Spanish speaking family so they'd give directions in Spanish and then English so Lucy would get confused easily). I came home right before Mom got there and we got everything all ready so we could leave once she did arrive. When she did show up, she mentioned there was a lot of traffic on Redwood Road so be prepared for that. Unfortunately, that traffic and a little on Bangerter caused us to not get to the Tepanyaki restaurant until 5:45 and they said it would be a 45 minute wait (the concert was at 7 and the venue was 15 minute away from the area we are in), so I knew that wouldn't work.

Luckily, Larry remembered Applebee's was nearby and we used to go there ALL the time on our date nights before kids. We haven't been in many years and thought it would be fun to relive those days a bit, so we headed there for dinner. We had to rush a little, but we did see a few other people there that were obviously going to the concert as well, so we knew we weren't the only ones out this close to when the show would start. We ate dinner quickly and headed out. On the way Larry mentioned we could maybe go out for ice cream after the show (which I'm a sucker for!) since the kids would be asleep by then so we aren't really missing anything.

The concert was AMAZING! We hit up the bathrooms and the merch "store" before TDG actually got on stage. We even got to see Rachel while we were in line, she stopped by to say hi and pick out a shirt. We were able to get back in our seats as the first song started, it was so cool! They had both singers on stage (since they had a new singer back in 2013 but the old one came back recently) and they'd interact with the crowd between each song (they'd have us chant their band name or tell a story that was related to the next song they were planning on playing). At one point, I told Larry I just really hope they play Time of Dying and then that ended up being the next song, it was so exciting! I loved scream singing along to their songs (there were only about 3 I didn't know ALL the words to, but knew the chorus at least). I told Larry I really hope I lose my voice (which didn't happen, haha).

I absolutely loved their set and watching them perform. I loved head banging and jumping along. I loved screaming along and cheering. It was SO great! We stayed for about 5 Breaking Benjamin songs, but they were a bit more softer and didn't interact between songs (not even a little bit, they literally ended a song and then would immediately start onto the next one). I also didn't know their songs as well (I was hoping they'd start with Diary of Jane, but we never heard that one, and the ones they did play I didn't recognize at first, it wasn't until they got more into it that I realized I did know it). So I decided I was ready to just go get ice cream. We headed to Leatherby's in Taylorsville (which I accidentally called Taylor Swift, haha) thinking it would be bare bones, but it was surprisingly packed! It was nice to talk about the show and just have a great night out. It felt like a real date night with dinner, a show, and ice cream! We also got to tell each other silly kid stories (because I don't care what people say, I'll talk about my kids on a date night!).

We got to stay out so late and just enjoy our time together. Everyone was in bed all cozy and content when we got home so everything seemed fine (mom is staying the night since she didn't want to drive home that late). I'm very happy we got this time away. I don't feel like we need to do this more, but I did enjoy the night out. Surprisingly, we saw a TON of kids at the show, I'm not sure why anyone would take their kids to that sort of show (there was a lot of smoking and you could clearly smell pot in the air), but I guess to each their own!