home is wherever i'm with you

This Sunday we were officially welcomed into our new branch in Virginia for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It is a tiny little branch and it's a nice fresh change from the same old student wards that we are used to. It's exciting to be a part of such a tightly knit LDS community, I'm sure we will have plenty of opportunities to serve. We already were asked to speak and answer questions at the youth fireside this last Sunday about dating.

Obviously our discussion was geared more toward dating in high school, but it got me thinking about the dating we do now, as a married couple. I believe that dating your spouse is very important, even though you are with them everyday. Chris and I try to do this at least once a week. I'm sure it will get much more difficult once we start having kids, but that is when it is most important--so we want to start the habit early!

Who wouldn't want a date with this hottie?

Dates don't have to be exgtravagant, expensive, or out of the way.  Sometimes on a busy week it can just be a nice walk together outside.  Usually our dates consist of eating, watching movies, college sports, or playing games. Sometimes it will be a temple trip, like last week with b&w. Most of the time it's nothing fancy. We always try to find ways to do fun, cheap things.

One of my favorite dates of late was just a few weeks ago.  s&s called us up wanting us to babysit on a Wednesday night.  Come Wednesday morning they had decided that they were going to stay home and asked if we wanted to take their tickets to see Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros in the Oakland Fox Theatre.  Umm, yes! Free concert? In the FOX THEATRE?

It gets better.  Wednesday was my day off and so we decided to make it a day date and spend the entire afternoon in Oakland.  We had an amc movie gift card that we couldn't use before because we didn't live near any amc theaters. But there's one in Oakland! So we got there early, saw a movie, ate dinner and then enjoyed a concert.  All for the price of dinner. Seriously. We even parked for free. In Oakland. That doesn't happen.

The concert was a lot of fun.  We had floor tickets so we were out there in the front jumping around with all the crazy people.  We decided that Edward Sharpe (Alex Ebert) looks just like Ryan Gosling with a gross beard and dirty clothes.  Check it out here. If you haven't heard of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, check them out.  Their most popular song is Home.  I also love 40 Day Dream.  Most of there songs are fun and upbeat, it was a fun concert to attend.