Date Day

I'm on fall break this week from Duke, Jake's in school until 4pm, and Mike and I decided to keep Abby's babysitter for today so we could... drumroll please... spend the entire day by ourselves. A whole date day!

We had a blast. It was super cold this morning (35 degrees) so we started with a leisurely tea and snacks at a local cafe and then drove to Staunton, where we had a great lunch in a place we hadn't eaten in before. We strolled around downtown and ended up ducking into 2 furniture stores where after about 15 minutes we found the perfect table to go with the kitchen chairs we bought in Staunton about a month ago. High fives for us for efficient shopping! Then we did some holiday shopping for the kids and then headed up into the mountains as it had started to warm up. After some scenic views, a little foliage, a short but very pleasant hike, some pix taken by a friendly stranger, we made it back to snack again in town before picking up Jake at school.

Here I am on the hike:

And here's Mike at an overlook:
It was so quiet. No crying, no whimpering, no why'ing. We talked incessantly ABOUT the kids but that is entirely different than talking TO them. And we talked and talked about many many things. It was delightful. Such a simple thing. But it was also priceless. Abby was happy as a clam when we got home, and Jake had had Tumblebus at school today and clearly needed to tumble right into bed.
A good day was had by all!