CT Fosburg Blog: Date Night Extraordinaire!!!

Recently Chris and I went on a fantastic date that I wanted to share. For those of you who don't know, date night is sacred in our house. It's not because of what you're thinking, I didn't start it. Chris did. He decided that it was important to date his wife every week. Yes, every week!! So, every Friday night we have a date. Sometimes it's video games we like, sometimes a new dessert recipe we want to try (his idea), sometimes it's a video rental or going out to a movie we want to see. We even do mundane things like go on walks, watch our favorite tv show, or work on a project like creating quiet books for our little ones (again, his idea). I really like the more elaborate date nights like when we find a sitter and go out to dinner or go to Columbia to hang out in the giant Barnes and Noble to find new books. Well Chris blew all those dates out of the water with help from our new friends the Horns.

Mike and Emily Horn

This last weekend we went camping with the Horns and the Heaps. It was just over night, but something we haven't done since Evie was born five years ago. We love to camp so it was a lot of fun. Then we went repelling. Originally we were going to rock climb too, but so many of us had never done the repelling before that we chose to stick with going down first.

Us at the top of the "mountain"- Mt. Pilot, NC

It was so much fun!!! We all slept in a giant tent together, except Mike Horn of course who slept in his super neat jungle hammock. Don't know what that is? Neither did I. It's like sleeping inside a mosquito net attached to a hammock that zips up with a poncho-type thing over it. Confused? Check it out online. It's quite cool.

Anyway, so we camped, ate tinfoil dinners (my first time making it), and ate s'mores. Yummy! The girls and I talked a lot and had a lot of fun. We sure enjoyed the sleeping under the stars thing. It was great. Not putting the kids to bed....even better! I love my kids, but I rarely leave them over night so this was special.

The next morning was beautiful! We ate breakfast and then packed up and drove up the mountain-like summit. I say it that way because after the Cascades from home this mountain was about the size of the "mountains" surrounding Spokane Valley. Basically, little mountains. Anyway, the cliffs were sheer enough and high enough to make repelling challenging and fun.

Colton and Venus Heaps (she's so little!)

I actually have repelled before this date. When I was a teen I dated a great guy that knew I enjoyed this kind of thing and took me out. I loved it then, and I loved it now. It was so fun. It was still a bit intimidating, but once over the edge, smooth and fun. The view is always amazing!

After Mike taught us about safety basics and set up the lines, Colton Heaps was the first one down. He decided to be the belayer. (I'm not sure if that's the right title, but he is the guy that stands at the bottom, holds the rope, and watches in case you need to be stopped. That way you don't go sailing into the ground and break something....like him!)

Anyway, after a little debating about who was gonna go first, I jumped up and decided to go! It was one of those things that I knew I wanted to do, was fun, and I was going to like. I also knew if I waited too long, I would've gotten scared for no reason and then it would've been impossible to go. So, off I went. Mike gave me some instruction (most of it was a reminder for me. Hey, 12 years is a long time) and checked my gear (you wear a harness and gloves) and then double and triple checked to make sure I understood how to do the repelling safely.

So Mike gave me some last instructions and then let me go, being super reassuring as I went. Of course, as I slipped and slid and did funny things he totally laughed at me, but I made it down and had a fantastic time doing it. I sure had missed doing things like that.

My trip over the edge!

Soon others in our group went, Chris and then Venus. It was amazing to see them dangling in mid air and then sweep down to the bottom. I love having friends who like to do things that I like to do. It makes all the activities we do together so much fun!

that tree was sooooo annoying!!!

So after going up and down, up the super long and steep trail and down the rock face, several times we packed up and headed to a great restaurant, PF Chang's, for dinner. The food was amazing. No wonder it's Mike's favorite place.

Of all the things we did that day, one of the most memorable was actually on the way home. We had several hours of driving to kill from NC to Sumter, SC.

In the last 10 yrs of marriage we've changed a lot, but our friendship continues to be one of the real strengths of our relationship. One of the things I like best about Chris is versatility. Our trip home from this amazing date just highlighted this quality for us both.

I had brought along my current reading material and he encouraged me to read some of it to him. So I read several chapters of "Last of the Mohicans" by James Fenimore Cooper out loud.

We later listened to and discussed a podcast on IGN about a video game that's coming out called "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" which we are both super excited to play. Yes, BOTH of us. The preview alone is fantastic! We watched E3 that week. (Gaming conference)

Then we caught up on our national political scene by listening to several of our favorite sources (Bill O'Reilly and John Batchelor just to name two). We discussed, debated, and basically really enjoyed each other's opinions. Don't laugh, I'm being serious! We actually do these things, just not usually all in the same circumstance. This was rare.