A kayaking adventure

Our shoes barely escaped the adventure with their lives. 

My dear J turned 25 this month, so we decided to celebrate by doing things we had never done before.

First on the list: tandem kayaking.

The local university wellness center offers inexpensive equipment rentals and happens to be very near a coulee, meaning we wouldn't have to strap the surprisingly large kayak on our compact car.

Instead, we could easily carry it about 50 yards, drop it in the water and row around on a pleasant little stream, right?

Wrong.

We had no idea what we were doing, and the poor college students trying to help us had no idea either.

Where do you lift a kayak? Why is something made almost entirely of plastic so heavy? Why are there so many trees in the way? How far will we have to walk to find an access point?

Finally, we wrestled the kayak onto the bank of the "water."

I have been in some very disgusting water in my life -- Stock tanks, cattle troughs, mud puddles, etc. But I never experienced anything quite like this. The weirdly green algae on the top of the water didn't bother me, neither did the suspiciously tar-like mud on the banks.

It was the smell. ...and the garbage.

I got in first.

I'm glad no one was watching as I tried to crab walk into the front seat of the boat. Balance has never ever been my strong suit.

Finally, I got situated and J pushed the boat into the water thinking he could easily hop in where the water was shallow enough to barely cover his shoes.

Wrong again.

The mud on the edge of coulee is actually a stinky tar monster looking to devour limbs and shoes -- especially shoes.

I was facing forward and focused on shifting my weight to keep the kayak from flipping, so I'm not sure what exactly happened. My understanding is that J fought the tar monster with all his might to first retrieve his left leg. Once that foot was safely in the kayak, he rescued the other. His shoes barely escaped with their lives.

By the time he got in the boat, the tar monster had coated his legs in mud to the knees and he was soaked nearly to his waist. He took quite a bit of the monster with him, coating the bottom of the kayak in smelly, black tar/mud.

He smelled like a warrior  ...who fights in the sewer. 

We decided to go to right and paddle as far as we felt like. Surely the water will get clearer and nicer as we go, right?

Wrong again.

Within a few minutes we saw a giant, dead fish (or maybe it was a baby whale), a bicycle, a hubcab, a 99-pack worth of empty beer cans and countless other forms of trash.

There was a low point where the bottom of the kayak scraped on something. I'm pretty sure it was the rest of the car that belonged to that hubcap. Most likely the tar monster stole it out of someone's driveway for a midnight snack.

Then we came to a tunnel with three possible points of entry. It was low and scary, and I couldn't see well what was on the other side. From what I could see, two of the three routes were blocked with something big, brown and scary. A bear? A rock monster? A refrigerator box?

I'll never know, because we elected to turn around, instead of braving door number three.

To the right of the tunnel was a fairly large drainage pipe.

As novice kayakers? kayakis? kayakians? people who paddle a kayak, our steering left much to be desired.

I think you know where this is going...

We narrowly escaped paddling right into the drainage pipe.

The list of things we crashed into is fairly short, but I feel bad for the poor cattails that are probably still leaning over at a 45-degree angle.

After we turned around we went quite a ways in the other direction. The water got clearer, smelled slightly better and there were live animals including a turtle and several ugly ducks. I imagine the pretty ducks banish the ugly ducks to the polluted stream so they can keep the nice river for themselves. They are such snobs! The poor ugly ducks are probably forced to become minions of the tar monster and scout out cars, bikes and dumpsters for him to steal and snack on. 

I was happy to be in water that could sustain life again, so I gladly embraced the sight of ugly ducks and turtles as we paddled along.

It was a little overcast and still. So we decided to just coast a little while and rest our incredibly out of shape arms.

During our brush with death at the drainage pipe, I was so focused on maneuvering the boat I hadn't realized how hard my arms were working.

Update: Three days later I am still quite sore. 

Finally, we decided we were hungry for lunch and headed back.

This time we found a path through the trees we had overlooked before that would be a shorter walk to the building.

We paddled the boat as far onto the bank as we could. Now it was my turn to fight the stinky tar monster.

I braced myself.

The mud I stepped on after I awkwardly crawled out of the boat had no water standing over it.

But it didn't matter.

The tar monster is not limited to locations with standing water.

I sank fast, my left shoe, ankle and most of my calf disappeared like lightening. I took a big step away from the water with my right foot and used the hard ground to leverage my leg free.

But I still had to pull the boat out of the water.

Stepped toward the boat, just close enough to reach it.

It was too close. The tar monster grabbed both of my ankles.

On the bright side, being so well anchored in the mud, made it easy to pull the boat forward.

I fought free, stepped back and pulled again.

J hopped out lightly escaping the tar monster almost completely this time.

We navigated the path of least resistance through the brush, and, swarmed  by mosquitoes, we drug the boat toward the building.

Then, having finally discovered the best place to lift the boat, by the very ends where it's narrow in case you were wondering, we carried it through the clearing back the the building.

Needless to say everything was covered in mud, us, the boat, the paddles -- even the life jackets didn't come out completely unscathed.

It took a while to get it all cleaned up and, three loads of laundry later, I'm still waging the final battles with the tar monster.

But, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Over lunch at a restaurant we had never tried we laughed and laughed about how ridiculous our adventure was.

I'm pretty sure we'll talk about this day on J's 50th birthday, too.

Happy birthday, dear!

Friday Favorites I

Romantically involved

Note: I have to get to read a lot of "Dear Amy" columns at work, so I decided to adopt her style for this post. 

Downtown Grand Forks

Dear Amy, 

There's a man I work with and we are romantically involved. He's tall, smart and handsome with gorgeous green-blue eyes and great hair. 

Recently, we've been taking walks together during the day exploring the area we work in. 

Mostly we talk about our days and funny things that have happened since we last saw each other. 

Sometimes we talk about what we observe as we walk. 

This brings me to my dilemma -- we walk by all these restaurants in the late afternoon when their preparing for their dinner rush and the food smells so smoky and delicious. We love to talk about food. It's one of the things that brought us together in the first place. 

So my question is this: Is it love or is it just delicious ambiance of Grand Forks?

Sincerely, 

Fattie and Falling in the Forks

I imagine the response would go something like this:

Dear Fattie, 

A love of food and men is easily confused, but since you're walking with Mr. Gorgeous Eyes and not some other random individual, I'd say there's at least something about him you like. 

If you want to know for sure, take him to the least romantic place on earth and see if you still like him. If you do, keep walking.

If you don't, run! 

But when it all falls down around you, don't blame me. Blame the fried chicken. 

Amy

Cupcake Wars!

A couple of months ago J and I were hungry...Wait...we're always hungry....

And we also wanted to go on a date...

Seems simple enough--go get some food.

Unfortunately, we're also poor...

So we decided to have cupcake wars in our kitchen using things we had on hand.

I use the phrase "cupcake wars" loosely because it turned out to be J taking photos of me making cupcakes more than a competition.

We picked two cupcake recipes, Red Velvet and Lemon, out of a lifestyle magazine I get. Click here to read another recipe I adapted from the magazine. 

I'm not going to post the recipes here because they're pretty basic...just look on pinterest, it's been covered. The idea is, take your man to the kitchen and cook together!

Or as in our case, your husband will play with his new camera while you do most of the baking...still fun!

Here some of J's photos. I picked ones that highlight some cupcake simple baking tricks to make the cupcakes come out a little more delicious.

Invest in a stand mixer. It's not absolutely necessary but
it just makes everything easier and  more fun.

There are a lot of ways to separate eggs. This is my
technique. It's old fashioned but it gets the job done.
(Using the whites without the yolk makes the cake whiter,
fluffier and less fattening. ...I just added that last attribute
because it sounds good. If you care about fat, you probably
just shouldn't eat cupcakes.)

I squeeze a lemon just like anyone else, I just liked this photo.

I pipe icing out of a gallon baggie with the corner cut off.
To fill the baggie I put it in a glass then pour or scoop the
icing in.

Love notes for the modern couple

A little over a week ago I was at home alone, daydreaming about J.

This image isn't mine, but I like it. :) I got it here.

I do that a lot.

Is that weird? Probably, but I enjoy it, so don't tell me if it is.

I decided I wanted to do something sweet for him rather keeping all my positive thoughts to myself.

So I started another blog. It's free. It's easy. So, if you wanted, you could do this too. Just go to blogger.com, and follow the steps. (Or some other free blog site. There are several out there.)

I wrote what I was thinking, as eloquently as I could think to write it and sent him the link at work.

I now update that blog every few days or so. It's fun to have a running log of love letters. I don't put either of our whole names in them because I think it's more romantic that way. And he's the only real person, as far as I can tell, that views it. Not that it matters since I don't put anything specific, just flowery love stuff. ;)

Recently, I've been thinking of fun ways to tell him I've updated it. Tonight, I put a note on his dinner that just has the URL and hearts. (That way he doesn't have to ask if he forgot the address.)

If I were to do something like this again, I think I might introduce it that way. Just a note with the URL and nothing else. It's what I imagine would happen if Humphrey Bogart made romantic movies in 2012.

There are really endless possibilities on how you could use something like this.

For example, it could be a fun date invite. If you were to write a lot of love notes over a period of time, then put an invitation in the last one. Maybe just a time and address...ooh romantic.

You could also do a series of photos with signs instead of writing out text.

You could use it to track a long distance relationship. Each of you could log in as authors and post pictures, notes and vlogs to each other. Then years later you would have it to remember how your relationship survived that distance.

I especially think it could be great for newlyweds to record all those newly committed feelings, and how your love grows over the first months and years. Then later, you can return to it and remember why you fell in love in the first place.

You could even use it to propose, but I'm a little old fashioned when it comes to that.

Anyway, that's my fairly unoriginal 21st century update of the old school love letter. Let me know if you try it for yourself. :)

The Strawberry Shortcake(s) Experiment

I know I'm several days later than I said I would be with this post. But hopefully you weren't waiting on pins and needles or anything.

I'm finally going to tell you how J's birthday cake came out.

He requested strawberry shortcake. I've never made strawberry shortcake, so I went to Pinterest to see what I could dig up as far as recipes were concerned. I found this recipe, which isn't a traditional shortcake recipe, but it sounded good and relatively simple.

I had to make a few major adaptations to the recipe.

First, I decided to make cupcakes instead of one large cake. This is mostly because I only have big, rectangular cake pans. But it's also because my grandma recently gave me a set of silicon baking cups. I was dying to try them, and J's birthday was a great excuse.

So I made the cake batter according to the recipe. ...I thought. As it turns out I'm not a whiz at figuring out metric to English conversion and I don't have a scale. I'm relatively sure I put in too much sugar.

No harm done, the cake is a little sticky, but other than that, no problem.

I've never beaten eggs as long as I had to beat this batter. (That may be because of the sugar.) I'm so glad I used my stand mixer, because I thought briefly about doing it by hand. I don't know how long I beat them but it felt like at least 10 minutes.

Finally the batter was mixed and ready to go.

I wanted to make 23 cupcakes and place a candle on each one and I had 24 cups, perfect! However, I wanted to make each cake in 2 layers, and I didn't know if I would be able to split them nicely after they baked.

So I put about half the batter into 23 cups and baked them.

The bad part of all this was that I had to let the batter just sit there while I baked them, they cooled and I emptied and washed the cups.

You can see how the sticky cake stuck to the sides. 

 So the moral of the story is that the first set of cakes is much, much fluffier than the second.

While the second set was baking, I made the filling. I can never find Mascarpone cheese in a grocery store, so I subbed in cream cheese. I also left out the alcohol.

By the time the filling was made, it was down to the wire of J's arrival. So I pulled the other batch out of the oven and started assembling the first batch.

I placed one layer of cake upside down on the platter, then a dollop of filling, a couple of strawberry slices, and then they other cake. I put some filling on top and a decoratively placed a couple more slices of strawberry.

I made 11 cakes out of the first batch, stuck two candles in each and one candle in the odd cake out. (Why I didn't make 24 cups the first time around I have no idea.)

Happy birthday, J!

As you can see, it was a mess. The cake stuck to everything, and I was so rushed that I didn't even think about setting up a nice, clutter-free picture. 

But they tasted great! We've been enjoying them ever since. 

Maybe next year, I'll finally manage the perfect birthday cake.

An Experimental Birthday Dinner (Part 2: Sigh)

Whoa!

I just spent the past three hours running around like a crazy chicken.

"It's all over now but the crying," as my mom would say. She loves old redneck sayings. But I'm not going to cry. Well maybe about using that saying, but not about dinner. Am I getting off track?

Okay. So I executed the plan, but I underestimated how long it would take me to do a few things.

One such thing was the potato salad. I forget about the straining, peeling, mashing, chopping and mixing all takes a while. But I got it done by 5:20 and had it chilling in the fridge (we like to eat it cold). I intended to have it done by 5 or so, but time just got away from me.

Some of that time that got away was put into the cake, or cakes should I say. But that's its own saga for tomorrow.

The other thing I did wrong on my timing was overestimate how long it would take to cook the main course. This turned out okay. The steak pieces had plenty of time to rest, yet were not cold. But they weren't as tender as they might have been if I had let them be a little more rare.

The veggies right after marinating.

The flavor was really good, though. I was also happy to discover that the potato salad was a great compliment to the meal. The tangy mustard and pickle in the potatoes complimented the sour, spicy marinade on the beef and veggies. Win!

Note my oh-so-original use of lime. ;)

The most important critic, and birthday boy set his seal of approval on the meal. So I feel like it was well-worth my effort. :)

An Experimental Birthday Dinner (Part 1: the Diabolical Plan)

I can't believe I spelled diabolical right on the first try.

...but I digress...

Today is J's real, live, actual birthday!

I look forward to this day all year for several reasons:

1. I get to start teasing him about being older than me. This is the first of 20 days where he and I are officially not the same age.

2. It means my birthday is coming! I know I'm selfish; I'm working on it.

3. I get to set aside everything in life and focus on his favorite thing, food. I will cook for hours today. First dinner had to be planned and prepped and in a second I will take on dessert. Just because I want to prolong sitting here under the fan, I'll give you a brief history of J's birthday meals.

Last year, I did ribs and potato salad. I also attempted a chocolate volcano cake, but that was a failure.

When he turned 21 we had a fajita party. I made everything down to the tortillas (...well most of the tortillas). It was great.

When he turned 20 I still thought he was a little odd, so we didn't hang out that day.

This year I'm making a spicy-lime beef stir fry. I'm totally inventing everything and here's what I have so far...

I thawed a pound of stew meat it's now marinading in a mesquite lime marinade that I bought pre-made. I'm also marinating a chopped jalapeno, three yellow squash, half a chopped bell pepper and some chopped onion.

I'll also be making a derivation of a strawberry shortcake recipe I found on Pinterest, I'll share that later (probably tomorrow).

Anyway, I plan on marinating the meat and veggies for about 3 hours, then I'm going to saute it all in a skillet.

In a little while, I'll throw together some potato salad (per J's request). I'm not sure how that's all going to go together, but I'm excited to see.

I also have a few fresh limes hanging around the house. I'm not sure how to incorporate them yet, but we'll see what brilliant plan I concoct! (MUAHAHAHAHAA!) ...okay calming down now.

A Golden Delicious Birthday.

Tomorrow is J's birthday, so yesterday we went to the local Apple Butter Festival to celebrate.

Having never visited an orchard or attended any kind of harvest festival, we had no idea what to expect.

It was a beautiful day. The weather was cool and a little overcast. This was a welcome break from the scorching summer days leading up to it.

We headed out around 10 and drove for about 30 minutes to the orchard. I love driving with J. We get to talk about all kinds of things we don't often think of at other times. Things we see, childhood stories, music we like lately, our hopes and dreams for the future.

On this trip, he told me he was inexplicably excited about being 23. I'm not as excited about turning 23 in a few weeks, but his excitement challenges me to find something to look forward to. That's what I love most about J, he challenges me to have a better attitude.

When we arrived at the orchard we payed to get in and received an apple stamp on our right hands. I felt like a kid, looking at my stamp. I love when people keep their theme in mind when they plan details.

We walked past a few craft booths, observed a bounce house, and greeted a couple of people we knew.

As I watched kids bounce around in an inflatable castle, I was more than a little jealous of them.

Remembering we were here  to celebrate another year into J's 20s, I looked away and headed into the neatly aligned rows of apple trees with his hand in mine.

A lot of apples had fallen on the ground. I wondered if the cold front from the night before contributed to their demise. But the apples still clinging to the trees were beautiful, and I say that never having liked to eat raw apples.

Despite my lifelong avoidance of eating apples I found myself sharing one particularly delicious-looking one with J as we walked.

Perhaps it's the feeling of kindred with the character, Snow White (a clear result of the fact that I've never been able to tan) that caused me to hate apples so much. I suppose I was channeling her when I was tempted to eat this particular apple right off the tree.

This one has a wormhole on the other side.
I forgot to take a picture of the other one before we ate it. :P

It was so delicious that I didn't even mind the fact that it was an apple, or that I hadn't washed it with running water. (Don't judge, everyone was doing it.)

J eating another one!
(Oh yeah I had another one too.)

We had a great time eating our way through the trees, but the orchard is only so big and all the trees are the same. So we decided to head back to the festivities.

When we walked back to the main area a men's singing group was singing old-timey love songs a capella. It was so fun to watch them. Most of them were older, carrying canes and had grey or no hair. But they sounded strong and sang with great animation. One particular man would point at the crowd and sway. I could just picture him at 23 singing to some girl he liked. 

Then we ate. 

We ate dessert first, because when apple turnovers and ice cream are offered these Dykowski's don't hesitate. 

Then we had some barbecue, because this is Texas. I feel no need to explain that any further. 

All in all it was a great morning. If we are still living in this area next September, we will certainly go back.

...And I will get a giant butterfly painted on my face like the little girl J pointed out as we were leaving. ;)

A Dark Knight Date

Blogs are such fun! I love reading other women's blogs about how they raise their kids, keep their homes and marriages happy and keep their sanity (or maybe not so much). Yesterday I ran across a this website on Pinterest. It's all about how to continue dating your husband after your life gets crazy!

These "dating divas" are really into themed movie nights. I love this idea. It makes a regular old movie date so much more memorable when you put a little thought and effort into it.

So I skimmed through a few of their themes, ruling out movies we don't own, so it wouldn't cost anything.

Finally, I settled on "The Dark Knight."

This post is where I got my inspiration for our special movie experience. As you can see, I made quite a few changes to their plan to fit our personalities, time and budget.

Here's what you would need to replicate what I did:

A Facebook account and your spouse's "friendship"
(e-mail or another social networking site could also work)
black construction paper
Scissors
White paint, marker or crayon
flashlight
tape
inflatable mattress (cushions or lots of blankets and pillows are fine)
blankets and pillows (bonus points if you have black blankets and pillow cases)
Popcorn
Pickles
(or other snacks)
drinks
Something cute to wear-preferably black

First, I made a Facebook event only he and I could see. It told him the time I thought he'd be home (so he could correct me, if I was mistaken). I added a picture of the movie poster from Google and several trailers from Youtube for him to watch. In the event description, I put a quote from the movie--"It's simple we kill the batman!" This way he know some of what to expect, but he's also curious about what I'm planning. Periodically, through his shift I would add vague updates about what I was doing to spark his curiosity. (You made need to adapt this plan for text messages if your husband doesn't have a computer job, or even plan ahead and make him a paper invite to sneak into his lunch.)

Next, I started decorating. I cut out a bat silhouette from construction paper and painted the words "why so serious?" in white. This was for the front door. Then I cut 2 more, taped one to the porch light so it would be reminiscent of the bat signal and one to the microwave so he would see it when I made the popcorn.

I also made a bat signal of my own out of a flashlight.

I used black construction paper, scissors and pieces of the
flashlight.

I used the plastic lens cover as a template for
a circle that would fit in the light. I cut that shape out.

Then I folded the circle in half and cut out
the bat shape. I stacked that on top of the
plastic lens cover.

Then I screwed the case on. 

Perfect!

The bat signal has a special function for this movie date. When you turn it on, your spouse has to rush over and kiss you. It sounds really silly, but if you both get into it, it's great fun.

I taped the negative cutout from the bat signal to the plastic cover of our lamp. The lamp was too bright, but the room was too dark without it. So I took a black pillowcase and shaded it. This created a really cool ambiance. Especially when combined with the "bat signal" shining on the ceiling.

Ignore the "vintage" furniture. ;)

Then I inflated a camping mattress on the floor, covered it in blankets and pillows and set up the DVD.
When I knew J was almost home, I mixed up some chocolate milk (the drink he requested before he left work) and put his slippers by the door. I wanted him to feel like Bruce Wayne coming into his mansion, not a simple feat when you live in a little duplex.

When he told me I was way cuter than Alfred, I knew it was a success. ;)

I'm not endorsing this movie or the sequel. Just fun dates with your spouse. ;)

Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes recipe in review

Today I attempted a new recipe. I generally like inventing my own recipes, but this one incorporated one of  J's favorite desserts into a cupcake. Whats not to love?


Here's the recipe I used:


Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes Recipe:
(Recipe from Heck Fridays)

24 cake-mix yellow cupcakes, cooled and unwrapped (I used a butter golden mix)

1 (3.4 oz) box French Vanilla instant pudding
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream

Make cupcakes according to directions on box. 

Mix together pudding, cream, powdered sugar, milk, and sour cream. Beat on medium speed until stuff peaks form. Cut each cupcake in half and add a dollop of filling. Put top back on cupcake and frost with ganache.

Ganache:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat cream in sauce pan until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat, pour over chocolate in a mixing bowl. Stir to mix together. Let cool slightly.

Keep in refrigerator until ready to serve.

So I followed these directions, and let me tell you, these cupcakes are a delicious and delightful mess! 

One of the less messy ones...

Here are a couple of mistakes I think I made along the way that may make yours come out better. 


First, I shorted the butter a little in the cupcakes. I was about a tablespoon short and didn't have any more, so I just went with it. I think this is what made the cupcakes a little flimsy and harder to deal with. Also they were a little flat on top. 


Second, I took the word "stiff" a little too literally. My filling didn't really form "dollops" in the traditional sense. They were more like spikey blobs from a bad science fiction movie. Doing it again, I might whip a little less. 


Third, I made too much frosting. I would say you really only need about half of what the recipe calls for. But, I LOVE chocolate, so I went ahead and used it all. The result is some drippy, messy cupcakes. 


While forks will be a must for these messy treasures, there are a few points of this recipe that I think are delightful.


This filling is delicious! I had a little leftover after I finished putting the cupcakes together. I will confess that I ate it. (Shhhh don't tell on me!) Delicious is not the right word; I think I may dream about it tonight. 


In fact, it was so delightful that it has inspired me to attempt a new recipe later after these are gone. 


I recently pinned a recipe for "Hocus Pocus Buns" that are supposed to yield hollow cinnamon-sugar pastries. I want to fill them with the Boston Cream filling (maybe dip them in chocolate) and freeze them like eclairs.  Do you think this will work?

Homemade Date Night!

Last night J sent me a message saying he wanted to do something fun tonight. So we tossed around a few ideas.

First, we thought about doing a movie marathon, but neither of us were too excited about that this time. So we elected to do that on another day maybe this summer.

Next, we thought about renting a video game we both have been wanting to play, Harry Potter Lego 5-7. (Yes we are uber-nerds!) But I was craving something that would allow us to talk more, so we set that aside for another day.

At this point in our conversation, I start googling for ideas. Since I kinda shot down one that he was so excited about I wanted to come up with something he could get equally excited about that would give me the interaction I was looking for too.

Several sites I visited mentioned twister. Light bulb! I told Scott I thought we should go out and buy it, but he had a better idea, make it!

All we did was cut construction paper into circles. There were six of each color, blue, yellow, green and red (we didn't have red so we used pink) and laid them out on the floor in a grid. Viola, instant twister! Yes, they did slip and slide on the carpet but that made it exponentially more fun and challenging. We took turns calling out colors for the other person. It didn't take long for us to discover that neither of us are very good at it, but we had a blast. I can't wait to play again.

Our plan was to also make brownies. Since I bought a mix last time I got groceries we didn't have to leave the house for that either. We found that brownie breaks were necessary throughout our twister game, and there was no guilt because we were burning all the calories we were eating (well some of them anyway).

Finally, I saw on Pinterest.com someone suggested making a blanket fort. This was one of my favorite things to do as a kid so why not relive that with my husband? But by the time we were done playing twister we were not up crawling around on the floor anymore, so I'll put that one on the 'For Later' list too.

Here's a sampling of other date ideas on the For Later list:

• Draw portraits (in our case more like caricatures) of each other.
• Paint something abstract on canvas together. 
• Fly kites in the park
• Cook dinner together--make something we have never made before
• Star gazing in the country
• Go camping
• Try "Painting with a Twist," a Lubbock art studio with amateur classes
• Ice or roller skating
• Six Flags

Maybe some of our ideas will inspire you for a fun date with your significant other. Have fun!!!