Valentimes

I guess I changed my blog.  I kinda like the old version better, but I wanted to try something different. Anyway...
Valentines Day seems so long ago, but I'm just now loading the pictures.
The nights leading up to the day were kind of crazy. I've always encouraged the girls to do homemade valentines because I think they are funner. But this has always been more work for me.  This year was no different. Emma found an idea online that ended up taking so much longer than we thought.  Because she was putting all her time into making her Valentine box Aaron and I were left to make her Valentines.

During our long night I just couldn't believe what we were doing all in the name of Valentines that were just going to get thrown away.  I was shocked the next day at school to find out that other people had put in way more time than we had, not on valentines, but on valentine boxes. At their school it seems to be a tradition at least in the sixth grade to go all out on a valentine box. One girl made hers look like a ski resort.  There were a lot of tired mothers that night!

I talked Lindsey into making homemade Valentines from her own drawings. My sister Carly spent her valuable time scanning them and fixing them up before I printed them out.  Then we spent a few nights helping her color them all.  Ok, next year we're going for the store bought kind!  Probably not, I just can't!

Here's the finished product. They would look much better if Lindsey would have colored all of them, but that would have taken days!

Christian had some cute ones too, but I didn't get a picture of them. I've already found him some Hotwheels valentines on sale for next year.  When I showed him he was excited.

What I really want to talk about is Valentine's Day with Aaron. It was one of the best ones we've ever had. Aaron asked me to marry him on Valentines Day 15 years ago.  On that day we went snowshoeing up North Fork. On our hike he made us some soup and sandwiches with a little camp stove. Afterwards he gave me one of those "Fruit by the foot" fruit rollup-type things and inside the wrapper wasn't a fruit rollup, but a box with a ring inside. And then of course he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and I said "yes"

We've had some memorable Valentines, some good, some bad, and others funny.  The time that we like to laugh about was probably 11-12 years ago before we had kids. I was working at Mt. Ogden Middle School and Aaron was working just down the road at Md. Fort M.S  He left work at just the right time to put a note on my car instructing me which way to drive to get to our romantic lunch in the park- ok it was just Arby's sandwiches, but much better than the crackers I was planning on eating.  Instead of being at work though, I was en route to his work to leave a note on his car. I stopped briefly at Smith's to buy him a treat to go with my note and by the time I got to Aaron's work he had already come back. When I got into his car to leave my poor excuse for a Valentine, I saw a crumpled up paper full of directions for a lunch at the park and an Arby's wrapper on the floor.  I pieced together what just happened and felt so awful. I totally ruined his fun lunch plans in my effort to wish him Valentine's. I felt sick about that one for quite a while, but now we laugh.

One more Valentine's story...this one makes me smile big. I was coaching basketball probably the next year and we had a game clear up near the Idaho border in Cache Valley. It was a later game and when it was over I just was not looking forward to riding the bus home with the junior high girls on Valentine's Day.  Just as these thoughts were filling my mind I spotted Aaron in the crowd. He had driven all the way up there to rescue me. We got in his car and he took me to Maddox to eat that night. It was the best night ever!!!

Ok, fast forward to this year.  I'm still doing dumb Valentines and Aaron is still coming up with good surprises.  When I got home after being at the elementary all afternoon I found this hanging on my wall:

I knew it had to be something really expensive because as you can see in the pictures it covers my gifts for the rest of the year.  I was guessing and hoping it would be a beautiful picture of the temple.

I was right!!

Doesn't that look so beautiful on my wall?  It sure brightens up my room. So cool!!!

Then, Aaron and I went to the temple and had the greatest time.  My awesome friend Valerie tended for us so we could do it. Then we ended up at Maddox once again. Surprisingly Valentine's Day is not a bad day to get into Maddox.   

It was just the greatest Valentine's Days ever thanks to my loving husband.  Definitely one for the memory books.