Valentine's Day 2010

Here's how much life has changed in the 6 Valentine's Days we have celebrated together... for our first one in 2004, we had only been dating for a little over a month, and we'd really only been back in Austin together for a couple weeks. Jeremy planned an incredibly romantic date in San Antonio, complete with dropping off an invitation and my favorite candy the night before, handpicked conversation hearts to snack on in the car, lots and lots of gorgeous roses, and homemade chocolate covered strawberries, plus a trip to the San Antonio zoo and a nice dinner out. It was amazing! Fast-forward 6 years...still very much in love (of course!) but we're busy with work, home stuff and preparing for this baby. I'm about 8 months pregnant and uncomfortable all the time. So what do we decide will be a great idea to do? Go camping. Yes, camping! We actually didn't go because it was Valentine's Day weekend - we'd been trying to plan a weekend with friends to go before the baby came and it just so happened that weekend worked best (none of us were big on a romantic, expensive evening out anyway) and I refused to go any further along than 33 weeks.

Saturday morning off we went with Kevin to Huntsville State Park. It had been really cold and wet earlier in the week, but it (sort of) dried off and the sun started shining that afternoon. It was still pretty chilly, but the campfire and lots of layers helped. I started out wearing a tank, a t-shirt, a fleece, a scarf, gloves, pants, socks and tennis shoes and ended with adding a ski jacket (outer shell + fleece lining), a second pair of pants, and Uggs. It was actually kind of nice being pregnant because I just sat on a chaise lounge Jeremy brought for me reading magazines while he and Kevin set up our tents, got the fire going and unloaded the truck. Our campsite was actually kind of pretty, with a nice view of the lake (even if signs did warn of gators!), and was the closest you could get to the bathrooms (perfect for me, and thanks to Jeremy!). We were able to borrow a bunch of camping stuff from my dad, and then Justin and Kevin had quite a few of their own supplies, so we only had to worry about buying food.

View of the lake from our campsite

Our campsite (our tent & Kevin's tent)

A look inside our home sweet home - I still don't see how 4 people could fit!

Later in the afternoon Justin, Emily and their dog Riley joined us and we cooked a delicious dinner over the fire - hot dogs and chili. Seriously, campfire food is so good! We played the game Things (highly recommend, very fun!) and made s'mores later in the night and our friend Chris surprised us by coming in from Austin for the night. We had a blast! I was pretty uncomfortable when trying to wriggle into more layers and into a sleeping bag inside of a tent (seeing as I can't bend over as it is) and got a little fussy, but with Jeremy's help I actually slept okay. I was warm enough anyway. Poor Jeremy was freezing all night and right when he saw some light outside around 6:45am he jumped up to get the fire started.

Riley!

Jeremy's favorite picture from the weekend - I don't think Kevin meant to look like he was smacking Justin in the face with his hatchet

That's better

Seriously, these boys were obsessed with their hatchets/axes.

Happy Valentine's Day 2010!

That morning we made really good breakfast tacos, courtesy of the Harbs, and Emily and I stared down the boys until they started packing up. It was fun and all - but we were ready to go once breakfast was done!

Making the world's best breakfast tacos

How cold do I look??

Honestly, it was a fun night with friends and I would definitely do it again - not pregnant and about 10-15 degrees warmer would be perfect.

Editor's Note: I know most who read this only know me as I am now, and think I am most certainly not an outdoorsy girl. But I will have you know, in full disclosure, 2 summers in a row in high school I went with my summer camp to Colorado and camped in the wilderness for 2 weeks each time. We had a base camp where we stayed one week, with porta-potties and army-style tents with wood platform floors, but no running water or electricity (some staff stayed at a ski resort nearby and they brought us jugs of water and our meals). Then for the other week we went off camping in the backcountry with a couple counselors - carrying a backpack 30% of your body weight all day while hiking, pitching our own tents, bathroom in the woods, cooking our own meals, purifying our own water collected from streams, and eventually we hiked to peak a mountain at 13,000' above sea level. Oh, and only 2 showers the whole time over 2 weeks. So I might not be outdoorsy now, but I did know how to camp!