No really, call the babysitter. Pay the babysitter. Get dressed up. Put your phones away. Make a 9pm dinner reservation. Do whatever you have to do. Go on the date. It's that important.

Too often once we become mom and dad, we forget we are also still a couple. Now that life is about packing lunches, cleaning up messes, policing YouTube channels, and pretending our kids aren't smarter than us, it's easy to lose sight of who we were before.

Do whatever you have to do not to forget. Don't forget those two college kids madly in love going on adventures, spending every second of every day getting to know each other without a care in the world (except Statistics 101... I had a lot of cares about that class...I don't math). Really though, it may be 16 years later with 3 small people you have created, but you're still those people.

Last night we went to a local winery. It was the first time we have been able to spend time just the two of us in months between school, kids, work, kids, schedules, kids, extracurriculars... did I mention kids? But last night my husband arranged for us to have a much needed night out. We enjoyed conversation. We laughed. We held hands. We dressed up for each other. We put our phones away (after our babysitter snapped a photo to commemorate the occasion of course). Our dinner reservation really was at 9pm. We went to a shoe repair shop then walked the mall for 45 minutes before dinner... because there were no kids in tow and that never happens. Where you go and what you do doesn't matter. Who you are with matters.

We are Mom and Dad. But we are also Cory and Nicki. And the more we take the time to nurture that relationship, the more our boys get to see what a relationship should be and recognize the importance of it.

Go on the Date.

Pro tip... this is my sister's prom dress from 19 years ago. You don't have to shop to go on the date. Recycle - every 15 years or so everything comes back into style ;)

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