Best. Date. Night. Ever.

And I knew it was meant to be because NOTHING got in the way of us going!

Several weeks ago, our stake announced they would be hosting a dance just after Valentine's Day for the adults. A kid-free night is always a plus. (am I right? right?) And free! Free is always awesome.

I haven't been to a dance in ages. Seriously, I think the last one was Homecoming at Ricks before we got married. And I missed dancing. So all I had to do was give Ammon the puppy-eyed look (which quickly won him over) and he started setting things into motion. He even found me a dress.

Even though it said casual dress (jeans and the like) I wanted to dress up a bit. I haven't done that for a date in a long long time. (Again, before getting married. I'm sensing a trend here.) I paired the black dress with some funky purple tights and my tall boots. I felt cute and rather trendy, whee!

And as fortune or fate or just some really really awesome blessing would have it, Ammon's parents came into town this weekend. They were here to help their other kids, but they wanted to spend some time with our kids and opted to stay with them while we went out. (I hear those angels singing now. Hallelujah!)

Ammon wanted to go to dinner first at Tepanyaki (amazing Japanese steakhouse) but it was a 40-minute wait by the time we got there, so we went next door to Rumbi Island Grill. It was a good second choice.

So! Dance time. I'm one of those weird people who likes to be on time and/or early to events, so when we got there, just a few other couples were there. They were taking pictures too. And I'm happy to say I'm no longer afraid or disgusted by getting my picture taken.

(nothing I can do about improving my smile, however. oh well. We still look good together.)

They started out by holding an activity where we had to name songs from movies. Ammon and I took one look at each other and knew this was OURS. We sat down at the table where our bishop and his wife were sitting and proceeded to blow them all away with our (previously) useless movie knowledge.

Did we win, you ask? Did we win! We won -- by a landslide. The rest of our group profusely thanked us for sitting at their table. It was awesome.

A live band was playing too, which made the whole atmosphere so much better. They played some oldies, some newer stuff, some movie songs, and some country. Ammon wanted to ask them to play some swing music, but they didn't have any brass in their band, so it wouldn't have worked too well.

We originally thought we'd dance one or two songs, declare the rest of the dance lame (as we were wont to do during high school and college... because it typically was back then) and leave early. Not so! I think we sat out maybe one or two songs, and danced the rest. It was AWESOME.

Then we got into a competition with our bishop, his wife, and another couple. We had to hold cinnamon candy lips between our teeth, and the longest lasting person would win. That probably lasted an hour. The bishop was taunting us that he would win, and that turned Ammon's competitive button on. He said, "I'll see you tomorrow in church, Bishop." Then we started cracking jokes that he would have to get up and conduct Sacrament Meeting still holding the candy in his teeth. Not sure if he threw the contest, but he gave up about 30 minutes later, and I immediately folded after that cause it was a yucky mess on my teeth. So Ammon won.

Finally, the last song of the night came, and they played a line dance. Oh, line dance, how I have missed you! I haven't done one actively since country nights at Ricks, so it's been a long, long time. I've sadly forgotten most of them. I wanted to do the cowboy chacha earlier in the evening too.The band must have been Brooks & Dunn fans (not a bad thing at all!) so they played Boot Scootin Boogie. Nearly everyone was out on the dance floor for it. It came back to me so fast, and it was SO FUN! (Seriously, it would be an awesome weight loss workout.)

I am so glad we got to go. We had fun together, and with friends from our ward and new friends too. I hope they do this again sometime!