Happy Happy Valentine's Day!

As mentioned previously, I love a holiday that gives me an excuse to make cute, nummy cut-out cookies! So as you can imagine, I was busy baking, icing, and sugaring some heart-shaped sugar cookies this week. They made perfect Valentine's for those we love! Best of all... they even got my mom's stamp of approval... she loved them! And she bakes so many delicious treats, so that's a monster complement!

Just a few cookies left after bagging some up for our Valentines!

And check out the adorable (not to mention incredibly delicious!) treats my mom and sister let us take back to munch on...

So cute! And so nummy.

So besides eat cute treats, what did we do for Valentine's Day? Well actually, not much. At least, not together anyway. I spent the day shopping in Maple Grove with my mom. We had an awesome day! Mild Minnesota winter weather for doing some outdoor mall shopping (I know, why would they create an outdoor mall in Minnesota? Weird. But it is perfect in spring/summer), Q'doba for lunch (nummy!) and just enjoying a girls day out. It was great : ) Probably one of the best days I've ever had.

On Saturday, we had quite an adventure-filled day as well! My mom loves to cross country ski, so she suggested we all go to a resort in the area, rent some skis, and enjoy the great outdoors. We had a blast. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it! And my hubby loved it too. It was so fun to get outside and do something like with my family. We laughed and had fun and enjoyed each other's company. It was awesome! Watching my hubby ski was hilarious. He has this weird confidence when he tries certain new things, and when he got on his skis, he just took off speeding down the trail. And I don't know why, but I almost fell over laughing. He is just so funny to watch! Of course, I gave my dad and sister a good laugh as well when I slid down while trying to go up a hill three times... but I did eventually conquer that hill. It was a great workout, and it felt good to use the muscles I've been weight training on (strong thigh muscles, thanks to squats! And biceps, thanks to curls and other exercises).

After we finished up with skiing, we decided to gain back all of the calories we had burned off by going to Dairy Queen (of course! Where else would my family go?) before going to Saturday evening mass. After, my grandparents joined my family and we went out to eat at a popular local restaurant that typically never disappoints. I say typically for a reason... five out of the seven people in our party decided to go with the restaurant's special for the night -- a pound of ribs with fries and coleslaw. It's a good thing my mom and I decided to share a pound, because they were awful. Terrible. They were ridiculously tough and so hard! You could hardly get your knife through to cut them. My grandpa said they were the worst ribs he'd ever had in his life -- my parents said the meal was quite possibly one of the worst meals they've ever had. I'd definitely agree -- what a disappointment!

We said goodbye to my grandparents and my sister and found ourselves at the movies to polish off our day! Mom and I wanted to see Valentine's Day and let the boys go to Avatar, but our [terrible] meal took a little too long (bummer!), and we missed the start time for Valentine's Day, so we all went to Avatar. Now, maybe Mom and I are just not as big of Sci-fi fans as we thought (Star Trek and Star Wars are as far as we go, I guess), but we though Avatar was terrible. It was long and boring and never-ending, and there were blue people wearing thongs and blue women wearing nothing on top but a strategically placed necklace (that sometimes shifted a bit...), and it was just weird. So what's the big draw? Why the big numbers at the box office? Blah. Regardless, we just added to those box office numbers... suckas! Dang. However, we did have an interesting discussion about some of the physical features of the blue people in the movie when we arrived home that left us laughing pretty hard... so maybe it was worth it. Maybe. Nah, we would have probably laughed that hard about something else without it.

Terrible movie or not, my Valentine's/President's Day weekend was easily one of the best I've ever had. So many fun memories were made, and you can't get much better than that. Cheesy, yes. True... indeed.

Anyway, now it's back to reality in our teeny-tiny one bedroom apartment. Hubby and I plan to celebrate Valentine's later this week by going out to eat at a delicious Italian restaurant in the area and by exchanging Valentine's cards. Not just any Valentine's cards, either -- we opted for a little contest. Whomever gives the "best" Valentine wins (though we have no prize. Just the sheer satisfaction of winning, I guess?)... interpret "best" as you may. HA! I'm so excited. I've so got my hubby beat. Don't worry, I'll share my card with you after this Friday when we go out to eat... but he's probably reading this blog as we speak, so I can't let my secret out just yet... : )