Love (Or How We Celebrated Valentine's Day)

Today is Valentine's Day--a day to take a few moments and tell your sweetie how much you love him...it's also a Monday, and who has any moments to spare on a Monday?! So this year, Matty and I celebrated V-day over the weekend. And it was a good one, so good in fact that the whole thing earned a sopt on my happy blog.  Bear with me, this detailed post might be sappy.  But that's what Valentine's Day is all about!

Saturday morning got off to a healthy start, when Matt dragged my booty out of bed early and we headed to the gym. We did some couple-y stretches and tossed around the medicine ball. You know, couples who get strong together belong together! (I sat here for 5 minutes coming up with that one...).

After our workout, we headed to the west side because I had a little surprise for Matty. We got to the park early enough to enjoy the breakfast we packed, al fresco, and then I led him to our secret destination...

Archery Lessons!

Why on earth would I take Matt to surprise archery lessons? First, because it's awesome. Also, because it's free, full of friendly people, a way to learn a practical life-saving skill, a great work-out, and oh-so romantic.  Normally, the park has free archery classes and shooting practice on the weekends, which is what I planned on- but Saturday there was an additional event.  The entire archery range was booked for a midieval festival, and swarming with folks decked out in ren-faire style garb.  This should have meant that Matt and I were out  luck- since the range was closed to the public- but the friendly men and women from the land of Lyondemere welcomed us with open arms. We felt pretty special, since lots of other commoners were sent away, and since we got one-on-one lessons! Matt was a natural, and I wasn't too bad either. We both agree that it is something that we want to do again!

http://www.lyondemere.org/

The archery lessons were only a part of the afternoon in the park. Like I said, we were welcomed by the Lyondemerians and before we knew it we were ushered into their "court", where poeple told stories, handed out awards and announced upcoming events.  The Baron and Baroness brought us forward and gave us welcoming tokens...and then the whole group gave us 3 cheers.  Hip, hip Hazah! It was a little embarassing (we didn't really know what was going on) but it was great fun and I am loving the unexpected these days.  Everyone there was happy, sharing the same imagination and doing something they all love. It was probably the nerdiest thing I have ever witnessed, and I couldn't get enough of it. Well, I guess I did get enough of it, because we slipped out before the spinning and the harp concert- but we (I) might have to track this group down again.  Seriously.

Matt and I left the park (after watching a doggie obstacle course competition) and headed to meet friends for a little lunch and shopping (See previous post "Out with Charlie).  We spent little time in the actual stores because it was such a warm sunny day.  We walked and visited and ate- and when we parted from our friends, Matty and I headed to Whole Foods.

Whole Foods should probably get its own entry on the happy blog. I know, I know, it's just a grocery store- but there is something wonderful about it.  I love all of it's free-range, organic, whole-grain, snobby, gluten-free, overpriced, free-trade, goodness! I could easily blow a month's rent in one visit. In fact, I think we left with one bag full and it cost us 80 bucks...but it was worth it.  We went home and had a healthy feast from their delictable deli.  And I stocked up on cruelty-free beauty products!

The night ended on a super high note. Yup, a free movie on TBS.  I was flicking around, with no idea what I wated to watch and the cable gods sent me the perfect movie.  Richard Gere, with flowing locks and no trace of an accent played Sir Lancelot to Sean Connery's King Arthur in First Knight.  If you missed this mid-90s period piece, and you have a soft spot for painfully corny tales of knights in shining armor, you should run out and rent it today.  Parts are action packed, parts are romantic and so much of it is hilarious and uber-cheesy.  Plus, there are one or two decent archery scenes... so it went perfectly with the day's theme.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/firstknightpg13zibart_c020f2.htm

All that, was just day one.  We celebrated on Sunday too!

 Sunday got off to a sleepy start, but then we got dolled up and headed for Malibu winery for wine tasting, music and dancing.  Neither of us had been before, but we were excited to have a peaceful, relaxing, wine-filled afternoon.  The drive to the winery was long (especially since we got a little lost:) but it was beautiful. Once we got there, we saw that there were lliterally thousands of people waiting to get in. We parked and hiked half way to the entrance and decided to scrap our plans and come back another time when it might be less crowded.  But we did take a moment to snap a picture overlooking the Santa Monica mountains-

Now, without plans and in the middle of canyon country, Matt tried to throw together a plan B with his trusty iPhone.  He got the lay of the land and then decided to just drive, and see where the day took us. See? We are all about the unexpected these days!

We ended up dining in at Dukes in Malibu.  It was a beautiful evening and we had the perfect table overlooking the ocean.  We watched sea birds, paddle-boaters, surfers and then a lovely sunset...and I got my wine!

After our fabulous and romatic meal, we headed for home and spent the rest of the evening singing duets.  A couple we even recorded (just for us).  Our jam ran the gamut- we sang a few country tunes, a couple of our favorite folk songs and even copied the most iconic pop duo of the 1970s by singing our own rendition of "I've Got You Babe".  (Matt had to be talked into that one, but then he embraced his inner-Sonny!)

All in all it was a most wonderful Valentine's Day weekend.  So much love, so much fun, so much happy! Valentine's Day has been called a bogus holiday made up by florists and greeting card companies to make money, but it's not the case for us.  No cards, no flowers, no chocolates.  Just a lot of smooches and giggling, spending time out in the wonderful weather, visiting with friends, snuggling with kitties, singing songs and eating food...and, of course, midieval archery lessons. 

And since I didn't get my Valentine a card, I thought I'd share this one with my Matty- inspired by the cheekiest romantic of all, Charles Darwin :)

Thanks for being my love, Matt. And thanks for making my Valentine's Day, and all my days, so happy.

Happy Valentine's Day to the rest of yous.  May you spend your day/week/year with those you love most!