Much appreciated date night

This is what Derek has been doing for weeks now... working on house permits, timber program applications, and drainage plans. Good times.

The fun of all of this is why it was SO nice to have a date night last Friday. My mom had given Derek tickets to see Pete Yorn in concert for Christmas (thanks mom:)), so despite the work he still needed to do, we HAD to have a night away. Megan and Paul were nice enough to keep our kids over night (thanks Megan and Paul:)), so we got to have the best evening. We were finally able to use a gift certificate we had received for Anthony's in Seattle, and had the most relaxing dinner with this view:

And the Pete Yorn concert was one of our favorite concerts ever. We have seen him a number of times and always think he is great, but this time he was celebrating the 10th anniversary of his first album (which we love), so he played it in it's entirety (which we loved even more). Kind of weird to do at a concert, but it was SO good. And those who know me and have made fun of me for my fear of losing my hearing would be so proud - I did not plug my ears at all and we were right in the front. Pretty wild and crazy, I know.

It was just the kind of night we needed and I so appreciated it.

We have all heard how stressful building a house is, and we are just beginning to feel it. Derek has been up to his neck in permit paperwork and let's just say that King County is not his favorite institution. Especially since he had the privilege of working with the WORST drainage guy, and it took an extra few weeks of drawing squiggly lines and pictures of our property to make this guy happy. Unfortunately, I know nothing about any of this stuff, and it is all on his shoulders right now. But the guy finally approved our plan and we should get our permit and begin building in the next couple of weeks - YIPPEE!!