We had such a fun Valentine's Day this year! Matt took the day off from work, which always makes the day a little more fun. We have a tradition that every Valentine's Day we go to a candy store and get a box of chocolates to share. We each get to pick half of the chocolates. Then we take them home and enjoy them together over the next few days (or however long they last!). We started this tradition about five years ago and it is one of my favorites that we have. We usually just go to See's but this year we wanted to try something different. So, in the morning we went to a little candy store in Enumclaw called Sweet Necessities (the name of this store made me have the "Bear Necessities" song from The Jungle Book in my head all day. LOL). We read about the store in the Seattle Times, where it was ranked as the #1 best place to get chocolates in southeast King County, so we decided to try it out. It is a little locally owned shop on one of the main streets in town and is so quaint and charming. Matt and I love to check out locally owned shops and support people who are following their dreams. There is something about that that makes me feel all warm inside. All of the chocolates Sweet Necessities sells are from local companies, and the owner even makes some of the candy they sell himself. He gave us a sample of the handmade salted caramel that he had made that morning and it was soooo good. We gave Maddie and Macy a taste and after they finished it they kept signing "more, more!" Our girls sure love sweets! We picked out a box of smoked salt caramels and six various chocolates: a lemon coconut buttercream (a white chocolate lemon truffle with a thin white chocolate coating, rolled in toasted coconut), a raspberry butterfly (dark chocolate butterfly filled with raspberry puree and raspberry cream), a pecan turtle (one of Matt's favorites because the remind him of his grandma, so we get one every year), a chipotle truffle (dark chocolate with spicy chipotle pepper in it--Matt loved it, but it was too spicy for me), a PB&J (very thin dark chocolate filled with a layer of dense creamy peanut butter and a layer of grape jelly--this was Matt's favorite), and a lavendar sea salt caramel (a caramel covered in chocolate and sprinkled with sea salt, with the flavor of lavendar that was surprisingly very pleasant--this one was my favorite). These chocolates were so delicious and we loved that they were more gourmet flavors than you can get at See's. We will definitely be going back to Sweet Necessities!

After a trip to Costco (yes, we practically live there and no holiday celebration would be complete for the Griffith family without getting Costco involved :) ) we went to The Keg for dinner. And by we, I mean all four of us. Yes, Matt and I still have not left our girls with a babysitter yet, although we have lately been feeling like it is time for the girls to make friends with some teenagers so we can have some time alone before that is not between the hours of 9pm and 8am. We are actually very lucky that our girls are quite well-behaved in restaurants, which is probably because of their vast restaurant experience since they go with us every time we go out to eat, and because of fishy crackers. As long as we bring the magic fishy crackers, everything is A-OK. Matt and I have been anticipating eating at the Keg for a long time. We love their Caesar salad, and Matt especially loves it that they will put whole anchovy fillets on it if you like (which I do not). My favorite part of the salad is the big shavings of parmesan cheese on top. So yummy. The girls shared chicken strips (which Macy wouldn't eat, but Maddie loved), Matt got prime rib, which was delicious as always, and I got a filet mignon topped with blue cheese and roasted garlic. So so sooo yummy. It was a fabulous meal with great service, perfect for Valentine's Day.

After such a fun day we were able to get the girls in bed a little early and have some time alone to.....

watch Lost in peace, of course! (what did you think I was going to say?!?!) ;)

It was such a fun day and I am so lucky to have such a wonderful Valentine. Matt, I love you more each day and the past seven years have been so amazing. You are so good to me and I am so grateful to have been blessed with you in my life. You're the best! I love you!!!