6 Loving Years (Warning: Long Post)

This past weekend, Blake and I celebrated our 6 year (dating) anniversary. I can't believe that it has been 6 years. I feel that we have grown so much over these years. We have matured as individuals, as well as a couple. We grow stronger as a partnership every day and I can't imagine my life without Blake. Technically, our anniversary is on the 24th of January, but we both had 4 days off, so we decided to celebrate early. We didn't do anything too spectacular, but I loved every moment I got to share with Blake.

Saturday:

Last October, for my birthday, Blake gave me a (very expensive) gift card for a couple's day at the Euphoria Wellness Spa in town. We decided to book it for Saturday, so that we could start off our weekend relaxed and restored. Our appointment was at 12:30 p.m. so we began our morning with a big breakfast. A great restaurant for breakfast in Peterborough is the Whistle Stop. They are mostly known for their large assortment of poutine, but Blake and I love going their for breakfast. The Whistle Stop is also around the corner from the spa, so we were able to walk over after breakfast. We wanted to have a large breakfast (how many times have I said "breakfast"?) because they don't feed you at the spa and it was going to be a long day. When I booked our appointment, I was told to come 30 minutes early so that we could take advantage of their amenities prior to our services. When we arrived, we were escorted downstairs and sent to change into our robes and "spa shoes". Blake and I had opposite problems when it came to the spa shoes. I have larger feet than the average woman (size 10), so they didn't have any shoes that fit me. I ended up wearing a size 8 and Blake ... whose feet are average size ... came out in size 14 shoes, which is about 3-4 sizes too big. Once changed, we were able to use their co-ed sauna and "Emotional Aromatherapy Shower". What is an "emotional aromatherapy shower" you ask? ... I honestly cannot tell you, but I used it and it was not pleasant. I was expecting it to be an all-round experience, but it was really just a basic shower. I walked in and turned the shower on; I originally wanted to keep my hair dry, but that idea went out the window fast. The shower rained down from the ceiling and lit up red. Then there were these 2 buttons on the wall ... not sure how they differed, but when you pushed them it caused - what I assume was "aromatherapy essence" - to spew out of the 4 corners of the shower. Spew is the only accurate word for it. It didn't come out gently, it was as if you put your thumb partially over a water hose. Of course, I didn't know it was going to do that and looked up when I pushed the button; resulting in a blast to the face. It might have been considered an experience, but not one I wanted to go through again. Luckily, I dried off quick in the sauna, which was a lot more relaxing than the shower. Blake and I both agreed that our favourite pre-treatment service was the Eucalyptus Steam Room. It was incredibly relaxing and made your whole body feel rejuvenated.

Our first service was a couple's massage. This was Blake's first professional massage, so this was the part that he was most looking forward to. It was great! If the massage doesn't somewhat hurt, then are you really having a massage? The whole time I was yelling in my mind, "Holy ***k that hurts ... but it feels so good". Gotta get all those knots out! My masseuse also stretched out my legs, which I've never had done, and that felt amazing. Of course, just as I was getting into the massage, someone (Blake) whispers "Can I go to the bathroom?". No you may not sir! How dare you interfere with my massage! ... Afterwards, I told Blake to hydrate before our facials because it is important to drink water after a massage. Unfortunately, he went a little overboard with the water and stopped our facials ... full face mask on ... to go to the bathroom again! C'mon man! I have to say, although I enjoyed the facial, I don't think I'll get another one. I didn't really feel that it was worth it. Everyone who reads my blogs, knows how much I love to care for my skin and regularly do face masks, so the facial didn't seem like anything special. Also, she did a few extractions from my nose and I thought that she was going to crush my nose into my face ... I was going to come out of this facial looking like Lord Voldemort. Finally, our final treatment was a pedicure. The esthetician escorted us to the third floor and we were seated in large massage chairs. I got to choose my nail polish from a large assortment of colours which I quickly narrowed down when I found out that only 5 took 15 minutes to dry while the others took 45 minutes (45 minutes! Ain't nobody got time for that). I actually love the colour! Blake and I have recently started using a mango exfoliating body scrub from The Body Shop on our feet and hands to help get rid of dry/dead skin - we both love this product by the way. Anyways, the point is that apparently it works well because they were both commenting on how nice our feet were. While I got polish, Blake was treated with a paraffin wax treatment. Paraffin wax treatments are the best because they make your feet so soft - highly recommended. At the end of the day, we were both exhausted and went home for leftover homemade mac-&-cheese, then bed!

Sunday:

Sunday morning, I stayed in bed extra long for maximum cuddles. I was still feeling good from the spa day and wanted to soak up every moment with Blake. I eventually got out of bed and made a dutch baby pancake for breakfast. I had never made a dutch baby before, but I figured I would give it a try. I used Tiffani Thiessen's recipe (http://tiffanithiessen.com/dutch-baby/) and it turned out great! We don't have a cast iron skillet, so I used a bread pan and it worked fine. Blake made a blueberry compute to put on top and it was delicious. I 100% recommend this recipe to everyone and I think I will definitely try out some more of her recipes. You can check out her blog (URL above) and check her out on her Instagram as well (https://www.instagram.com/tiffanithiessen/). I love her vibrant Instagram posts and her beautiful family! Ok, enough about my girl-crush on Tiffani Thiessen, let's move on. I hadn't planned anything for Sunday, so Blake came up with the idea to spend the day cooking! Many years ago, I bought Blake the Game of Thrones Cookbook complete with a Dothraki love note inscription. A lot of the recipes in the book are quite unusual, but today was a day of firsts, so we gave a few recipes a shot. I won't go into too much detail about each recipe because I'm going to do a post about them later, but a lot of the recipes have a medieval version and a modern version, so we had a little competition. It was fun!

Monday:

On Monday, I had a surprise for Blake. Blake and I try to take time out of our celebrations to give back (i.e. we always donate blood for Valentine's Day), so I wanted to keep up that tradition. I took Blake to Petsmart and told him that we each had 100$ to spend. I printed off the wishlists from the Peterborough Humane Society and Lakefield Animal Shelter, so that we could try to fulfill their wishlists. Afterwards, we delivered the products to each location. Lakefield actually let us spend time with their numerous cats and dogs. Lakefield holds a special place in Blake's heart because it is where his family cat, Gary, is from. They have a shelter cat there named Lisa and Gary has obviously mirrored his welcoming personality after Lisa. It was nice to take a moment from cel​ebrating ourselves, to give back to the community. Blake and I are both animal lovers, but we aren't at a place in our lives to get a pet, so this was the next best thing. Blake and I are also big board game lovers, so we ended the evening by trying out a new game. The latest trend is the "Escape Room" game boxes. It has all of the qualities of an escape room, but you can play it at home ... and you have the option of a lot more clues. We picked up Exit the Game: The Abandoned Cabin. The games are one-use only games, which is unfortunate because they aren't cheap, but we wanted to try it out. The game took us about 2 hours, but it was fun trying to figure out all the clues and work together as a team. After we finished the game, Blake downloaded a computer game entitled "Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime" and bought an XboxOne controller so that we could easily play it on my computer. It is a fun, cooperative game. So, we ended our night playing games together and eating pizza.

Tuesday:

Tuesday was our last day together. We didn't do much today because we just wanted to soak up the last moments together. We stayed in bed cuddling for a very long time. Blake brought me breakfast in bed and treated me like a queen for the morning. That afternoon, we decided to try out another Exit game. So, we went out and got Exit the Game: The Secret Lab and I don't recommend this one. It was nowhere near the level of fun as the Abandoned Cabin and it was immensely more difficult. We had to use almost every clue as we felt like we were getting nowhere. It was frustrating, but we tried to keep the game intact this time so that we can re-gift it and it won't be wasted money on a one-time use. So, who wants it? Taylor? Paula? Josh? It will probably be one of you, sorry but good luck! Maybe someone else will be better at it, but Blake and I just couldn't get our minds in the game. We ended up spending the rest of the evening eating leftovers from the Game of Thrones competition and watching t.v. before Blake had to get on a bus and go home.

It was a great weekend that I got to share with the love of my life. It made us both appreciate the other even more and the time that we got to share together now that we are apart so often. Makes us think why we are even apart. Maybe a change is in the works ... who knows! Have a great week everyone!