After a snowstorm rolled in Friday night and continued into Saturday morning, I was a little worried that this date wasn't going to happen. We kept a close watch on road and weather conditions and decided that we would be safe making the drive up through the canyon. The falling snow added to the ambiance and I truly felt like we stepped into a winter wonderland! A family day date to the Ice Castles in Midway two weekends ago was the perfect way to kick off completing dates on our 2016 date night bucket list!
When I added this date night to our bucket list, I knew that I wanted to include Bensen and make it a family date night. Bensen loves to be outside, and this month I will be gone more than I will be home, so I want to include him in as many things as possible. We planned our day around his naps, knowing that he would nap in the car on the way there and back. Between his diaper bag full of everything he might need for the day, all of our warm clothes, plus a few relationship building things that I brought for the longish drive, our car was pretty packed.
Bensen hasn't loved his snowsuit when we've used it so far this year so I was a little worried that we were going to spend our day trying to cheer up a grumpy little boy. When I put his hat on in the car, he wasn't too thrilled and tried to pull it off, but once we got out into the snow, he was content and we even got a few smiles out of him. He was really interested in touching the snow in ice, he's always intrigued by the texture of things, but I think he was more entertained watching all of the other people who were exploring the ice castles. The one thing I wish we'd done while we were there was take Bensen down the slide made of ice. He might not have been very amused by it, but I know that I would have had a lot of fun!
After we were done at the Ice Castles, we stopped by Zermatt Resort for lunch at Wildfire Smokehaus where Bensen charmed all of the waitresses. We had two minor mishaps, when Bensen lost his lunch as we were getting ready to head home, and then we forgot our leftovers on the table at the restaurant and didn't realize it until we were already home. Things are different with an infant around. Activities like these take a lot more planning and preparation on our part, but it was definitely worth it. It was so nice to leave my homework and housework behind and spend five hours hanging out with the most important people in my life. Our day date was successful and a lot of great memories were made! I look forward to bringing our family back to Midway for more memorable family dates in the future!
It's not too late to create your own date night bucket list for the year! If the Ice Castles are something you want to visit, they have a few different locations across the country. If you're in Utah and want to check out the Midway location, you might consider adding a sleigh ride or tubing at Soldier Hollow to your day! I'd also suggest purchasing tickets for one of the very first entry times of the day. We arrived just after they opened and I didn't feel like it was too busy. We got to explore the entire area without feeling crowded and we were able to get plenty of pictures of us on our own without having to worry about potential photo bombers.
Have you ever been to any of the Ice Castle locations? What would you do to turn this activity into the perfect date night for you? Do you have anything similar on your bucket list for the year?
