Day 236: We've Outsmarted A One-Year-Old

We've kind of avoided restaurants lately because Nico is in that stage where he is, shall we say, an absolute dinner guest nightmare. Ok, so he's not that bad, but our time out as a family of four isn't exactly relaxing. Tonight, neither Chris nor I had the energy to cook so we decided to take a gamble and meet up at one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants with the kids. This time, though, we had a plan!

Chris and his engineer, Todd, were there ahead of us, so I called shortly before our arrival and Chris placed our order. It was a perfect fall evening, so we had a table outside; ideal for the occasional squeal and fist banging. Our food arrived within 5 minutes and we all dove right in. About 15 minutes later,  I suddenly realized that we had actually been enjoying our meal and our time at the restaurant. We even had time to chit chat a little before the kiddos got antsy and we had to make a stop at the giant painted cow on the way back to the car.

We honestly had a really nice night. I absolutely love spending quality time with my husband and kids on evenings like this. The fact that Nico participated as superb party guest was just icing on the cake!

And for this, I am thankful.