This year, Brooks and I were able to celebrate our very first Valentine's Day together in the same state! Well, our first Day-Before Valentine's since the boy had to work late on the actual holiday. Even so, since it was our first, I wanted it to be special yet comfortable so we could just enjoy each other's company and not worry about anything else.
That day, I rushed home from work to bake Brooks a couple Nutella and jam filled heart-shaped pocket pies with Grace. (recipe) The blueberry and cherry jam filled pies didn't end up too pretty (they sort of exploded) but they were fresh! What man can complain about fresh baked goods? Am I right?! And Brooks didn't complain because...he is a man...most of the time.
While my pies were baking/exploding, I was getting myself all gussied up. As a reward for losing 15 pounds since January, I bought myself an adorable striped Valentine's dress that Brooks helped pick out. I was so excited to wear it. What I wasn't excited about were the five layers of shape wear I had to squeeze into in order to look half ways decent. Okay so, five layers wasn't entirely necessary but I wanted to make sure I looked smokin'. ;)
Brooks picked me up and we headed to Honey Pie in Milwaukee for a cozy dinner. I had been there once before with Kara but I knew I wanted to go there with Brooks sometime. Its unannoyingly hipster and I love it. We quizzed each other with the Trivial Pursuit cards sitting on our table. We discovered that both of us kind of stink at trivia. Admit it, Brooks.
Now onto the eats! For starters, we shared an order of delicious soft pretzels with beer cheese. I'm usually not a fan of beer anything (I'm a real Wisconsinite, I swear!) but this was yum scrum! Totally worth the money...and the calories. For dinner, Brooks orderd the Klug sandwich with tomato soup and I had the Solid State sandwich. Mmm mmm!! A girl can't go wrong with bacon, melty Wisconsin cheese, and brioche.
After dinner, we drove around Bay View scoping out a cool place to enjoy our pies. At one point, we found ourselves near the Port of Milwaukee which, to say the least, is kind of sketchy. Especially at night when you're lost and your boyfriend is a wimp. We ended up at McKinley Park near the marina and parked facing the city skyline. The pocket pies turned out pretty tasty if I do say so myself! Along with the pies, I also gave Brooks a love letter and the rest of his present. Back when we first started dating, I had made him a bracelet that fell apart after a few months. I took it back to fix it but never got around to it until now. Obviously, I'm not very talented when it comes to working with leather cording because he doesn't wear the new one either for fear of it falling apart! Ugh.
For me, Brooks found this old red doll trunk at an antique shop he found all by himself. I love it! I had one just like it when I was little! I opened it up to find a sweet note and crazy good chocolate covered marshmallows. I decided to make the box Our Box and keep all our little mementos in it. Such a lovely little trunk.
Oh and I got these a few days later from a boy "just because". Sweet thing.
