Festival of Lights and other Asian Adventures

Stephen and I made a goal this year to do one true date night a month. We spend lots of time together on the weekends, but we are both pretty comfortable with just staying home and watching a movie or hanging out on the couch, so we figured this would get us out of the house and trying new things. I was in charge of our first official date night for the year. Luckily our friends Emily and Cameron Collins are way better at getting out and being fun than we are and they found a fun Groupon for the Festival of Lights in Chandler (they were there with us, I just didn't take any pictures of them. true friendship). Rory crashed date night because I'm not ready to leave her with a babysitter and also she's cute.

It was basically like a giant Christmas light display, but there were different themes like iconic places around the world and Dinosaurland.

They had an entire dragon made out of these plates and little teacups. They also had a dinosaur made out of Chinese Beer cans. 

It was a little chilly so Rory spent most of the time in Dad's jacket just enjoying the scenery. She was a little mesmerized by all the lights. Also, please take note of her cupcake hat.

There was a Chinese acrobatic show that was pretty impressive. I have never felt so nervous for performers in my life. I can't find a picture of it, but there was this big spinning metal death trap that they did some tricks on and I literally thought I would throw up from the nerves! I thought for sure one of them was going down! Stephen's favorite part was the mask changer (a guy who changes masks. super fast.) and he's thinking he may take it up as a hobby in his spare time.

There were a ton of Asian food vendors there so we stopped for dinner, but nothing looked quite as delicious as the deep fried Oreos so we ate those instead. And they were delicious. But all the Asian food there inspired Cameron and Emily to tell us about their favorite Ramen place in Tempe, Tampopo, so we decided to go there for dinner the following Friday. They have a favorite Ramen place, I told you they were way cooler than us.

I'm not always the best at trying new foods, but this was really yummy.

Also it needs to be noted that in the midst of this busy season Stephen came home at 8:00 on Thursday, 3:00 on Friday, and didn't even have to work on Saturday! It was the best weekend ever.