stacyreeves || photography

Normally I hate holidays (too commercialized!), but Valentine’s Day is one of the very few that I really enjoy. My job is all about love, and the celebration of it, so basically Valentine’s Day is a celebration of everything that I am surrounded by. It’s a time for me to think about the many, many couples whose marriages I have been privileged to be a part of, and the people in my own life that I love and cherish. I don’t believe in the “If you’re single, Valentine’s Day sucks!” thing, because we all have people in our lives that we love, whether they be family or best friends or that special someone. It’s a day to remember the people closest to us and how happy they make us – what an awesome holiday!!

This year is especially meaningful to me because it is me and Jason’s very first Valentine’s Day together. I really wanted it to be special, but I also knew that I didn’t want to do anything expensive or fancy because we already spend WAY too much money on ourselves, and each other! So we agreed – no gifts, let’s just do something fun. I actually left all the planning up to Jason, and he totally come through. He took Monday off of work, and we drove out to a random field and flew kites all day! SO MUCH FUN!! I had never flown a kite before, but it was something I always wanted to do (and I mentioned it to him constantly!). It was pretty much one of the most fun, hilarious, enjoyable experiences of my life!!

The day started off a little rough.. This is mostly what things looked like for the first hour:

Basically I would throw the kite in the air, it would flail around wildly, and then come rocketing back towards me and slam into the ground (or into me). It was HI-LA-RI-OUS. I could not stop laughing!! Poor Jason was trying his hardest to get that thing airborne, and I could barely breathe from laughing. However, eventually we got the hang of it and Jason got it up and flying!

A collage of our fun flying experience:

As you can see from those shots, the sky quickly turned from a pretty blue to a very ominous cloudy grey. Here is an AWESOME shot Jason got of me flying the kite with the storm clouds approaching:

Gotta love the self shots!

All in all, despite being four days before Valentine’s, it was definitely the best Valentine’s Day I have ever had, and I can’t wait to go fly our kite again!

Remember how I am always mentioning how bad Jason is at keeping secrets? Yeah, he mentioned THIS special delivery to me about two weeks ago:

Still, despite totally knowing it was coming, it was a much appreciated gesture. I am totally a flower girl! I know a lot of girls think flowers are dumb, but I am SO not that way. Flowers are beautiful and happy and fragrant and you just can’t help but smile when you look at them. Jason buys me flowers quite often (which I LOOOOVE) but even still, sometimes I go to the store and buy a bouquet for myself just for fun. They are so happy!!

These were especially cool, because it was sort of a do-it-yourself floral arrangement kit! The flowers came wrapped individually, and each one had to be unwrapped, rinsed, clipped at the stem, trimmed of the leaves, freed of the outermost petals, and then carefully arranged in the vase. They sent lots of helpful books and tips on how to present and care for the roses. All in all it took me about 45 minutes to get them out of the box and in the vase, and at the end of it my cheeks hurt from smiling so much. It was just so FUN!! I am definitely no good at floral arrangements, but I still enjoy it quite a bit

Here are some of the details, including the packing instructions (Packaged by Anna – thanks Anna!), Jason’s note to me, and the mess I left in the kitchen sink afterwards.

I also got a great gift bag from my mom (our family always exchanges gifts for Valentine’s Day), some gorgeous Thank You cards and journals, and a gold puffed heart necklace I have been wanting for YEARS!

My gift to her was pretty stellar, and I want one for myself SOOO bad, but I can’t tell you what it is until she gets it

I hope that all of you are having a great Valentine’s Day, or as Jason and I (and Dave Barnes) call it, Balumtine’th Day! Don’t forget to tell everyone you love how much they mean to you. If you’re single and feeling blue, here are two great videos to cheer you up!