Mountain- top Date night attire: What I Wore

this post brought to you by eShakti

Ahhh date night. We just love our time alone and look forward to the times we can focus on each other (and a meal!) without the constant chaos that usually surrounds us. 🙂 We LOVE having a big family but we also know that keeping a vibrant marriage is of utmost importance.

While planning our month-long sabbatical, Ben said several times that he wanted to incorporate a weekly date night into our schedule, but I was very unsure of how this would work. I was leery of just finding a random baby-sitter (images of our children being whisked off to another country swarmed in my head) and begin thinking of options. One of our friends lives there, and I finally had the idea to get her recommendation for a sitter- if she trusted someone, so would I! Enter this sweet girl:

She came every Thursday and kept the kids while we went out. The kids L-O-V-E-D her and she did a great job! We got to experience several different parks in the area and restaurants, too. The first several weeks we did something active: hiking, biking and/or swimming, then went to dinner.

The last week, though, I wanted to get dressed up before we went to eat. (The other weeks consisted of me changing into decent clothes in a state park bathroom after hiking/biking/swimming before we went to dinner- efficient, but not necessarily cute results!)

The fashion company EShakti sent me a  beautiful dress right before we left on our trip. I was able to pick one out- which proved a bit overwhelming from their HUGE collection! So I picked out about 6 and e-mailed the choices to one of my best friends and my hubby to get their opinion- lo and behold they chose the same one!

dress: Eshakti

I just love it and receive compliments just about any time I wear it. I feel like I should be carrying around Eshakti business cards to hand out when people ask!

coral bracelet: h&m// green bracelet: my trip to Ecuador

One of the great things about Eshakti? While their dresses admittedly cost more than I usually like to spend, (especially in my year of thrift store shopping) they are fully customizable for size! You can also change the sleeves on many dresses to your liking, and you can change the length as well. Even though I’m 5’6″, my legs are kind of short so I asked them to make it hit just above the knee because anything that hits below the knee (unless it’s a maxi dress) makes my legs look even more stumpy.  I was a little nervous about it being too short, but it turned out exactly right.

After dinner, we ended up going on top of West Mountain in Hot Springs, AR at the end of our date- a very special place for us. This picture was taken in almost the exact spot I told Ben that we were going to be parents for the first time- almost 10 years ago! I can still remember the exact look on his face when I told him- we were both SO excited! (And no, no announcements were made this time 😉 )

And my VERY favorite thing about this dress? (Besides the fact Ben loves it, too!)

Yes, my friends, this dress has hidden pockets. And that makes me very happy!

I’d love to hear your favorites from the Eshakti website– they really have some beautiful, unique dresses!