Valentine Flashback

My last post of the trailer in the snow at Lake Ouachita reminded me of our first Valentine's Day together 7 years ago. Valentine's Day was on a Saturday and Dustin took me to the horse races for the weekend. We only got to see 2 races before the snow started coming down. We were worried about getting back to the trailer safely, so we headed out early. Instead of going out to eat that night as planned, we stopped to get some steaks at Don's Meat Market and were content with the idea of being snowed in by ourselves in our own little winter wonderland. 

A few hours later, however, we were sharing our winter wonderland with the Van Buren cheerleading squad, their super pregnant sponsor, and a couple of moms. How did this happen? Welllll....Dustin's brother-in-law Jerry's sister, Kelly, cheered for VB and they had state competition that day in Hot Springs. The roads were so bad on their way home that they decided to find the nearest hotel and ride out the snowstorm. Everyone else on the roads had the same idea though, so they were out of luck. Jerry's mom, Rhonda, started calling Jerry, knowing Corky had a trailer at Ouachita, wondering if there was anyway they could get into it to stay the night. 

Luckily, we were there. If we hadn't been, they couldn't have gotten into the trailer. They no doubt felt bad to crash our romantic weekend getaway, but truly had no other choice. It takes a couple of steep hills to get to the Collyge's trailer, and there was no way they were going to be able to drive those hills in the near foot of snowfall that had fallen. So Dustin and I put on our boots and heaviest coats to start the 1/2 mile hilly trek to go get them. We knew they had a really pregnant lady with them, and  would need help walking in the hilly snow. Dustin ended up walking behind her, hands basically on her back the whole way, making sure she didn't fall.

We spent the rest of the night talking cheerleading stories. Being a cheer vet myself, I was in heaven. It was like I was 17 again and I was so in my element. I loved every minute of it. Dustin on the other hand, didn't act bummed, but it probably wasn't what he had in mind!

A couple of weeks later we got a Valentine card and restaurant gift-card in the mail from the squad. It was so cute! Even though it wasn't the "weekend to remember" we had in mind, it definitely was a weekend to remember!

So sad to say that I wasn't a picture taker back then. I don't even think I had a camera. We have no photos to document the experience, but will remember it forever!