on dating your husband + a date hike though runyon canyon

josh and i can't help but top ourselves. each date is always better than the last. i know. gag me with a spoon. but hey, it's true. 

now before you really start to hate me, let me tell you something. josh and i know a bit about married life, as we were both married before (side note, you would not believe the reactions i get from people when that fact comes up. but i'll save that for another time) we've learned from our past missteps and wins, which i have learned to really value and not brush off as hella baggage. my point being, that having gone through a marriage previously, we know full well how much work they can be. we also know that if it's meant to be the work pays off, and if it's not then it just doesn't. but at least you tried.

now, even if you are not gifted with a marital past like us, there are oodles of other ways one can keep a marriage solid. giving out compliments is a good one! also, offering to make dinner, or being a good listener. something that really works for josh + me is to date each other. what i mean is, we still make an effort to keep ourselves interesting. we get excited over our date plans. we FLIRT. flirting is gold people.

so we could rest on easy. eat at our favorite restaurant over and over, or go see a movie. but that for us is well, blah. we choose to prevent the blah. the blah that can be challenging to avoid after years of being together. trust us. it happens. 

i'm feeling like i've made my point here. and as you can tell from my date posts with josh, we like to mix it up. on this particular date, we had a few hours on a weekday before we had to pick up the boys. runyon canyon had recently reopened after being closed for four months, so we thought a date hike there would be the perfect way to spend some quality time together.

first off, let me warn you about the hike before the hike. that is the entrance via vista street. good old vista! well, vista turns into a beast of a hill just past hollywood boulevard as it steers its path into the mouth of runyon. josh ALWAYS makes a comment about how its the hardest part. i just smile and nod. and here's another tip to a successful relationship: knowing when to tune your partner out. love you josh!

a few highlights from the hike before the hike: huge mansions, pretty flowers and a random typewritten quote. not your average ascent.

i was pretty crushed in this photo. behind this fence is where the trailhead leading to my favorite hike was. i kind of had my heart set on hiking it. but i soon realized just up the way a bit another trail leading to it was still active. i'm also thinking that fence looks pretty temporary so i will have get my trail back some day!

the view from runyon is so dope. and i'm not even all that high up yet. we used josh's sunglasses as the filter again, this time so we got to capture the tiny moon sitting just above the skyline. can you see it??

ok, so you don't need a sunglass filter.

i'm not that into landscape photography, probably because i feel my photos never do it justice. but i am a sucker for lonely trees. here are two of the thirty i took. you're welcome.

luckily it was not as hot as this last photo lets on. we still took a lot of breaks! we old.

PS! this is where josh proposed to me years ago! we asked a fellow hiker to take our picture and she made us reenact the proposal. spoiler alert: i said yes, again.

also, couples that aviator together stay together. 

more breaks and there's the moon again!

had to get a shot of my shoes in the dirt. you know you love 'em.

busted.

hopefully josh doesn't murder me for sharing this one. but seriously how could i cheat you guys like that?

and a little bit of what was paris in hollywood.

the sun eventually began to to set on our afternoon date. we quickened our steps and slowly back-geared into parent mode. and as we made our way down the mountain, gushing about how much fun we had, i thought to myself, i would definitely go on another date with this guy. 

xoxo,

sony