So for dates, a lot of people plan activities like going to the movies and things, but I preferred doing things where I knew that I could talk to the person. So just set up dates where you meet up in the Ricks Gardens and just talk for a while. Those were some of my favorites, and then if you wind up goofing around in the snow or just playing around in anything, it becomes really, really fun.
You should get a coloring book. It could be from the thrift store, the dollar store, anywhere cheap, or just print off coloring pages online, and get a cheap snack and just hang out and color while you talk. It's something easy that you can both do. It's okay if there's a gap in conversation, you can just talk about what you're coloring, but it's something cheap and easy that makes it fun and you can connect over. And even doing like a drawing session, like you know those games where someone draws part of it and the other person draws the next part, just allows it to be something easy that gives you space to talk while you do your date. And talking is always the best way to end a date, is getting to know each other.
One of my favorite day activities, and I also did that, did this for a couple of my birthdays when I was a student, was to write a bunch of, like, nice notes. I would get out all my, like, crafty supplies, and we would just make a bunch of, like, nice letters to, like, anonymous people. Then there's a lot of different ways you can do this, but I think I just had, like, usually a list. But one time I, like, made a jar where, like, they would draw one if they wanted to, and it would say, like, how to find the person to give this to. And so they would draw one, and it would say, like, oh, go, like, wait at, by a crosswalk, and when a car has stopped at the crosswalk, like, go give them this nice note or whatever. And you can combine it with treats or whatever. But yeah, usually it was just, like, a funny uplifting note. Or one of them was, like, drop it from, like, the staircase or onto somebody or something like that.
Don't always just go out to the movies or to dinner. You can do the picnics and stuff, but sometimes it's a lot of fun to just find the activities that the school's doing. They put on so many different date nights. Date nights on the canoes, date nights at the ropes course, and they're relatively cheap and you get food with that price. So you don't have to pay for food and then pay for an activity and then do something else. And it's a lot of fun and you do multiple people going to that date night and you get to, it gets you interacting rather than just sitting around and trying to figure out what to talk about.
One of my favorite date ideas, like a first date idea, is to make a meal at home. So you make the meal so you can talk to them during that and then you enjoy the meal and you can talk to them while you're eating it so you can get to know them more and then play games. And I like playing board games, some people like playing card games, some people like playing board games, some people like playing video games, but like I feel like there's always some sort of game that people like doing.
Oh, another fun one is playing sardines in one of the school buildings at night, before it closes up or whatever. Or, a Walmart reverse scavenger hunt. All these ideas actually are pretty interchangeable with things you can do for FHEs as well, and so I actually did this with an FHE group. But we would have two teams, and then we would put things in our cart, and then we would switch carts, and they would have to like get everything put back, and then whoever's done first. So it was a race with that. You could do a lot with food. You could do like a cook-off, maybe in teams with a weird ingredient or something, and make a dessert without a recipe. You could turn your home into a restaurant and have your roommates make up like a little menu, even if it has like one or two choices.
I graduated from BYU-Idaho in 2013, so hopefully they still have the same things going on. But the most fun day activities, well there's just so much to do. It's a tiny town, but lots of activities. So there's stadium singing on Sundays, and there's always orchestras and music to go to. There's the black box theater, there's several theaters on campus. So if you like the arts, lots of that. Dancing, so fun. And then of course there's concerts, people, guests, singers and musicians and dancers, and all kinds of guests. People will come through to the campus. I think when I was there they had Mindy Gludhill, so that was fun. I liked her. They also have winter sports and activities. There's just so many activities. So I know a lot of people are like, oh BYU-Idaho, they don't really have a sports team, they don't really compete, but there's so much other things to do.
One date I did that I've done on campus at BYU-Idaho was I attended Date Night on campus hosted by the Merediths. And it is a lot of fun, you know, that's a girl out on a date to a date night and a lot of fun activities for you and your date to try out. So I'd say, you know, one date I did is definitely attend Date Night on campus. It's a whole lot of fun.
The nice thing with dating in BYU-Idaho is that there are always activities on campus. Be they classes, be they events like weekly events like roller skating or line dancing or other activities, Latin dancing. I've seen laser tag, mini golf. There's a group of people continuously thinking up activities that you can do and one that I've made me laugh was when this couple came upstairs to the third floor of the MC building and were playing mini golf in the hallways. I intuited that this was a date. It was kind of sweet, very low budget. They just had a few items they brought with them and they were playing mini golf around the building, well in safe areas of course. So invention can also help with dates on campus.
One of my biggest things that I really enjoy is finding a friend and going to the ORC, which is the Outdoor Recreational Center, and signing up for an outdoor activity to go and to do for a date. And those are typically a few hours long, so I would suggest doing those dates with someone you know a little bit more. Definitely not a mutual date, you don't want to be stuck with someone for a few hours, but those are really fun to do. They have horseback riding, they have rock climbing, mountain biking, and whitewater rafting, depending on what time of year it is. Another great one would be the ropes course, and one of the biggest things with dating is seeing people in different environments, and how they react to stress and anxiety, or just life in general. And so going out into those environments can be a great beneficial thing.
I've got some date ideas for you and also if you want to find more and just tips on dating, there's a podcast I'd recommend. It's made by a professor I believe at BYU and one of his students. It's called The Art of Dating, so if you can find that, that can be helpful. But a few of my favorite dates, one that I liked to do and I asked a few people on this date, is baking like cookies or some kind of treat together and then going out and just finding people around campus late at night that like, if they're at campus late at night, especially like the week before finals week or just or midterms or something like that, it's like obviously they probably need a cookie. And one time we even made it like gluten-free, dairy-free or something, all those things. And we actually got like two people that needed that, that wouldn't have been able to take it otherwise, so.
You can go to DI together and pick outfits and then go to town on your outfits. You can do mud sliding, sledding, or ice blocking or one that I recently saw was you cut out a hole for the head in a garbage bag, like a black garbage bag, and then you spray like cooking spray or something to make it extra greasy and you go out like to a hill with grass right after it rains and then you can slide down just in your garbage bag suits. I really want to do that. Make kits for like homeless people and then my friend calls it hobo hunting and then go find them in Idaho Falls or something. But yeah, that could be socks, hand warmers. You could even make blankets together if you wanted.
A good idea for book lovers is both of you going to Barnes & Noble and picking out a book for the other person to read.
What my now wife and I, what we did for our first day, we got these like white shirts, kind of like white undershirts, and we got a whole bunch of like some paint, and we just painted some pictures on shirts, and then we had matching shirts for a while. But to get inspiration, we watched Bob Ross before, so that was pretty fun.
So recently the Meredith started doing a date night every semester which has been pretty fun and there's also a laser tag you can go to an improv show that's just on campus but then off campus there's always the mock bar which is pretty fun too.
A really fun date idea that I was able to do with my now husband and some of our friends was a Friday date and each couple went around and got one or two different fries from around town and then we all went back and decided who had the best fries in town. It was super fun.
A date idea that you should do is have your date and yourself have a blank sheet of paper. You choose any three colors from a variety. That also helps you understand what colors they like. And then have them take one minute to think about something and then paint it and see what do they usually typically think about. It'll help you understand them a little bit more.
One unique date idea I had was to go to the ice caves and take a laptop and watch a movie in the ice caves. We watched The Goonies. Make sure to dress warm.
I've got a coupon date. Take like a $10 bill or something and go garage sailing and just find treasures. Do a library scavenger hunt, you can just google some as well to make it easier. Do a picnic, that can be indoor or outdoor actually. Do a small but popular hike just so that you guys aren't secluded or whatever, um, such as Crest Creek or our mountain. They both always have people, especially on a weekend. Uh, mini s'mores, you like get a little tea light, um, candle and then toothpicks, chocolate chip, teddy grahams, all those good stuff.
One of my wife and I's favorite date ideas that we have, we just go for walks. Maybe not when it's freezing cold outside, but when, you know, spring, fall, summer, in those areas the trees are always blooming. There's lots of places to go, lots of parks conveniently by, by everywhere, wherever you are. You can walk up to the temple, you can walk around the potato fields, around the wheat fields, around the alfalfa fields. You can go up to the Tetons nearby, just for a hike. Yellowstone's not too far away. Anything outside that you can do, it's available to you, and an awesome resource for a date if you don't want to spend any money.
One really fun date idea is, especially during the winter, going down to Lava Hot Spring, and it's just really fun and enjoyable, not too expensive. There's also Gold Bug, which is another more natural hot spring without all the amenities. Really fun winter activity.
A really fun date that I went on a couple of months ago was we rented a big raft from campus from the school and we went to the Warm Slough River and we just it was October so but it was still a little warm and it was nighttime and we just floated down the river with like blankets in the raft and with snacks in the speaker and we played games and it was the stars were so pretty but it was just so much fun and it was so low-key but I think that was probably one of my favorite dates that I've been on up here.