One Week and Counting...

(Retroactive post from Saturday)

At last my countdown has reached seven days left, and to commemorate the momentous occasion, we had a totally busy day. Everything went really well, I just wish I had put head to pillow a tiny bit earlier the night before! Nevertheless, here is a rundown of our plethora of yesterday's activities.

• We started out with the annual Alpine Days 5K at 7:00 am (honestly, it's such an obscene time of day to start a race, why not 8 or even 9? I know they wanted to get it going before it was too hot, but there's not MUCH difference between 7 and 8, and on the side, it was a really cool morning, great for running). We joined Mom, Melody, Jonny, Julia, Gabe and Cami and all did pretty well! I didn't get a new PR (you can't get one every time--eventually you would have to be running 3-minute miles!), but I am totally satisfied with my rate of 21:28. I was *this close* to placing, but I did much better than last year at this race.
  
• Then I checked out my garden, which yielded today a gigantic zucchini and several lovely red tomatoes.

It's been so nice, I've hardly had to do anything for my garden this year, and it looks great for the most part. Still waiting on those watermelon, and the poor cucumber seems to be wilting, but overall it's quite nice.

• After this, we came home and made ready for the bridal shower my lovely sisters threw for my bride-to-be. As I was shooed away, I used this time first to scan in some old photos I found (and I finally found my second and third old scrapbooks, which have eluded me for several weeks now. Silly me, why didn't I just look in that random box sitting on the floor next to the couch all this time?), and then to rush to Kohl's with Dad to buy some slacks, since my suit is at the cleaners and won't be done until Wednesday, and since I evidently threw out all my slacks last time I purged my closet of clothes that no longer fit, and since I needed something for the day's later events, as well as for church the following day. We found some finally (why in the world is my newish size so impossible to find everywhere I shop?) and made it home as the party was winding down. We were excited for all the lovely and useful gifts we received and there were plenty of cinnamon rolls (OMG, Matt, those cinnamon rolls!) and pound cake left to enjoy.
  
  
• Next came my epic shave. I wanted to shave before we headed to the temple, and I had shaved a bit of it before church last Sunday, leaving my well-loved and -missed goatee for this last week. This time Julie documented the process of shaving, as I again shaved in phases. I have to admit that I liked some of these looks far more than I expected, and infinitely more than I should have.
  
  After last week's goatee shave
  
  
  Assessing the situation...
  
  
  
  So many hairs! A pretty good razor too.
  
  
  You don't want to mess with the law in this town.
  
  
  
  Flashbacks from Pirates of Penzance, anyone?
  
  
  
  The photog makes her appearance
  
  
  Not a Hitler 'stache, a Chaplin 'stache!
  
  
  
  Oh, the drama. I think I look like a small child.
  
  
  
• We went to the temple! It was glorious! I have long waited to see my love in the Celestial Room with me, and it hit me that this is for real. She had a good experience, a little overwhelmed naturally, but she was about as prepared as she could be.
• We went to have dinner with some friends of Julie's family who used to live in Rolla, but who have some years ago moved back to Provo. It's always nice to meet friends and family from Julie's side, and it was good to get to know them.
• Finally, we rushed to Lindon for Liza and Kent's going-away party. In just a matter of weeks they will be first visiting Australia, and then moving to the northeast coast of the U.S. for Kent to start graduate school in Oregon. They have been such wonderful friends, and will be missed. It was such a wonderfully chilly night, I caught the autumn bug for sure. We had Kneader's sandwiches, amazing spinach dip, cream puffs and S'mores roasted over a campfire and spent many lovely minutes discussing the qualities of religious, controversial films and abusing the literary deficiencies of certain authors who have an inexplicable following, despite the fact that their vampire books are hideously written.

We filled up on gas, stopped at Walmart, and then came home. We tried to finish the last ten minutes of a movie we started over a week ago, and we couldn't even get through that. I love when days that are packed with things to do work out like they should. Hardly a hitch! This time next week...