8 Years!

Yesterday we celebrated our 8th anniversary!  I was at work of course but I was trying to decide what my wife would like most of all for an anniversary gift and I decided what she would probably want was time, so I arranged for my parents to pick up the two older kids and take them away for the morning, where they had a grand time playing with cousins (thanks again, Mom and Dad and Auntie Elise and cousins!), and then I came home a little early from work with flowers and so-so sushi from Walmart so that I could take over when they woke up from their naps so she had the rest of the afternoon free too, and then surprised her with this:

Still working on likenesses, but you get the idea.

Then we hired a really fun babysitter and took to La Jolla Groves for a delicious dinner with a little plus-one:

Such an adorable tagalong, and he didn't make a peep.

Then we went home and I sabotaged my own food dehydrator gift secret and then we shared some amazing cupcakes from the shop downtown and watched Psych until we couldn't make it through two episodes and crashed after a long and fun day.

The kids told us this morning that they want to get married (not to each other), and if that's not a ringing endorsement of how we're doing, I don't know what is!  It's wonderful to have a partner who's clever and lovely and takes care of so many things and makes me laugh.  All the love to my Juliet (as in O'Hara, not Capulet).

The real deal.  Smoldering back when it used to be called (yikes) smizing.

Four Years of Wedded Bliss

Yesterday was our fourth anniversary!  It's always nice to reach another milestone, and we had a wonderful time being together with our little Bobo.  It's so great that I work from home so I can have little visits from them both throughout the day, and sometimes have a little coworker while The Wife has a nap or does some of her own things.

We didn't have a big fancy celebration this year, but we did reach another milestone:  Leaving the CAG with a great pair of babysitters so we could enjoy a nice dinner alone at Chef's Table (by the way, check the expiration dates on your LivingSocial deals for that place... sometimes the window of time to use them is pretty narrow).  The food was delicious as usual, and partway through dinner, after regularly checking our phones for messages from the sitters, we realized we have definitely become Those Parents who go out to have a little private time and then proceed to think and talk about their offspring pretty much the entire time (I guess all parents do, really).  But we did have a nice time for an hour or two, and although it would have been a little easier if the baby hadn't started very uncharacteristically crying right before we left (his outburst even warranted the full-first-and-middle-name treatment from me), he seemed to do all right for Lacie and Leland, who were so nice to come over and watch him for us.  I'm sure he loved his first babysitters!!!  Next time will be easier, I'm sure.  He was probably just still hungry, or maybe gassy.  I know that always makes ME cranky.  Ha.  Gross.

 

Yes, maybe I AM wearing the same thing I wore to that restaurant on a previous anniversary.  Try to forgive me.

 

These were the updates that were periodically sent to us throughout dinner.  My boy already has a love for Asian peoples.

First babysitters!  Christmas jammies FTW!

And then we all watched a so-so episode of Project Runway together.  And a fun time was had by all, including the little one who finally calmed down once he had his second dinner and a little rock.

Happy anniversary, Wife!!!  I'm sorry I dropped the dozen-per-year tradish, but by this point I think that would become a little bit much.  I figured you would be quite happy with a dozen from me and a dozen from The Boy.  I love you!!!

And why not end with a few beautiful photos from our reception?

Yes.

There is something so marvelous about this photo shoot.

Twu wuv.

An extra P.S.  :*

Valentine's Times 2012

I've never really disliked Valentine's Day, even when I was single and ever so lonely (Single's Awareness Day... my loathing knows little bounds), but it's infinitely more fun when you actually have a valentine to share it with (and no, I don't mean Valentine, I mean valentine).  So this year we had a very nice one, and it was spread out over a couple of weeks.

First, on Valentine's Day proper, instead of braving the hours-long waits of every single public dining venue in existence, we went to Amber's house for sushi night and fun times with all (or most of) the local married siblings and their spouses.

 

 

We laughed and talked and played and ate sushi and stir-fry and sticky rice and various incredible desserts and went around the table taking turns telling all the concerts we've been to in our lives and trying to avoid repeats.  Dad and Mom win for the most obscure bands, but Cami and Jake probably win for having seen the most contemporary (read: relevant) ones.  (I also forgot to mention one that I am pretty sure no one would have been able to repeat...  I'm not ashamed.)  We didn't take a lot of pictures, but there are a few, including this one of my delightful loverface:

 

And by way of surpreezes, I gave The Wife this:

On DVD and CD.  Some of it is ridiculous, but it's probably the best principal cast ever there has been thus far.  Ramin and Sierra FTW.

And then my clever wife gave me this!  (Not the computer itself, that's from work.)

It has made my work computer far cooler than it could ever have hoped to be on its own, and far more awesome than a Mac has any right to be.  I work at the Dharma Apple Station! XD

Then things were kind of put on hold for a week or two while we waited for the crowds to die down in the local eateries and such, and until it was a good weekend when we could really celebrate in style.  Last year we spent a really nice long weekend at The Homestead, and hoped to do so again this year, so we were a little bummed to discover they're closed for renovations until April.  So,  we looked around the Midway/Park City area online to see if there might be another fun place we could spend a couple of nights, and decided to try Zermatt, which is apparently the Homestead's sister resort, and located directly across the street.  In some ways it wasn't quite as fun as last year's trip (more like a hotel, less like a private cottage, no fireplace, no included breakfast), but in other ways we liked it better (no ants, better amenities, interesting German theming, great indoor/outdoor pools/hot tubs, fun exercise room with saunas and steam rooms, etc.).

 

 

What.

We really liked the art chosen for the decor.  Poor awkward suitor.

It was definitely fun to try a new place.  We had dinner at a really great local Mexican place we ate at last year, which is basically the only restaurant in town (which means it was incredibly crowded, especially with this being ski season), and which features an awesome salsa bar; we slept in and went shopping at our convenience; we spent the evenings watching a bunch of Oscar-nominated movies from Redbox, ranging in quality and enjoyability (Least to most: The Tree of Life, Moneyball, The Help); and we ordered a delicious pizza, Greek salad and German chocolate cake (of course) from food service.  It would have been nice to have an extra night like we did last year, but we were definitely glad to take advantage of our time there and were glad it turned out to be a nice place, contrary to some of the reviews we had read online.  It was great for a weekend getaway, even if we weren't there to ski and just wanted a nice place to stay and relax for a few days.

Of course we love to take pictures of ourselves.

No peeking.

Then we had a jumping photo shoot.

She's getting better and better.

I get by.

Then we took some more pictures of ourselves.  And of course we always take pictures in mirrors.

Smoldering!

Then Julie decided to embark on a photo shoot all her own.

True art.

2-for-1

So fierce!

Angles.

:D

Just getting a li'l drink.

Be our guest!

A statue of a bear playing an accordion?  But of course!

 

So there you have it!  It was Valentine's weekend a couple weeks later, which seems like the way to go.  Who wants to spend Valentine's Day sitting in a crowded lobby waiting to be sat by a rushed and frantic serving staff?  Maybe some people, but not this guy!  Happy Valentine's Day, everyone, and especially you, Wife whom I love.

Anniversary Weekend!

So yes, we celebrated our anniversary last week, and it was part of a weekend-long celebration!  Here are some of the happenings:

•  On Saturday morning we were up bright and early to run the fun and casual Alpine Days 5K with the fam.  It's ever so early, but we still have a good time.  I placed second in my division, coming in at about 20:52 (6:37/mile, though I think it was actually about 3.15 miles, so go ahead and take a few seconds off, hmm?), and they even gave me a medal for my efforts.  I checked here on my blog, and learned that I cut a couple minutes off my time from when I ran this race two years ago, and SEVERAL minutes off from the first time I ran it the year before that (last year we were in London so we missed this one).  Since we all ran a race, we were totally justified in indulging in some delicious french toast from Kneaders.

That little armband is pretty much a thing of the past.  I guess that's what you get when you pay $1 for it from some knock-off overseas website (and it takes over a month to arrive).

Why do I look so weird in this picture?  I admit I didn't plan out my expression or posture very carefully.

 

•  Then, since we decided running a 5K wasn't enough exercise for one day, we decided to finally hike to Timpanogos Cave.  We've been talking about it for months (even years!), and we finally decided while we're in the neighborhood we should just go.  We invited everyone to come, but in the end only Mom and Dad joined in.  It's a pretty good hike, especially in mid-day in the dead of summer (never again, I should think...), but we made it all right.  The cave itself is pretty cool, it had been years since I had been there, and it was Julie's first visit, so we appreciated Ranger Andy's guidance, even though we were really late for our scheduled tour time.  We were extremely sweaty, but the cave immediately drops like fifty degrees, so I was pretty glad about that.

Mountains!  They'll be even prettier in a couple of months.

We headed up while Dad parked the car, but then we decided to wait for him.  Here are the lovely ladies waiting in the shade.

And then, amazingly, I spotted Dad, and if you look closely, you can too.  He's wearing a white hat.  Where's Waldo?

Getting ready to have an adventure!

Oh calm down, it's not as far out as it looks.

We took a lot of pictures inside the cave, but this, ye legendary Heart of Mt. Timpanogos, is one of the ones that came out best.  (When I asked The Wife if she remembered its proper name, her reponse:  "I dunno, it's da heart of da world!"  Well said, Wife.)

It's us!  It was dark in there, and SO nice and cool.

This is Caramel Falls or whatever, but it kind of looked more slimy and less delicious than caramel.

That's the original entrance.  Can you even imagine?

That was SCARY.

We were really curious where these mystery doors led...

Hello, Utah Valley.

I call this one Wife in Archway.

She was all worn out by the time we were down.

• To finish things off, we celebrated our anniversary proper on Monday by giving surprise gifts throughout the day and going out on the town.  We had a very fancy dinner at Chef's Table, and to balance out the expense, went to a very cheap movie at the dollar theater.  Dinner was really quite delicious and deluxe, and Chef's Table lived up to its reputation pretty well.  I had some really good pork tenderloin medallions with the most amazing mashed potato truffles, and Julie had the salmon, which was really excellent too.  Their bread is awesome, and each entree comes with soup or salad (which, I believe, should be the case at every restaurant).  It seemed just a little overpriced, especially when you consider the view is a trailer park and power lines, but we were glad to go there finally.  The movie was Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (in 3D!!!).  We decided to give it another chance and tried really, really hard to give it a little slack, but really, it's just kind of a mess.

What better to go with pork than bacon?  I am trying to look sophisticated, because this is a FANCY place.

What an elegant and dainty wife!  And such delicious fish.  And you can see the trailer park out the window.

Yay for leftovers!

One rose for each month.  It should be noted that flowers don't do well if your apartment is 85+ degrees at all times.  Also, flower food helps.

At dinner we also exchanged a couple of gifts (though there were a few for-both-of-us hidden surprises left for The Wife to find throughout the day... like the necessary volumes to complete our collection of this little number).  My surprise to Julie was a long-desired piece of jewelry, and hers to me was a DVD set that's not even available.  I never ever expected by favorite teen fandom series would belong to me in its entirety on DVD.

It holds up, even after all these years.

It was a splendid weekend.  Again, it's been two glorious years, and there's no end in sight. :D