Sixth Anniversary Trip

Ever since I wrote about the top secret anniversary trip that Robyn was planning, I'm sure that you've been on the edge of your seat, yearning to know where we went.  Well, we've been home for 3 days now.  I hope you haven't been holding your breath.  If so, I apologize.

Are you ready for the big reveal?  She took me to (drumroll please) Idaho!  Okay, I know you're thinking that Idaho doesn't sound very exciting.  It's actually a trip we've talked about taking lots of times but we just haven't gotten around to it until now.  We went to both Idaho Falls and Rexburg.  We went to those two cities for a very specific purpose.  There are LDS Temples in both of those cities.  We enjoy visiting new temples and we've been to all the temples in Utah except for the newly completed Ogden Temple (we'll get there soon, just hold your horses) so we're continuing our ongoing temple tour with these two in Idaho.  That brings our total number of temples visited to 27!

What what!  Selfie with the temple!

We really enjoyed the Idaho Falls temple.  It's one of the older ones.  It was dedicated in the 1940s.  After going inside the temple we walked along the river.  We got a few really pretty shots of the temple from across the river.

I really liked this one.  Robyn took the picture and Google Auto Awesomed it to make it look extra cool.

Besides the temple, we really enjoyed how pretty the river itself was.  The Falls of Idaho Falls are not very tall but they are like half a mile wide.  Basically, the river is cut in half with a waterfall running down the middle of it for a long way.

Here's a panoramic shot of some of the falls.

Look how cute Robyn makes the falls look.

Here's a shot of the temple with the falls.

After enjoying a beautiful temple and some beautiful nature, we went out to dinner and also explored the city a little bit.

Every city needs a giant skateboard.

Have you hugged a moose today?

I made Robyn cuddle with the snake.  She assured me this in no way changes her dislike for snakes/

After Idaho Falls on Friday, we made our way up to Rexburg on Saturday.  The first thing we did there was visit another temple.

This temple was beautiful as well.  It looks almost exactly like the Brigham City Temple.

After the temple we explored a bit of Rexburg.  I think my favorite thing in Rexburg was when we went to a picnic in the park.  We had delicious sandwiches, but more importantly I got to be amused by all of the college students and their various antics.  The most fascinating was the girls who were having a photoshoot of them laying on top of each other among the fall leaves.  It was very precious.

The last and most important thing I need to tell you is that our hotel room was an error code.

Error 404: hotel room not found.

If you don't understand the 404 joke, you're not nerdy enough.

It was a great trip.  It was pretty chill.  We enjoyed beautiful buildings and beautiful nature.  We had plenty of time to enjoy each other's company.  It was like a 2 day long date.  We even had some time to read a book.  Robyn did a great job planning it.  I need to put her in charge of more events.

Dinner with Spencer and My Love

I mentioned earlier that Robyn is taking me on a mystery trip for our anniversary.

However, the anniversary trip didn't actually take place on our anniversary.  It works out much better to take the trip when Robyn has the day off.

That meant that I was in charge of planning a date on our actual anniversary.  We switch off who plans dates every week, but usually it's something simple like a movie at home or going for a hike.   For our anniversary, I took the liberty of taking us to something slightly fancier.

I googled "romantic restaurants in Utah" and one of the top hits was Spencer's For Steak and Chops in SLC.  It was definitely more expensive than our normal date, but the deliciousness was off the charts, and we had a great experience.

Of course, it was a surprise for Robyn where we were going.  She suspected we'd be spending the evening in downtown Salt Lake, mostly because that's where all the fancy restaurants are.  I tried to throw her off by saying stuff like, "for all you know we're going to Idaho." as I was driving north on I-15.  She let me know that if we were driving all the way to Idaho, she would be cranky because she was hungry.

We got to Spencer's and they seated us right away.  We definitely did not track calories at this meal, and we ordered a lot of food.

The most important part of the night was making sure to take a selfie.

The second most important part of the night was all of the cheesiness.

I made Robyn pose with her cheese.

 I'm not gonna lie.  We indulged with this meal.  We ordered like 5 courses, and all of it was fantastic.  (And most of it we took home because we couldn't eat it all.)  I had filet mignon and all sorts of goodness.  But I think my favorite thing of the night was the macaroni and cheese.

I ordered macaroni and cheese as a side.  It was the fanciest mac and cheese the world has ever seen. 

The macaroni had candied bacon in it.  CANDIED BACON!  I told Robyn we could totally come back there and just order that and I'd be happy.  Did I mention candied bacon?


At the end of the meal they gave us free dessert because it was our anniversary.

This was some of the best cheesecake I've ever had.

This chocolate cake was more like a truffle.  It was good, but the chocolate was a little dark for my taste.

 It was a fabulous evening.  The food was fabulous, and the company was even better.  I love going on dates with her!

I'm looking forward to our little trip we have coming up.  It will be like a 3 day long date.  I can't wait!

Six Years of Bliss

As of today, Robyn and I have been married six years.

Six years doesn't actually sound like that long of a time period.  I'm 33 years old.  I've only been married for about 18% of my life.  Yet, in some ways, I can't even remember what life was like before I was married.

It's been a fun adventure so far.  We've had many great experiences together, and I look forward to many more.  We've packed quite a bit into 6 years.  I thought I'd chronicle just a few of the highs and lows of our brief six years of marriage.

We've had our face printed on candy.
We've been to Hawaii twice.
We've struggled through infertility.
We've begun the adoption process.
We've been on two cruises.
We became Scuba certified.
We backpacked into the Grand Canyon.
We bought a house.
We became landlords.
We've kissed approximately 1 billion times.
We've fist bumped approximately 47 times.
We've lived under 2 United States Presidents.
We've acquired 7.8 nieces and nephews (one is due in December.  I figure he's 80% cooked.)
We've had 3 surgeries between us.
We've been to Europe.
We've lost 120 pounds between us.
We've bought 2 cars. (I only wrote about one of them, so that's all that is linked.)
We've traveled to 18 states and 8 countries together.  (That includes our home state of Utah in our home country of the United States.)
We've celebrated 6 versions of every Holiday.  (But most importantly, Pi Day.)
I've fallen to my death at least twice.
We've taken approximately 12 billion selfies.  (I make no guarantees about the accuracy of my approximations.)


This was just a list that I was able to come up with in a brief time period of ten minutes or so.  We've had so many adventures, that I could never list them all.  But the biggest adventure of all, is coming home every day to the love of my life.  She always surprises me with her wit and her fun personality.  She brings me joy just by being in my presence.  I look forward to many more exciting years.  Happy Anniversary my love!

P.S.  Here is the most recent of our 12 billion selfies.

It's extra precious because my parents are in the background.