I LOVE: Lunch. Ethan. Banana Pancakes. (Not in that order.)

Happy (late) Valentine's Day!

First I will tell you something I have been loving lately:
-Lunch with Ethan every Monday and Wednesday. Okay, we actually eat lunch pretty much every day together, but on Monday and Wednesdays we eat at my office. I work across the street from campus which is super convenient because on Mondays & Wednesdays, Ethan only has a 50 minute break from lunch. So those days I pack us a lunch and we picnic (in my office with no windows...) I love making our lunches and of course always adding a surprise treat for dessert.

Now I will share exactly how awesome St. Valentine's Day was.

For lunch I ordered us a lunchbox from a local bakery. It included: 2 turkey sandwiches, 2 bags of chips, 2 bottles of water, 2 cups of potato salad, and 2 heart shaped cookies. The food was good and so was the surprise for Ethan.

That was all I had planned for Valentine's Day. We had gone to dinner with some friends Friday, so I thought we would count that for our Big Dinner. I was planning on whipping up some turkey burgers for dinner and ending the night with some chocolate and perhaps an episode of Lost. Romantic- right?

I got home from work and found this on the counter.

On the back of the card it had directions and a clue. "Go to the center of town where the horses are. P.S. You will always be my queen." I was so excited- my first ever scavenger hunt put on by a BOY! (Not that my mom's scavenger hunts weren't awesome growing up, they totally were.) I quickly headed to the Sun Bowl (where I had my reign as the 2006 Lion's Dixie Round-up Rodeo Queen.)

I arrived at the Sun Bowl and couldn't find any clues, nor could I find Ethan. Naturally I broke the rules and called him. He directed me to the opposite side of the Sun Bowl and I was off. Once again, I couldn't find anything, so once again I called Ethan. He told me "this isn't going to be fun if you keep calling me..." but I really couldn't find anything. He finally told me the exact spot he left it (about 5 minutes before I got there) and it was empty. Yep- some little stinker took my red balloon, the plastic horse it was tied to, and my next clue. DUMB. In case you didn't know person- DON'T STEAL VALENTINES! Ethan texted me the next clue "Where we sealed the deal" and off to the temple I went.

After walking almost completely around the temple, I found this:

 Because I had looked for awhile before finding this, I had begun to have panic stricken thoughts. "What if someone REALLY hates love and they took the clue from the Sun Bowl, and then came here and took this clue? What am I going to do? Don't they know this is my first LOVE scavenger hunt? EVER?!?!"
Fortunately I found the balloon and clue "Where we play in the water. It rhymes with mountain." Off to the fountain I went.

When I got to the main street fountain, I didn't immediately see any balloons. Flashback to my panic thoughts above. I quickly asked a couple kids that were digging in the flower pots if they had seen a balloon tied somewhere.
Boy: "What color of balloon?" -I figured they MUST have seen some sort of balloon with that response.
Me: "Red or pink or maybe white?"
Boy: "Why are you looking for a balloon?"
Me: "It's for a scavenger hunt. It should have a clue with it- at least I hope it does."
Boy: "Sounds fun."
Me: "Yeah. So have you seen a balloon."
Boy: "Nope. Good Luck."
In retrospect, I probably should have asked them why they were digging in the flower pot.

Fortunately Ethan showed up soon after with two longboards and directed me to the center of the fountain where I found this:

 It is a love lock to hang on the love gate in front of my Grandma and Grandpa's old house on main.

 We rode our longboards down Main to the gate. Once at the gate, I realized Ethan had engraved our Love Lock... (You can't really see the front of it, but inside the two hearts are our initials.)

 

 

 

 

 We had some time to kill before our 8:30 reservation so we came home and watched an episode of House. Very Romantic. Ethan had made us a reservation for The Bent Fork. I am still salivating over the lobster ravioli in vanilla cream sauce. IT WAS SO GOOD! Dinner was delicious, and it was super fun because our friends Dustin and Whitnee showed up at the same time and sat one table away. What wasn't fun was being sat right after a group of 10 sat down... and ordered 3 minutes before us. Between finishing our salads and receiving the main course- we were told "He is just putting the finishing touches on it." "Just one more minute." "It will be right out." and "Yours is up next." with about 5 minutes in between each holdover. Fortunately the lobster ravioli was worth waiting for. Unfortunately it was after 10 when we got home. It was all we could do to crawl into bed BEFORE falling asleep.

Ethan really pulled out all the stops for Valentine's Day and it was perfect. (Even more props to him because he didn't start planning it until 3:30, which is 90 minutes before I get off work.) I really loved every minute of it. We also hit our 6 months of marriage yesterday. Easily the best 6 months EVER. Love him.

And now for some "not quite so mushy gushy stuff."

Last Thursday Ethan and I went to Provo for the day because I had a couple meetings. On the way home we stopped at the Carl Bloch exhibit at the Museum of Art on the BYU campus. It was truly amazing. I am so thankful my mom suggested we go. Carl Bloch painted the life of Christ. It is very evident from looking at the paintings that he was guided and inspired as he painted. There are several I now want for our home. No matter your religion, this exhibit is something I would strongly encourage everyone to go see. It was very much a spiritual experience.

On Saturday, Ethan and I were invited to ShaeLee's birthday party at the Pah Tempe Hot Springs in Hurricane. They are about 10x more concentrated than the average hot springs, making them about 100x more stinky. I had to shower twice to stop smelling the sulfur.The party was a lot of fun, as were the hot springs. The temperature was about 108 degrees. (Apparently I was taking in my surroundings in the first picture...)

I would also like to announce that I think I have finally nailed down my favorite breakfast food. I really love a good omelette, bacon is the bomb, and who doesn't love homemade hash browns? Unfortunately, I don't think they hold a candle to Banana pancakes topped with peanut butter & fresh strawberries. Can we say Heaven?

I hope everyone is as happy as a lark!