Oh Meadow.

Yet another great weekend. We are loving the sunshine!

On Friday my mom and dad gave us a coupon to Donovan's Steak place for the most delicious dinner ever! It was so fun to surprise Scotty with a fun date and to do something out of the ordinary for us. It was really fun to go to a nice restaurant (we haven't been to a restaurant with waiters in a long time! We usually splurge for Cafe Rio). Thanks mom and dad!

We woke up on Saturday and went for a hike up above our house. We hiked up to Black Mountain. There's still snow up there! But it was beautiful weather, and we loved getting out and starting the morning right. Our buddy Andrew came with us. It was fun to catch up on things and be up on the hills!



So we went to lunch with Andrew afterwards and about halfway through our lunch we got the idea that we'd go camping. An hour later we were on the road. We picked Adam and Becka up in Provo and headed down to Meadow to our favorite hot springs and lava tubes. We had a great time swimming in the hot springs (about 35 feet deep) and exploring the lava tubes and abandoned mining site. Scott also had a great time playing with the shutter speed on our camera. It was so great to get away for the night and to feel like we really were able to make the most of our weekend. We went to bed last night at about 9:15 and woke up ready for the week. But the week always seems to go pretty fast, and the weekend is right around the corner.


Scott and I are always color-coordinated for some strange reason.












Scott has a fascination with dropping heavy things down gaping holes. I photograph his excitement.







We thought it was cool that Andrew was the only one in focus, staring the camera down, while the rest of us look like ghosts.

I have a cabbage patch head.



Such a nice picture, right? One big happy family sitting around the campfire. If only Scott didn't have cheat death by jumping into the fire.

And then the fire sucked his soul and he is now floating in the air with the smoke from our fire.

And we all sat around for the rest of the night, talking about how much we missed him.



It was one of the most satisfying fires! And it was way better than sitting around watching a movie in the city. I'm so glad I'm married to my best friend who loves all the things I love. And I'm so happy we have great friends who will hop on board for a very last-minute trip. It was a very productive 3pm Saturday to 11:00am Sunday.


These hot springs are in the middle of nowhere! But they don't smell, they're not murky, and you can explore down below instead of just chill in the hot tub. It was such a relaxing and fun trip.

Schtuff.

We had such a fun weekend. We did a lot of getting our house organized(yes... so we've lived here since November... but it's always a work in progress to put everything together).

Friday Eric came down to our place. It was really fun to catch up with him, and he was a good sport to put up with me doing all my little house projects.

We spent almost all of Saturday at Momentum working out and climbing. We were certifying on the lead wall and learned that Scott needs to skip his first anchor all the time or else I'll get sucked into it when he takes a fall. That was a good lesson to learn. Saturday night we went down to Provo to hang with Adam, Beckah, Matt, Loral, and Andrew.

Sunday we were able to go up to Kirsten and Nick's for beautiful Sarajane's blessing. When we came back from the blessing, we had a fabulous Sunday nap, booked our flights for our summer trips, and made some curtains for our living room. Sounds fun, huh?

Four!

I guess V Day weekend means engagements! Congrats to my four fabulous friends and their new fiances!

Sarajane and Richie! He took her skydiving to propose! Both these friends went to East (Soj and I are ward buddies). They've been together for a long time! I can't wait for their wedding!


Natalie and Josh! I've haven't met Josh yet, but Stucki is THE COOLEST person! A river guide friend from day one. I can't wait for their wedding either!


Heidi and John. Heidi was one of my favorite hall-mates from freshman year. I haven't met John, but he's a lucky guy. Heidi will keep him laughing all the time.


Cameron and Suzanne! I don't know Suzanne, and I haven't actually seen Cameron in about a year (high school friend), but I've always thought the world of him. Suzanne's a lucky girl and I'm excited for them!


Congrats to all the February Engagements! I love seeing my friends so happy!

In other news, Scotty and I had a wonderful V Day ourselves. I'll have to catch up on all that a bit later. Time to head to work!

Thinking about Vee hee Day hay.

I associate every holiday with Charlie Brown and Snoopy. The Great Pumpkin... the Christmas Story.... Happiness is finding a pencil.

You know, Scott was Charlie Brown in "You're a Good Many Charlie Brown" as a kid.

On to my announcement.

I've had unusually good luck with V-day. Consider:

Last year, V-day 2009, Scott and I had a romantic V-day complete with Slumdog Millionaire and Cinegrill... with my parents. :) He he he...

V-day 2008 An old boyfriend and I broke up about a week before. My roommate Janelle had also broken up with her boyfriend a week before. We had one of those classic girl V-day evenings with all our friends... PF Changs and the episode of Friends where Rachel, Pheobe, and Monica have a boyfriend bonfire for their V-day celebration and end up spending the night with the cute firefighters (The one with the Candy Hearts).

I was thrilled when Lindsey, one of my greatest friends, came home to my apartment that night after getting engaged! I knew from her boyfriend that it was coming, and I tried to prepare for her with my camera, fondue, and martinellis in fancy glasses. She came in the door looking engaged and gorgeous, and I was there in my sweats and my black spider fleece with pancake batter caked onto the front (I think it still is, two years later)... a excellent visual contrast of our current relationship statuses.

V-Day 2007 This is a favorite. I was a little overwhelmed this semester in school guy-wise. I had come into my apartment complex and ward mid-year after a semester in London, and I was going out a few times a week. With the additional expense of six months in London, I bet if I check out the finances from that semester back, I probably broke even for the year because I didn't pay for a single meal that semester back. I was having a lot of fun getting to know people, and dating is a fun way to do that, but I wasn't interested in getting serious with anyone or finding "the one." I was just dating to date. There were a couple guys who kept persisting, even though I had told them that I wasn't going to be getting serious with anyone, which means I wasn't going to be kissing anyone, which means if they wanted to keep taking me out, I'd say yes, but I'd also be going out with other guys as well. I wanted to be upfront about that so they knew.

There was a guy named Phil who I would have dinner with every Tuesday night. It wasn't supposed to be a standard date or anything. We just had a class together on Tuesday nights, and he had about a thousand Costa Vida free meal coupons. I don't know how he had that many. So every Tuesday after class he, his buddy Johnny, and I would go to Costa Vida. Once we invited our professor and he met us there and gave us each a dollar towards our meal (which was free, so we each made a buck that night.)

So V-day fell on a Tuesday during this fine 2007 year, so in class, the week before V-day, I suggested we call our dinner off so everyone could tend to their V-day plans. None of us actually had V-day plans, so we all figured we'd have dinner together anyways. That Tuesday I showed up for class and Johnny wasn't there. Hmm... What about dinner? Oh, he's meeting us after class, says Phil. Good. I didn't want to be suckered into a V-day date with a guy I liked hanging out with, but had no interest in dating. After class we walked to Phil's apt like we always do, and his roommate Johnny's not there. He's meeting us at the restaurant. Okay (doubtful). We start driving and go straight past Costa Vida. Oh, Johnny suggested we go somewhere different since its a holiday. Okay (I see right through you, kid). We end up at some restaurant, nicer than a Costa Vida, surrounded by V-day-loving-couples on all corners. Oh, and Phil had reservations. How thorough. "For two?" the hostess confirms. Phil looks at me awkwardly, unable to pin this on Johnny anymore.

Awkward date. Awkward night. Awkward couple getting engaged at the table next to us. Awkward dinner. Tiny portions. Weird sauces. Drives me home. Nice guy. Thanks, but no thanks, Phil. I just think it would have been a more successful attempt had he just asked me out instead of tricked me into a date. That was also the end of our Costa Vida nights. In fact, I kind of put a hold on Costa Vida altogether. A year later it gave my cousin Kyle, my roommate Janelle, and me terrible food poisoning. It took a lot to let pork barbacoa back into my life.

As soon as a got home that night. There were roses waiting at the door. "To Lindsey" and some sort of V-day note that was vague, including no personal references that would indicate that it was intended for me. And we didn't know if it was intended for me, because my roommate's name was Lindsey too! We laughed about it all night. The next day I got a phone call from a very nice fellow asking if I got the flowers he left for me. He showed up later that night to bring me some cookies he baked me. He showed up just as I was hanging out with a boy who had stopped by to confirm our date for that weekend. This wasn't a V-day where I was somebody-less... there were just a few too many somebodies in the mix. For the record, most of these boys ended up being my very good friends down at school and laughed with me about it all later.

V-day 2006. A great one. Really. It was a great one. I got to spend the night with a very good friend eating Wisconsin mac-n-cheese, snowshoeing and eating chocolate fondue from a camping stove. It was just a few days before he left for his mission, and it was a perfect way to spend some time saying a real "goodbye for now." Still one of my closest friends today.

But as I went home that night, sad that I'd be sending him off so soon, I found this delightful little email note reminding me that my prospects were good, and that someone new would sweep me off my feet shortly.

Date: Mon, 13 Feb 2006 21:33:43 -0700
From: ----------------
To: binz86@hotmail.com
Subject: From Hans (You Know, Trevor's Friend)

Dear Lindsey,
I think you are a very lovely girl. The purpose of Saturday's date was to make you feel so, but I forgot to say it. My bad. I repent me that I did not do it.
Happy St. Valentine's Day,
Hans
P.S. Looking you up was a bit of a trick, so I hope this works..."

Oh, Hans Shmutz. Seriously one of most enjoyable dates of my life. And while setting me up with him on that triple date (with my good friends and hall-mates Laura and Rachel) was designed to make me the butt of some joke, I had one of the MOST ENJOYABLE dates of my life. It wasn't a joke at all. That's another story for another day.

While we didn't ever have a follow up date... I always think of him when I see the card game "BANG!" or hear the word "Stinker!" (or more specifically the phrase, "You little stinker!"). And good news, our association remains: he just found me on Facebook last week. :)

Oh my V-Day success!
I'm actually serious though. I've had serious V-day success. I've never understood the self-induced sadness that single people partake of on V-day. Sure, eat chocolate. But not because you're alone. Eat it cause you want to! I'm happy that, while I've never had that earth-shattering Rod Stewart singing "Isn't it Romatic," pearls, La Caille (I'm so unfamiliar with this restaurant I don't know how it's spelled. Is it La Calle? The street?) kind of evening on V-day, I've always been blessed to spend the day with people I love. My family and best friends from some of the greatest years of my life. I'm a lucky girl!

This V-day 2010 will be no different. It's wonderful to know that for the rest our my life, I will be spending V-day with the one person I love most in the world! What could be a better V-day gift than that? I'm so grateful for Scott. It's so nice to married to the love of my life because I never think anymore about what I'm planning on doing, just how grateful I am for who I'm doing it with. I love doing everything with Scott! And I don't plan on ever getting sick of him, either. Although I may need to by him some ear-plugs for our 2nd anniversary next year. I look forward to years and years of V-days, even with kids and casual nights. Nothing big and fancy.

We fought the urge to take advantage of Presidents Day to go climbing or some other adventure, and we're spending our V-day weekend here at home... studying! We'll have an awesome V-day together at home and then Sunday dinner with my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and niece. Happy Valentines Day!

Oh... and I'm celebrating this year with Pygme Marmosets for all! What could be better. Check out my last post if you've missed this announcement.

Hawaii

Key characters in the following story. From left to right:

Rob (a fabulous Rob, but one that is actually irrelevant to our story), Scotty, Me, Rob (the Rob of whom I speak), Kelley

Last night Scott was making his Sunday night call to his family, and he thought about giving his buddy Robbie a call to see how he was doing, having heard he had just had an interview with the fire department in SB.

Scott dials Robbie’s number…

Robbie: “Scott! Where are you?”
Scott: “I’m right outside your window, watching you.”
Robbie: “No you're not. I’m outside!”
Kelly in the background: “If you were watching us, you’d see my big rock!”
Scott: “WHAT? Your big ROCK? Robbie, did you just propose!!!”
Robbie: “Yeah! Like ten minutes ago!”

Lindsey and Scott: Common sounds of freaking out.

(conversation above may or may not be word-for-word accurate)

And then we hung up, so as to not rob them of their moment. But after checking out this blog, I see someone else robbed them of their moment before we did.

We are SO SO SO SO happy! Scott couldn’t stop talking about it until we went to bed. Looks like we’ll be headed to the LA temple or San Diego in July! Unless, of course... they want to get married in Hawaii!

It's True...

Snowboarders spend a ridiculous amount of time sitting down on the slopes.


And I can finally say that for a fact.

I've seen it.

Last weekend we had a bunch of friends from Santa Barbara staying with us. We had a blast having everyone under one roof. It was busy, chaotic, and crazy… my favorite things! A bunch of us went up to Snowbird the next day. I found myself being the only skier with five snowboarding dudes and one snowboarding dudette. It was definitely a new experience for me to be the only skier with a bunch of guys. I've never been the minority before (ski-wise). The stereotype is true… they sit down way too much. We'd ski part of a run, and congregate together for a second to make sure everyone was with us. That's normal. But they'd all sit down each time we'd congregate, so it took twice as long to get going again! Scott tells me it's because it's really hard to stay standing on a snowboard. I don't know. I kept thinking, “Why are you sitting! We’re going to go DOWN the mountain… and then we’re going to go back UP the mountain…. And then we’re going to go back DOWN again! That’s why we paid a bundle to be here!” (When you word it that way, the whole sport seems kind of pointless, doesn't it?) But I had a great time. It was a beautiful sunny day. Just shy of spring skiing. I could have kept going well past closing.

In fairness to my boarding friends, however, I'll give you this. I could not snowboard. If I snowboarded every day from now until the day I die, I might pick it up. But I can't get my body to agree with the idea of facing sideways instead of forward. I can waterski better than I wakeboard. When Scott was teaching me to surf, I kept getting up with my feet parallel to each other, facing forward. He kept saying to me, "You're such a skier! Stop facing forward." I can't do it. So congrats for standing sideways. Now can we practice having our little pow-wows in the chairlift?

I love the snow. So glad that groundhog saw his shadow.

HOPING...

...for pictures from Andy and Jen from the big sleepover last weekend. I can't wait to see them. I wish we had taken some of everyone staying over at our house... I didn't know we could fit that many people in our little place! I'm excited to see the pictures at Snowbird and Park City. Hopefully now that they're back and situated in CA they'll get a chance to update the blog they gave up on! Or maybe just email us pictures.

...for pictures from Jon and Annie! We took a couple pictures with Matt, Loral, and Celeste at their place before they took off for Boston. Annie... if you're reading this... email me those pictures, friend! I can't wait to talk to Annie about her adventures in Boston. I'm so jealous; she's going to culinary school while Jon finishes up some schooling before med school in CA. We miss having you guys around! You definitely can host a party better than we can! We're just glad we'll have you back for another three months in between Boston and CA!

Does it get any better?

Well, we could have done without search and rescue. But it was still a great trip... how couldn't it be with an ostrich! Oh, you didn't see the ostrich?