4th anniversary trip!

Yup, four years ago we were embarking on this crazy adventure with no clue what was waiting for us.  In the past four years we've moved to Texas and back, we've gone from an apartment, to a townhome, to our own home, we've changed jobs 3 times and we're now VERY happy with Code's job :), we've had 1.5 kids/in just a few months we'll have had two boys, we've had countless callings-mostly centered around teaching which = happy, oh yeah, and we've gotten a dog.

Sure there have been ups and downs but choosing Code has never been one of the downs.  I'm so lucky to be married to my best friend, that we can still joke around and make each other laugh, and that his faith is so strong and unwavering despite what we're called to go through :)  We can get through anything together (and of course with our Savior).

We always try to get away and just be together, the two of us, even if it's just local somewhere.  This year we went to St. George from Thurs afternoon to Sat afternoon.  The main motivation being the tuachan theatre featuring "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamCoat".  IT. WAS. AMAZING!  We went on a Thursday night so it wasn't super crowded, and we got seats in the first 5 rows which equals complimentary seat cushion (a MUST when you're prego) and a water bottle.  Clearly we felt pretty shnazzy haha.  The weather was SO nice- nice and cool with a slight breeze and you just can't beat the natural backdrop of the red rocks.  Before the show we checked in at a local B&B: "The Seven Wives Inn" (yes you read that right, haha each room was named after one of the wives of the guy who originally lived there/was historical big house).  We were in the Sarah room which was pretty cool- the bathtub was a model-T car hollowed out.  Shrug,....ok.  :)

Here we go!

 The Inn/ our room:

They had awesome breakfasts there!  I still miss them....

 Stay back ladies, control yourselves-he's mine :)

After checking in and freshening up, we went to Anasazi Steak House for dinner.  It was really cool cause they brought you (if you wanted) your steak rare on this piping hot volcanic rock slab thing and you could cook your steak piece by piece to your preference by simply holding it to the hot rock for a few seconds-it was that hot.  They also had an AMAZING chocolate fondue for dessert-we got the dark chocolate peanut butter fondue :)

I came this close to asking for a spoon to just start eating the fondue straight once we ran out of things to dip :)

The Theatre:

the stage:

code.....and grumpy lady.....haha

The next day we did a session at the St. George temple which was WAY cool-neither of us had been inside this one yet.  It was beautiful and surprisingly busy for a Friday morning but they can fit a lot of people in a session luckily :)

After the temple we went to lunch and a local book store (it's somehow become a tradition to check out a local used bookstore whenever we go somewhere cause we like our down time on vacations too).  Code didn't get a book this time but I got "Gods and Generals" (about the civil war) and it's pretty good so far.  We read/napped/chilled the afternoon away- one of my fav parts of our get aways.  When else do you get 100% uninterrupted reading time?? Then we went to Hurricane where we went on our first helicopter ride around the red rocks in the area.  We got one of the shortest tours (only 12-15 min cause they're dang expensive) but it was totally cool/worth it.  I couldn't get over how smooth it was-couldn't even tell we had taken off!  We shared our tour with another couple.

here's us taking off- it happens at 14 sec, and feel free to mute it cause it's loud haha.

flying around...

Needless to say it was a way fun quick trip!  All made possible, of course, by Grandpa and Grandma Richards who we flew up for the weekend, but they decided to stay for a few weeks!  It was fun having them around and of course, Jake couldn't get enough of his Grandpa ("papa").  Don't worry mom, I'm sure deep down he was glad you were there too :)  We had lots of fun with them and loved getting whooped at Rook multiple times.