Halloween Time! Whoop whoop!

I don't think it's any secret to anyone who knows me that Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday.  I'm not entirely sure the reasoning behind it, but I have always loved Halloween.  We just did the usual and went to Brent and Jan's for soup.  Ali and Alex showed up as a molar and the tooth fairy. Very fitting! Scarlett and Londyn ended up having the exact same costume without even knowing it until both babies showed up. Can you say, "Adorable!"?

The "molar" and the tooth fairy!

Yoga for Congo Women

Chantile invited me to come to a yoga event her sister was putting on. Her sister, Ann Richmond, is a yoga instructor and does these yoga presentations all over.  I had never "officially" met Chantile, but we talked nearly every day since our meeting through working for SOS.  I agreed to come just so I could meet her and dragged Shyanne along with me.  You wouldn't believe the stories of the women in countries like Congo.  It's sad to know we live such a privileged and oblivious life here in America and take it for granted on a daily basis. I can't imagine living somewhere that I was always in fear of my life, or where there are children being forced to be soldiers for these radical groups and where gang rapes happen every few minutes on average.  When we got there, we had to pick a wristband and we were able to see pictures of the women we were "representing" while we did our yoga practice.  My "sister" was named, Neema.  Some of the stories were hard to hear or even believe, but it's a great cause.  We were glad we attended and hope our menial donation can help the women in these struggling countries in some way or another.

Shyanne and me after the event with our "sisters" in Congo that we represented during the presentation

Shyanne, Chantile, Me, Ann Richmond and her little girl (Chantile's sister and the instructor and her niece who was obviously ready for bed)

First Anniversary

I had bought a Groupon quite a few months ago for our anniversary to go up to Park City and stay at a resort up there in Deer Valley.  About a month or two before we went, I found another Groupon for the Olympic Park up there, so I bought two tickets to that as well.  Our anniversary was on a Thursday, so that day I gave Zach his gifts in the morning and made him breakfast. We don't really eat breakfast because neither of us is really a big breakfast type. I usually eat a bowl of oatmeal when I get to work and he probably eats a donut or something. Who knows? But instead, we had scrambled eggs and toast and I surprised him with his gifts that morning.

When I wrapped his gifts, I put 8 Seconds quotes on the boxes and the main dialogue from the scene I used outside of the first box.  It's the scene where they go to the grocery store and Kelly wants Lane to put everything in the back of the truck because she had his anniversary gift in the back seat.  He finds the gift and starts unwrapping saying, "Well darlin', it ain't my birthday." So I put the lines leading up to him figuring it out on the outside, then the box with his new sweaters in it I put "world's champ...time you started dressing like it. You'll always be MY world's champ." I changed it from 5th in the world to world's champ and added stuff obviously, but the gist of the dialogue is the same.  Then I had given him a watch as well and an "unspeakable" in another box.  That box said another line from the movie. "I got something for me to wear...it's for later."  We had a good laugh about it.

I knew Zach wanted me to pick out some jewelry as my gift while we were in Park City so I wasn't expecting anything on the actual day of our anniversary.  About an hour or two into work, the front desk emailed me saying I had a delivery.  I immediately texted Zach..."What did you do? I just got an email from the front desk saying I have a delivery."  I went down to get it, and he had sent me a beautiful arrangement of various colored roses.  It made our office smell so good!  Apparently, he didn't even call his mom or sister to do it for him either. He did it all by himself. I was so proud of my little "man." He's growing up too fast.

We just did a quick dinner that night because Zach worked all day and a few hours that night. He didn't even shower before we went over to Dalton's.  Saturday was when the real celebration was. We had so much fun in Park City.  We started by going to the Olympic Park.  It had snowed the night before and the Alpine Slides were wet.  We thought it was a little dangerous, so we passed up on that altogether and decided we'll do those some other time.  We did the extreme zipline first.  When our doors opened, I went flying out...then suddenly Zach goes zooming by and got way ahead of me.  I'm sure he cheated somehow.

Riding the lift up

 

After the zipline, we walked over to the new "ride" called "The Drop Tower" which is a 65 foot platform you walk off of.  You zipline over the the platform and the only way down is to walk off the edge. Of course, you're strapped into a harness, and eventually the slack is out of the rope and it slows you down and put you on the ground, but still...it's a rush.  The guy said, "Who wants to go first?" So we looked at each other and I quickly nominated myself.  He was saying that the best way to do it is just when he opens the gate to just walk straight out to the platform and off. So that's what I did. I squealed as I walked off.  I thought the rope would be taut, but it wasn't. There was slack in it, so you had to walk off with nothing to slow you at first. You free fall for the first 30 or so feet before the fan kicks in and slows you down.  It was the shortest ride I've ever done in my life, but seriously such an adrenaline rush.

 

 

 

After that we did some shopping at the outlets and I got this awesome Nike hoodie at the Nike outlet.  Zach swears he'll never take me there again because if he would've let me, I would've bought half the store.  I love that place.

 

 

We went to lunch at this little cafe my family had eaten at while we were up there for my grandma and grandpa's 50th anniversary like two years before.  It was really good. 

 

I got a necklace and a LeVian ring at Kay.  I need to take a picture of the necklace, but the ring has white and chocolate diamonds with a black back set on the front.  Really really pretty!

 

 

 

After lunch and shopping, we checked into our room not really knowing what to expect. I got it 50% off so it really wasn't that bad...and the room turned out to be sooo nice. We loved it. Definitely would like to go back. It was called The Chateaux at Deer Valley.  We had a jetted tub and a shower separate from each other.  There was a towel warmer and a fireplace.  It was a really nice room.  It was beautiful up there too with all the leaves changing.

 

 

That night, we got massages a "Knead a Massage."  Unfortunately, they didn't have a couples room and we didn't find out until right before, but hey...you take what you can get for a massage in Park City for the price we paid.  The massages were actually really good and relaxing.

 

We then had dinner at this really cool place called "High West Distillery and Saloon."  It was an actual saloon that this guy bought and turned into a bar and grill.  He loves brewing his own bourbon, so he made a distillery there too and they do their own alcohol beverages there.  It was a really cool old building, but really loud because we were seated in the part that is more of  a bar scene.  Mark Eaton was there. He was standing behind me at one point and I could see Zach's eyes looking up really high so I slowly turned and my head just kept going up and up until I felt like my chin was clear in the air. He's like 7'5".  SOO tall.

 

We only stayed one night, but the next day was pretty cool too because we got tickets like a week before to go to conference for the afternoon session. It was my first time ever and Zach's first time in the new conference building to watch. He'd sung at conference when he was like 10 or so and that was in the old tabernacle.  The 5 block walk in heels literally set my feet on fire. It was supposed to be pretty chilly that weekend so I brought my boots that have a little heel on them. After 5 blocks...I had blisters and had to take my boots off to watch conference and never put them back on. I walked all the way back to the car in my socks.  OUCH!!

 

It was Cade's birthday that Sunday too so we went over there for his little birthday party.  I can't believe he is 5.  He was turning 3 a few months after Zach and I started dating!