5th Anniversary

This year, Miles and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. I told him that I would take care of planning our celebrations. I informed him that he needed to be home from work by 12 PM so we could go to our ultrasound appointment and then plan to have the rest of the day off, or just take the whole day off (whichever he preferred). He opted for a whole day off...I mean, who wouldn't? :) We started with a lazy morning at home since Owen didn't wake up until 8:30 AM. I made us German pancakes for breakfast. (Anyone seeing the trend here? Either I like to celebrate with German pancakes, or I just really I like to eat them. A lot. Or both).

Ok, so the plan was to keep all of the celebrations and festivities a surprise for Miles. But that didn't work out so well. I have learned my lesson. If you want things to be a surprise - 1) Tell only those who are on a need-to-know basis, 2) If you tell someone about the surprise, make sure they know - its.a.surprise. A week ago, one of our friends (who shall remain nameless) let it slip to Miles that we were staying at a B&B. Then, when we were up in SLC celebrating my niece, Hadley's 12th birthday, Matt threw out, "Great, so is it this weekend or next that we'll see you guys up here?" Yeah...so he obviously knew that Matt and Kerry were watching Owen. So it didn't ruin too much, but the surprise of it being an overnight get-away was ka-put. Oh well.

Back to our day. Miles knew that we were leaving and not coming back for at least 24 hours. However, I took care of getting everything packed and set for us to go, so he wouldn't know what to expect. We left and went to our ultrasound appointment. After hearing our sweet baby's heartbeat, we left and drove up to Salt Lake to drop Owen off at Kerry's. As soon as we got there, I put him down for a late nap and went through the rundown of Owen's schedule's, likes, dislikes, etc. Then off we went.

First, we went to our B&B to check-in. We stayed at The Inn on the Hill. It's just right up State St. from Temple Square in between the Conference Center and the Capitol. It is a beautiful, huge, old home.

The hostess said that she liked the room we were staying in the best of all of them. When I was booking the room, I was disappointed because I wanted to get a room with a king sized bed (a luxury we don't have right now) but they were both booked. However, I am really happy with the room we had. It was beautiful and had an amazing view off our semi-private balcony overlooking the temple and downtown Salt Lake. The room itself was so pretty too with a lovely mantle over the fireplace, a stately bed, gorgeous detailing and decor, and a huge jetted tub. It was awesome.

Here was the view off the balcony from our room:

Once we checked in, I told Miles we needed to rush to get changed and on to our next destination so we could make our dinner reservations at 5:30 PM. After quickly changing into dressy clothes, we drove to the Conference Center parking and speedily walked to the temple to do sealings. This is something I love to do for our anniversaries to remember the covenants we made on our wedding day. We were able to get in with a group who had already started some sealings and finished up by 5 PM. It was perfect timing to get changed and head to dinner.

We walked through the temple grounds and took some pictures along our way as we headed to dinner.

We then went to The Roof in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I wanted to eat there because that is where we ate the night before we got married. At first I was frustrated when I called to make reservations and they only had early or really late dining times. However, the time ended up being perfect. We were able to sit and enjoy our meal while the sun was setting and as it got dark and the temple lights lit up. It was beautiful.

However, I should mention that poor Miles had a terrible view (or rather no view) the whole time. I had requested to sit by the window, but they said they were all reserved, so we sat on the other side of the aisle near the window, but by the wall. I had a perfect view, however, Miles' view was blocked by a wall. :( Poor guy. And the worst part of it was that two of the tables they said were reserved were never used the whole time we were there! Ugh. I wanted to complain, but didn't.

Why yes, I did hang a spoon from my nose in a fancy restaurant. :)

Also, another note about The Roof. The views (like I said) are AMAZING and breathtaking. However, the food is just ok. In terms of a buffet, it's definitely gourmet style, but was still not totally worth the price. Matt made a good point when we talked to him the next day. He said, "If the food was really that good, with the views they have, they would be rated as one of the top places to eat in Salt Lake. Which it's not." However, I did really enjoy a number of salads, the mashed potatoes, and the 20 (yes TWENTY) different desserts they had. Ok, so I didn't really try all 20, but their creme brulee was to die for!

After stuffing ourselves, we headed downstairs for the final surprise of the evening. We went on a horse-drawn carriage ride up to Memory Grove near the avenues. On our wedding day, Kerry had arranged for us to take a carriage from the temple grounds to our reception center that was east about 8 blocks or so. It was such a fun time and one of our fondest memories from that day. I looked online to see the different tours they did, and chose one that would take us for a 40 min ride. We bundled up in wool blankets, but it was still pretty cold. However, it was really enjoyable and a lot of fun.

After our ride, we headed back to our room where they had set up music, candles, truffles, and sparkling cider in our room. It was tre romantic.

The night also included a wonderful soak in the huge tub (something I haven't done in forever...ah, so relaxing) and a back massage for me. :) And once again, the nighttime views from our room were beautiful. Hard to capture - but beautiful.

We both slept miserably that night (thanks to an overly soft bed and hot, hot room) and had a lazy morning watching a movie and eating our breakfast in bed that they brought to our room.

Then our fun had to end. :( But lucky for us, that just meant getting to see our sweet baby boy.

We went back to Kerry's. Owen gave us a kind of sly, smirky smile and then reached out for Miles (because he was closer) and then quickly reached out for me. :) Kerry said he did really well, except for waking up at SIX AM! Stinker! Gratefully, he does not do that to us at home and I get to sleep in anywhere from 7:30 at the earliest to 9:45. Poor Kerry. Otherwise, I think he (and all the Wickmans) had a lot of fun.


Here is a picture of Owen with babysitter extraordinaire! It was the best shot we could get since Owen was more interested in the toothbrush than in posing for a picture.

On a mushy note, I am so so grateful for these wonderful past five years I have had with Miles. He makes me so happy and is an amazing husband, friend, and father. I am really excited to see what the next five years hold for us. (And he gets to plan our 10th anniversary!)

I should also mention that Miles is a stinker. He pretty much guessed everything we were doing that day from where we were eating, to going on a carriage ride. He's just like his father - impossible to surprise!