first anniversary weekend. . .

i love surprises.

there's nothing better than something totally random and unexpected.

unfortunately, i haven't had too many genuine surprises in my life.

this is due to the fact that i am the world's biggest snoop.

if i have the slightest inkling that a surprise might

be coming my way- you better believe i'm finding out about it.

most examples of this come from my adolescent christmas years.

one year i wanted a furby.

yes, i was one of those kids.

i desperately asked my parents to get one for me-knowing that it

would be near impossible because that year furby was the "it" toy.

i just HAD to know if my parents bought me one.

therefore, i snooped over the entire house, and discovered a furby

in the furnace room.

another classic christmas example was when i was about to turn 16.

i wanted a car.

i therefore took it upon myself to snoop around the tree looking

for anything that looked like it could hold keys.

i selected one box and carefully tore open the paper only to reveal

a bracelet box.

i couldn't stop there.

i opened the box and discovered the keys to the car my parents had bought me.

you can imagine the acting i had to do christmas morning

when i opened that box.

anyways, the real point of these stories is to demonstrate the fact

that i have spoiled many surprises for myself over the years.

i am proud to say that i have met my match.

logan is the king of surprises.

i'll never forget the day we got married & he surprised

me at the temple with a wedding band.

i told him i didn't need one and that i liked my ring without it.

he knew me.

he slipped it on my finger along with my wedding ring

and my mom said that she could literally hear me gasp.

after last weekend i can add one more thing to this list of ultimate surprises:

our first anniversary getaway

logan & i had talked about what we wanted to do for our anniversary

a few weeks before it actually came up.

i told him i thought it would be really fun to go somewhere

like park city because logan had never been before.

my snooping senses would not leave me alone, therefore i "accidentally"

discovered some park city hotel searches on our ipad.

last thursday was our actual anniversary.

august 25th.

we planned to go eat at india palace, since this is where we ate the night we got engaged.

our food was delicious as always & it was the perfect evening.

when we got home we busted out our wedding cake.

typically people save the nice top layer of their cake

& preserve it nicely so they can pull it out & take pretty pictures of it.

this is what our cake looked like:

we were nervous to eat some, but it actually didn't taste all that bad.

it was suuuuuper sweet tasting, but we ate a few bites & called it good.

the next day i flew home from work as fast as i could.

i had it all planned out in my mind.

logan would be home before me and would have made a bag

with all our stuff in it for our getaway to park city.

he would stash it in the car and then he would say we were going

on a drive somewhere.

then we would end up in park city at some great lodge and

we would shop and eat and have the best anniversary ever.

when i got home logan told me we were going on a hike & then to a mexican restaurant.

he said he had been planning it for a little while & he was super excited.

my heart sank and i actually cried.

i told him that i found hotel searches in park city & that i had thought

we would be spending our first anniversary there.

i was mad at myself for snooping & jumping to conclusions.

i made logan promise me 38508475 times that we really weren't

spending the weekend in park city.

he promised.

quickly he said he felt bad for not planning a park city weekend.

he told me we would just pack our bags and find a place up there to stay.

i told him 480957047 times i didn't want that to happen.

i wanted to do the anniversary he had planned.

i got over it & realized what a jerk i had been for getting upset.

he packed our bags anyway and threw them in the car.

"just in case" he said.

we drove up provo canyon and ended up at the most beautiful nature preserve.

cascade springs is about 15 minutes west of midway, located on the alpine loop.

it was so serene and gorgeous!

there were little waterfalls and the ponds were crystal clear.

we had fun walking around taking pictures, including

this one where logan successfully managed to snap

a photo right as a huge bee landed on my forehead.

perf.

the nature preserve had these neat boardwalks all around it, making

it super easy to walk around and see everything without

getting extremely muddy and gross, which is always a plus.

as we made our way to midway towards the mexican restaurant we saw these huge clouds.

it's probably just me, but i thought these clouds were beautiful.

they just looks so fluffy and cotton-like.

when we got onto the main street in midway logan said he

wanted to drive for a bit to explore the city.

i had absolutely no suspicions at this point.

we passed the mexican restaurant & i told logan to turn around.

he drove a little further & pulled onto this random looking dirt road

that seemed to go on for a while.

"let's see where this leads" he said.

i was slightly annoyed because of how hungry i was, but down the road we went.

as the road ended we saw this cute little cottage-like house.

logan pulled up and turned off the car.

"this is where we're staying" he said.

i just stared at him.

"what do you mean?" i asked.

"this is where we are spending the weekend!"

i was still confused.

"wait. . . you mean we actually have a reservation here!?"

"yep!" he said.

i looked at him and just wanted to cry.

he HAD made reservations for a place to stay- just not in park city.

i felt like the world's biggest jerk.

the place we were staying was called johnson mill, & it was the most

beautiful little house ever.

needless to say, logan surprised me big time.

before we went to dinner we explored the grounds.

they had a lake in the back for canoeing (which we did end up

doing but i didn't bring my phone out as a precaution).

and the grounds were also filled with lovely snakes!

on our way to and from dinner the same little guy

slithered out from under this rock.

logan & i both jumped about 10 feet high.

there were menus in the lobby of all the nearby restaurants.

logan checked out the menu for the mexican place

right up the street we were planning on going to.

he had heard it was the best mexican food in utah, and it was!

the restaurant we went to was tarahumara.

it's named after an indigenous people of northern mexico who are

renowned for their long-distance running ability.

this was logan's attempt at looking like the runner on the sign.

the food here was literally amazing.

they had a salsa bar with at least 25 different types of salsa.

i didn't try them all, but i fell in love with their pico.

it was so fresh and had the perfect spice to it.

after living in mexico for 2 years on his mission, logan has a pretty

picky palate when it comes to mexican food.

he agreed however that this food was pretty legit.

after dinner we drove down to heber & walked around for a while.

i have never really hung out in heber- i've only drive through

it on my way up to park city.

the town was actually pretty cute and it was fun to walk around downtown.

that night logan watched 3 movies.

i fell asleep during the first one.

the next morning we had an amazing breakfast.

the chef prepared these amazing german pancakes.

after breakfast we took the canoe out and got like 3 feet away

from these swans that were out on the lake.

we packed up, said goodbye to johnson mill & headed up to park city.

sadly my phone died, but we had fun shopping & eating lunch.

it was the best first anniversary ever & i am grateful

for a husband that can actually keep a secret from me:)

i love him.