Happy Birthday Brandon Part 2

So after we left the aquarium, we went to this delicious Italian place to eat that I can't remember the name of. We were especially impressed with the caesar salads we ordered before our meal. When Brandon mentioned this to our waiter, he replied with something along the lines of "Oh, that's because we use real anchovies in our dressing." Then he just walked away looking so pleased with himself and his real anchovies. What he didn't know was that we both detest fish, so when he said that, we could immediately taste the fishiness and couldn't take another bite, and Brandon has been wary of ordering caesar anything since then.

I made mine into the shape of a fish. Naturally.

Then we decided to take a drive up to see the Draper Temple and the gorgeous homes behind it. We got to the very top of this enormous hill on the side of the mountain and got out to take in the view and take some pictures.

Seriously look at how high up we were! No cell reception at all!

Which leads me to the most interesting birthday adventure/fiasco we've ever had. In our entire year of marriage :) When we got back to the car to head home, I realized that I had misplaced the keys...on the driver's seat...and I had also made sure to lock the doors good and tight. Luckily I married a patient man with a good sense of humor, because we just stood there and laughed for a few minutes while we figured out a plan. We were also lucky that Brandon decided to keep his phone in his pocket instead of leaving it in the car like I did, but as I said before we were too high up in the mountains to get any service. So we took a little walk. And by "little" I mean at least a mile down to the main road.

My hero talking to Allstate

We were a little short on paper so we had to write our policy number in the snow!

Once we figured out that we were not, in fact, going to freeze to death stuck on the mountain forever, we decided to get to a good location for the Allstate guy to pick us up. We thought this church would make as good a spot as any, so up we went.

In the spirit of adventure, we couldn't just walk around the sidewalk to the top of the hill, and trudging through the snow was much faster anyway.

That snow was DEEP! Like up to my thighs deep!

But we made it!

After about an hour freezing in the entryway of the church building, we decided that Taz (our Allstate driver/door unlocker) was lost, and we were surely close to dying of hypothermia, so the decision was made to find another extraction zone. And hopefully a warmer one. This fire station is what we came up with (see below). Yes, after all that work hiking up the snowy mountainside to get to the church, we would have to go all the way back down and then some. Like I said, Lucky my husband-to-be knows how to laugh at life.

And here we are, inside the nice warm fire station waiting for our ride.

He eventually came and took us back up the mountain in his two-seater low rider truck (I sat on B's lap), unlocked our door in a matter of seconds, and we were on our way home. Definitely not one of my proudest moments, but in the end we honestly had a blast, and Brandon still says it was the best birthday he's ever had (right babe?). Either way, there is nobody in the world I would rather be stranded on a mountain with than him. We've had plenty more adventures since then, and I'm sure we'll have many more. Here' to spending forever with your best friend!

Happy Birthday Brandon Part 1

For Brandon's birthday last year, I wanted to do something really fun and special. Little did I know that I was setting a SUPER high standard for awesome birthday dates in the future, but I don't think that's a bad thing at all, do you? I had recently learned that he really liked penguins so I surprised him by taking him to the aquarium. They have "Penguin Encounters" where you get to sit in a room and they let the penguins come in and hang out and nibble at your shoes (if they want to). It was so fun!

We got super legit VIP passes and B let me have number 5, because I'm OCD like that :)

We also got awesome jackets

After we got all suited up, the penguins came in!

(I should have warned you, this is a very pic-heavy post!)

We had a blast with our new friends, and then went to check out the rest of the aquarium.

This was our best attempt at getting me in a picture with a (living) shark.

So we found one that couldn't swim away!Love that he did this pose for me :)

And thus ends part 1 of Brandon's birthday 2011. You won't want to miss part 2, trust me!

It's A Love Story

For those who are interested, and for future posterity, the following is a recount of Brandon's and my meeting, falling in love, and the first year of marriage. It's probably going to take some time and a few posts, but I really think it's important to remember where you came from to know where you're going :) Plus it's fun to go back to those times!

I've decided to start at the first day of art class, where we met. I came in late, of course, and walked way too far into the classroom looking for a seat and everyone was staring at me. I was looking around for a seat in the back, by itself, far away from people, because I generally don't like making small talk and pretending to be nice when really it's too dang early to be in school anyway and I hadn't even showered yet, but no dice. I was about to say "screw it, I'll take art next semester...in the afternoon." when I turned around and there was an empty seat between two boys, one of which had a very striking smile and was gesturing to the seat next to him giving me a thumbs up. I immediately regretted the not showering decision, took my seat for the next semester, and turned the charm on. I decided that from then on, I would dress extra cute on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays.

Well, needless to say, we both bombed that class because we were too busy playing games on our phones and shamelessly flirting with each other to pay attention to our professor(which was actually a TV screen...like he wasn't even in the building, so come on). Even our first date involved skipping art to go to IHOP. A couple weeks into the class, we decided that we were so bored and kind of hungry, so I suggested IHOP, which was just down the road, and Brandon immediately stood up and waited patiently for me to put all my stuff in my backpack. Except he was actually really embarrassed and felt like he was standing up for like ten minutes. I'll admit I could have gone faster, but it was funny to watch him squirm :) So we hopped into our matching gold toyota camrys and drove away (yeah, we noticed the first day that our cars were identical, so pretty much our fate was sealed). I'm still smiling thinking about our waitress saying "it's okay, he can get dinner" as we were both arguing over who would be paying the check. He used that line to land a second date with yours truly and the rest, as they say, is history...which will be documented shortly.

Playing Ketchup

I just can't decide if I want to give background information on the past year or just dive right into now and catch up as I go, so I might just do both. I was looking at some old wedding plans and I found a description of Brandon's proposal to me. I was so giddy, I love it. And I can honestly say he still makes me this happy :)

Brandon took me to the "Magic Water Tower" where we had our first kiss. He brought hot chocolate and a blanket and we watched the sun set--or attempted to, it was too dang cold and windy! He set up the self-timer on his camera and we were goofing around, trying to get a good picture. As he was setting up, yet again, he ran back to me and started to pose for the picture. Then he said "wait." He got down on one knee, switched knees because it kind of hurt, pulled out my dream ring, looked up at me and said "Tara, will you marry me?" I said yes like 500 times and we kept hugging and looking at each other, and hugging and kissing and laughing. It felt so amazing to know that we really were going to be together forever. Then we called and told my parents, went back to his house and told his family. Then went to Olive Garden and ate WAY too much food, but it's okay because we're getting MARRIED!!!

<3

Go Team Rider! Post #1

Well Brandon and I have been married for almost a year, so I figure it's about time to start a family blog (since technically we area family of 3 counting our puppy Lacey)! One of the reasons (besides procrastination) for me not starting this sooner is the fact that I am not very witty and I can count on one hand the people who think I'm funny. I want this blog to be fun to read and awesome. And then I realized that this blog is about our life together, so how could it not be fun and awesome?! So, on that note, here we go! And by "here we go" I mean I will figure out how to actually start blogging and post the first episode of Go Team Rider...tomorrow :) But in the mean time, here's a picture of our baby.