His lie-surprises.

For my 23rd birthday (which, by the way, was an age I never thought would come quite so fast) Joseph had something very special planned for me.  I was completely unaware of anything particularly special going on.  I thought (since we discussed this as a tentative "plan") that we were going to go out to eat at 8 pm after he got home from his church meeting and after I put Saoirse down for bed and we would enjoy a little alone time together out on the town.  BUT, birthday afternoon rolls around and I get called up to my neighbor, Kendra's, house for a gift and some questions about family history.  While I was up there Joseph had some plans of his own to make my birthday quite a memorable one.  When I came back down Joseph told me it was "time to go" and whisked Saoirse and I out the door and into the car.  We filled up the already half full gastank and headed north.  I had no idea what was going on and the further we got from home the more worried I got that the one diaper I had in my purse would not be enough for our seemingly lengthy trip.  At this point Joseph reveals to me that he had several "lie-surprises" for me.  A lie-surprise is a lie that he had told me that was going to be a surprise for me.  His lie-surprises were revealed slowly throughout the evening and came as follows; "I don't have Elder's Quorum Meeting tonight," "We're not actually going to eat at Los Hermanos," "We're not going to eat at 8 but right now," "I don't have school or work tomorrow," and so on.  He drove me up to Ogden, which was a looong hour and a half drive for me not having any clue what was going on, and we went to an AMAZING restaurant called The Timbermine.  Pictured below.

It's supposed to be like an old mine.        ..with delicious food.

Awesome door handle.

See?  Mine-like.

We had SUCH good food there.  We ate the best steak I've ever had (probably because it was wrapped in bacon) with King Crab legs and free fried mushrooms.

So good, and I don't even like mushrooms or marinara sauce.

 We got free mushrooms because we were sitting in a noisy booth.  Or something.  

I just thought any noise we were hearing was part of the "eating in a mine" experience.

Everyone ate in one of these little cubby things.  Excellent for private birthday celebrations.

But it actually looked more like this in there.  You couldn't really see the floor or anything but the cubbies.  Joseph only got the previous picture by setting his exposure time to a billion years to catch any and all light.

Lamp.

This lamp was nice because we could turn down the light so I could slightly more privately feed the babe in our cubby.

Then we were off to our next adventure!  After dinner I was in a hurry to get home for Saoirse to make her 8:30 bedtime.  But Joseph wanted to go "check out the awesome canyon" we were right at the mouth of.  Even though I told him that we needed to get home he didn't listen to me and turned towards the canyon.  I was quite frustrated and on my way to angry when he realized what was happening and told me his next surprise lie; "We're not going back to Provo tonight."  I was shocked and realized that that meant that he packed our stuff which made me worry he probably forgot something I desperately need, like clothes or my toothbrush.  But he reassured me by telling me everything he packed - which was almost everything I would have packed.  He even grabbed a multitude of diapers to my delight.  And after driving only a short while into the beautiful canyon we came to a stop at the Alaskan Inn.  

Across the street/canyon.  The mountains were pretty much in your face the entire time.  I loved it.

I love Utah.

She's half under the bed, but so cute in her disposable diaper and tiny little butt.

The amazing hot tub for two with jets.  I sat in here and drank sparkling apple juice with my man.

This might seem random, but this and the next picture are the best two pictures of the inside of the cabin we were in.  Joseph apparently forgot to get one of the whole cabin so all we have are bits and pieces.

Bed and ghost Abby.

Super yummy and FREE breakfast!  We got to choose what we wanted and when.  I chose to have hot chocolate and it was a good choice if I might say so.

Cabins.

Our beautiful cabin called the Kodiak cabin!  It was bear themed - you know, Kodiak.  The next time we stay here we're getting the Christmas themed cabin.  YES CHRISTMAS.  These people are geniuses.

Cabin.  Canyon.

I just had to add this birthday face.  I hope it looks this good when it's 80.

And now for a string of cute pictures of my baby.

She loves looking at trees.

She's pretending not to notice a picture is being taken of her.

Adorable lips.

Dang.  I made a perfect baby.

A perfectly fat baby.

My precious.

Today is my birthday!  There is SO much cleaning that needs to be done, but I think I'm going to take a day off from that and do some of my favorite things!  First off, I watched Enchanted.  It's SUCH a good movie!  I love Giselle.  She's so happy!  And she has fabulous dresses.

Like I said, fabulous.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my little precious babe.

Wearing her new dress she got from the baby shower from her Aunt Danielle.  Stinking CUTE.

Hahaha.  What a face.  

She probably couldn't get any cuter though.  My little papoose baby.

She had just gotten her 6 month shots about an hour before this.  Poor little thing hated them.  

It's still weird to me that I have a little tiny human being that I take care of.  That trusts me.  That looks up to me to take care of her like I did my mom.  I love being a mom!

Our Sunday.

Ahh, yes.  Sundays are quite wonderful - especially in December.  We get to sing all the Christmas hymns at church ALL WE WANT and when we get home Joseph and I make our Sunday dinner.  Which is really more like linner - since we eat around 2.  These last couple of Sundays Joseph and I made the same thing that I have named "Slow-Cooked Steaks".  The originality of my title is unparalleled.  Because we literally slow-cook some steaks, but only after leaving some potatoes in the crock pot for 3 hours (while we're at church) to cook in some water.  When we get home we stick the steaks in for about 30 minutes (an hour if frozen) after smothering them in olive oil and massaging (yes) in salt and some delicious steak seasoning.  After that we grill them for about 5 minutes and make some gravy out of the watery goodness stewing in the crock pot.  AND VOILA!  A delicious meal of meat and potatoes completely smothered in the most delectable gravy.  Unfortunately I don't have any photographic evidence of such a meal because it gets eaten too quickly by my ravenous husband and myself BUT I do have a picture of Joseph cooking the steaks in a pan....

...... isn't he cute?!  

By the bye, that's the apron he got me for my birthday.  IT'S AMAZING.