Surprise!!

Okay, this might be a bit of a long story, but it's good.

So, sometime in either February or March, Ben told me that he was planning a surprise for me. Yea! I love surprises! Unfortunately, he informed me I wouldn't be receiving it until May. Bummer! I don't like to wait...

As you well know, it's finally May! About two weeks ago, I checked my schedule at work to see what the new week would bring. I was shocked, and a little bit mad, when I saw that I was only scheduled to work 3 days instead of 5! I had Thursday, Friday, and Saturday off. I asked my manager about it and his clever response was "Don't worry about it. Just trust me. I can't say anything...just...trust me." Wow. That wasn't a tip-off, was it?! So, I went home and mentioned to Ben that I was mad because I saw my schedule, but then told him that I asked Kyle (my manager) about it and told Ben what Kyle had said. Then I asked him if he had anything to do with it. He tried to lie and said "no" at first, but then realized it was a lost cause and just admitted that he did. He had hoped Kyle would make up some reason as to why I had the weekend off, but oh well.

So at this point I am excited because I assume that we're going away somewhere for the weekend. But then Ben tells me that he really only needed to get me off of work on Saturday, but figured I might like to have the whole weekend off. Well...okay...so much for the weekend getaway. Plus, a few days before my weekend off, Ben was telling me that he planned to work for at least a few hours on Friday and then take the rest of the day off with me. At this point, I admit I was a little annoyed. Why did he get the entire weekend off just for something that would only require a Saturday? I could be at work making money! But then he agreed to just take the whole day off and then we could run some errands together and make the day off for me worth it. Okay. I was happy again.

Friday came and we went to breakfast at IHOP. While we were waiting for our food, he told me a little more about my surprise. He said these wonderful words, "Well, for your surprise, we ARE going away for the weekend. Your suspicions were correct." YES!! Oh, he's sneaky! Yes, having Friday off was an important part of the plan from the beginning, not just a might-as-well-have-that-day-off-too thought. No, he was never planning on working on Friday. No, we were not going to run the errands we had planned. Ha!

He didn't tell me where we were going though. We went home after breakfast and he told me what to pack and loaded things into the car as I got ready. As we began to drive away, he finally revealed the destination: St. George! Now, it's nothing SUPER exciting, but it was so fun to get away and not have to spend a ton of money or time getting there. And the inspiration for the whole weekend?? One event: Brian Regan, LIVE!!! Ben, through a variety of means, found out that Brian Regan (the comedian...if you have no idea...YouTube him...he's awesome!!) would be performing at the Tuacahn Amphitheater in St. George on Saturday, May 15. He bought tickets, and planned around it! How AWESOME!!

So now, here are the pictures and the events of our trip. :)

We left Provo in 50-degree weather and arrived in St. George on Friday afternoon in low 80-degree temperatures! It was beautiful there. We checked into our La Quinta hotel, and it was actually really nice! We had a large suite room in this hotel built in 2008. They had a free breakfast that was so yummy. They had Belgian waffles (the batter pre-measured into cups and two rotating waffle irons to make your fresh waffle), biscuits and gravy and sausage patties, cereal, donuts, fruit, bagels, etc. We were very impressed. Shortly after we arrived, we went out for an early dinner at the new Brick Oven restaurant there (opened last summer).

(**This was taken at the Provo store and I found it online. The funny thing is that this was taken a long time ago and I used to work with this guy when I first started there in 2002!**)

However, we were only able to enjoy it for a little bit. Not long into the meal, Ben started to not feel well. He was getting hot, pale, and queasy. Oh no! We finished up quickly and went back to the hotel. Thankfully, there was no back pain associated with this (which indicates kidney stones). But, about an hour or so later, he threw up. :( Poor guy! Here we are on this nice getaway, and he gets sick. We spent the rest of the night at the hotel with Ben sleeping (even though it was only 6pm) and me watching TV and using the free WiFi. I would have liked to have spent the evening doing other things, but it was still nice to relax and not feel guilty about just sitting around. :)

Saturday morning, Ben was feeling all better! We had our yummy breakfast and headed out to do some things in town. We found this wild life museum nearby with lots of really cool wild animal displays.

If you weren't afraid of bats before, you might be now!

Ouch! Poor mountain lion, being impaled by this deer's antler.

Funny-lookin' animal! Nice nose! :)

Okay, isn't this kinda creepy?! He's just staring you down!

It was a bit expensive ($8 per adult to walk through the building and look at displays...even though they were cool), but we did have a good time. Then we drove around, had lunch at Sonic,

(**I got out to smell the pretty roses!**)

and randomly stumbled upon the Brigham Young Winter Home. We were able to go on a free tour of this historical site.

Check out the fire place below. The marble is actually a faux finish.

I don't know if you can see it, but the plates below have a spout. You poor hot water in there, and then it becomes a warming plate!

What a neat old-fashioned kitchen! Check out the waffle iron!! Just like the ones we used at our hotel (well, almost just like it). Funny that they had those back in the day!

This is Brigham Young's bed. It was actually pretty short compared to today's beds...mostly because he was not very tall (about 5' 7").

A work/study area.

This building is right next to the house. We found out it was where Brigham Young received many revelations about Temple Ordinances, which we still use today!

The front, two-story brick section of the home was a later addition when he needed more room for the people who came to see him.

This tree was split by lightening, but they saved it by wiring cables through the upper branches and putting some kind of metal support gadget through the trunk near the base of the split.

It was very interesting and makes me wish I could travel back in time to see in person how life was back then.

Then at 8pm, we saw Brian Regan!! I didn't get any pictures of my own besides one bad one of just the stage with my cell phone. Why not?! Because there were signs posted that you are not allowed to bring cameras into the theater. While sitting there waiting for it to begin, however, I noticed all the people with their cameras! Grrr. I know I did what was right by not bringing it in, but seeing that made me frustrated and jealous. Oh well. :) It was very funny and very amazing to be there in person. I love that guy!

We checked out on Sunday morning after another yummy breakfast. We spent some more time driving around and ended up at the Temple and we were able to go walk around and go to the visitor center. We also went back to the theater to try to get more photos of the area, but the road to it was closed. :(

This was a really fun weekend getaway and I am so grateful to Ben for thinking of it, planning it, and being so smart about it! He planned for people to take over his responsibilities at church, someone to feed our cats, and got us both off of work. THANK YOU! I love you!

Here are a few more parting shots: