Happy Early Anniversary Celebration to my Wonderful Husby!!!

So my mom took the kids for the weekend so TIm and I could celebrate our anniversary a little early.  We decided to take advantage of a great deal I got through Living Social.  We went downtown and stayed at the  Armstrong Mansion.  My orthodontist's office was directly across the street from this beautiful mansion, and as I sat there in the chair, in pain after getting my braces tightened, I would daydream.  I would dream about what the house looked like, what life would have been like there, etc.  So it was really fun to be able to go in and be a guest there.  

We went to dinner at the Pagoda, a mixture of Japanese and Chinese food.  (I found it kind of interesting that it actually started out as a fully Japanese place, but they quickly added Chinese to the menu so they could advertise as an "Asian" restaurant since it was just after WWII ended)   Anyway, Tim has wanted to go there for a long time.  He worked on some buildings right by the place for a little while and was constantly teased by the amazing smells.  Unfortunately for us, their food smells a lot better than it tastes.  I did like the tempura shrimp, but everything else we tried was pretty disappointing.  It was especially frustrating since it has been recommended by friends. To be fair though, their specialty is sushi and we didn't try the sushi...

After dinner we went to the Off Broadway Theater for their improve show.  That place has special significance to us since that is where Tim took me for our very first date.  It was October 21, 2000 and we saw Little Shop of Horrors.  Going back there for our anniversary seemed fitting somehow :)  (We also bought tickets to their next play coming up in May, so we get another date out of it... :)

The Armstrong Mansion is a bed and breakfast, so we got a really yummy breakfast in the morning.  The tables also had a little brochure with the history of the mansion on it, and it was fascinating to read.  I love learning about the past :)  After breakfast and checkout we decided to go on a drive.  We went up Emmigration Canyon, through Wanship, up past Rockport Resevoir, through Kamas then to Heber and down  Provo Canyon.  After driving through Provo we came back to Salt Lake and headed for home.  If you click on the link you can see how big a drive this really was.  It took us a little over three hours...

It was amazing to be back home, without kids... Tim and I both took nice long naps and  I read an entire book (a small one yes, but I got all the way through it...)  We made dinner with some beautiful rib eye, garlic mashed potatoes, and grilled veggies.  And we sat on the floor with the coffee table as our table while we watched a movie.  It was great fun.

Monday morning we took Tim's bike into a shop to get fixed and then went and bought one for me.  We are so excited to start going on family bike rides!  

Truth be told, I wasn't quite ready to go pick up the kids yet, but it was time.  My mom had suffered enough :)