5 Years

Happy Anniversary, Howie.

I absolutely love you more and more every day.

Candlelit Dinner

There are some dinners you come home to cook and you just go through the motions.  

You cut up the chicken.
You put the rolls in the oven.
You cook the corn.
You cook and mash the potatoes.
Your goal is just to put a meal on the table.

All the while you are reflecting on the day at work you've had.  You're thinking about all the things you need to do the rest of the week.  Errands you need to run.  Frustrations that exist.

There are some dinners like this that end with two people scarfing down the meal to get on their way to other things that need to be done and then there are dinners like the one we had last night.  After preparing said meal above I called Howie to come and eat.  He didn't respond.  Frustrated in thinking that he fell asleep after I had worked and slaved over a hot stove, I went looking for him.  He wasn't in our bed.  He wasn't in the spare bedroom.  I notice the master closet light is on and so I open the door.  In the closet I find Howie putting the finishing touches on his Sunday best outfit.  Tie and all.  Instantly I smile and say "What are you doing?"  He smiles back and says "Getting ready for our special dinner you've made."  His choice of words are humorous to me since I didn't consider anything necessarily "special" about our dinner.  I was putting a meal on the table.  That was all.  He then asks "Do we have any candles?  Some music maybe?"

Our everyday, mundane meal instantly turned into something romantic and needed.

It's easy to get caught up in the daily grind and forget the importance of bonding with one another.  This simple gesture from Howie made my heart absolutely swell for him.  He is the sweetest man and I am so lucky to have him in my life.

Trip to Vermont and Canada

From May 25th to the 31st we took a little trip to Vermont.  We had such a good time.  Some people ask us "Why Vermont?  Do you have family there?"  Nope, sure don't.  We had just never been to Vermont so we decided to go.  And Vermont is super close to Canada (specifically Montreal) so, we went there one day, too!

Day 1 we were supposed to go kayaking, but Vermont had some massive amounts of flooding the day we arrived so, our guide said we couldn't.  Instead we went and toured the Ben & Jerry's ice cream factory in Waterbury, Vermont.

We toured the factory and then got a free sample of ice cream when it was over.  The sample was called "Better Than Chai".  Good stuff.

After Ben & Jerry's we went and watched a live presentation of glass blowing.  It was so neat to see how they do it!  They sell blown glass art all over the state.  It's very popular there.

 

Day 2 we spent most of the morning walking around Stowe, Vermont.  Stowe was a short 20 minute drive from where we were staying and it was the cutest little town.  I refer to it as the "Park City of Vermont".

They had a recreation path you could take through the city and so we walked it for a bit.  The scenery was very pretty.  After walking around Stowe we headed to Stowe Mountain Lodge for a spa day.  This was the highlight for Howie.

We got massages, swam in their pool, and sat in their hot tubs.  In the bathrooms they had saunas, steam rooms, and a big hot tub.  Howie and I each spent time in those on our own, too.  We had heard of spa days, but never experienced them until now.  Loved it.

Day 3 we drove the two hour drive up to Montreal, Canada to spend the day.  Beautiful city!  We decided to do a hop-on-hop-off city bus tour to see as much as we could in our limited time there.

I couldn't wait to see the beautiful St. Joseph's Oratory.

 

In the gardens they had the stations of the cross.  All twelve of them.  Very cool.

We also did a tour of the Notre Dame Basilica.

It was gorgeous inside.  Very pretty building.

Before we left we had to try poutine.  It's a Canadian dish that consists of fries, gravy, and cheese curds.  Sounds odd, but it's pretty good.

We met up with my in-laws who were also vacationing in Canada and had dinner with them.  (I wish I would've taken photos of them!)

Day 4 was a little bit of a disappointment.  This was the day we decided to explore Burlington, Vermont a little more.  We had flown in to Burlington, but didn't get to see very much since we were staying an hour away.

NEWS FLASH: There is nothing to see in Burlington!

Such a let down.

We walked down their main street, Church Street, and saw their big open mall.  We asked locals what there was to see there and everyone just kept asking us if we'd been to Church Street yet!  Lame.  We tried to just pass time until our boat tour on Lake Champlain.

Then I got a voice mail from the boat company letting me know that they had cancelled our boat tour due to lack of interest. Grr!  Burlington, why do you suck so bad?

 

So, we went down to the pier and looked out at Lake Champlain.  It is lovely, but I wish we could've seen it some more.  There were no other boat companies running since we were there a week or so before their full summer season officially started.

Day 5 was fun.  We took a little road trip south of where we were staying and headed first to Montpelier, the capital city of Vermont.  We toured their state house.

This is where all of the state of Vermont's legislation is made!

After that stop we continued on to Joseph Smith's Birthplace in Sharon, Vermont. 

This hearth stone is from the Smith's original home.  The missionary that was in the visitors center said she believes there is a good chance Joseph was born near it since he was born in the month of December.

This monument was erected in 1905 in Joseph Smith's memory.

Here are some photos of the "notch road" that we had to drive on to get into Stowe, Vermont.  They call it the "notch road" because it was literally driving through the notch of the tallest mountain in Vermont.  It was just a gorgeous drive and I'm glad I took some photos along the way.

We had a blast!