Our First Anniversary

I really can't believe how fast time goes by. In two days, we will be married for one whole year. We decided to celebrate our anniversary this last weekend since Cambria is on call on the ninth. We were in Boise, Idaho for my cousins wedding, and decided to make a weekend out of it. I had driven up on Thursday before Cambria and she was going to fly up Friday. I stayed with my parents in a hotel and went to the wedding the next morning. It was a beautiful wedding. Throughout the day I kept receiving text messages from Cambria about how the loads on the flights were looking, and they weren't looking too good. After I went to the luncheon, Cambria and I finally decided that she should just drive up that night, and end up missing the reception. She was sad she missed it. We already had all our plans set out, and it's not too far, so we got to caravan around for the weekend with two cars from place to place. My parents weren't going to stay for the reception, but I wanted them to meet Cambria's Grandparents that live in Boise. So I went by with them and had a wonderful time talking. My parents loved them, and it really meant a lot to me that they got to meet them. The reception was great, and I definitely enjoyed the food, and talking with my family. It was a little more lonely without my wife there with me, but I survived. Cambria finally arrived at around 9:30, well after the reception was over, and we drove out to Eagle to stay the night with her cousin Jason and Wendy, his wife. They had a very neat house, but had a lot of work to do to get it all looking its best.

The next morning we spent some time at their house, played with their puppies and watched their horses. It was a very enjoyable Saturday morning. We then went to visit Cambria's Grandparents since she wasn't there they day before. That was another very fun visit. We looked through an Ogden newspaper that someone sent them. It was full of old pictures of buildings and what they looked like restored today. They recognized the old ones, and we recognized the new ones. They were pointing out which ones they visited often, and told us stories. I crashed on the couch for a few minutes while we were there. When we left, we checked into our hotel in Boise for that night. We took a nap for a little over an hour. We were both very tired for some reason. The bed was so comfortable; I have never fallen asleep so fast. We woke up and went out to Mark and Nancy's house. (Cambria's aunt and uncle.) Everybody was there and they were having a barbecue and swimming in the pool. We didn't feel like swimming but enjoyed our time talkingand playing with all the kids. Another nights sleep was welcome as we went back to our hotel.

Sunday morning we got dressed and went to a 9:00 church in Don and Afton's (Cambria's Grandparents.) ward building. We changed at a gas station into more comfy driving clothes and headed toward Lava Hot Springs. It wasn't too long of a drive, and we stopped off in Twin Falls for breakfast/lunch at IHOP. When we arrived in Lava, we checked into our Bed and Breakfast, Lions Gate Manor. The whole house is amazing, and is furnished with hand carved, imported Indonesian furniture. They gave us a tour of all the rooms. There was a medieval room with a bed that they got from the same English company that makes beds for royalty. He had us lay in the bed so we could say we laid in a bed made for royalty. That was sort of weird, but oh well. Finally, he took us to our room which was by far the best. I had told him it was a surprise to Cambria, so he didn't give away the name until right before we got to our room. We were standing in the dining room on the first floor of the house and, next to an amazing table was a bookcase, behind which was the entrance to our basement room, The Phantom's Lair.

Once the bookcase had folded back, and the sliding door opened, we passed through a silk curtain, and down the candlelit spiral staircase, past a picture ofthe Phantom. It opened up into the darker half of the room where everything was painted black that they didn't want seen, and track lights highlighting the walking area. We then walked across a walkway made out of planks. We passed a mural that made it look like we were in an underground tunnel, and past the bathtub which filled in a stream from the ceiling like a dripping cavern. The bathtub was very fancy and had air bubbles and color changing lights. There was the sound of water echoing through the room as we entered, and we could hear the Phantom of the Opera theme coming from a distant room.

As we left the darker part of the room, we passed through two wide archways where the paint on the walls suddenly turned to white. The lights were turned down low, and candles all around the room added to the shine of the dark, hand carved furniture. One of the pieces of furniture was a mirror on the far wall, where, when we walked by it, the Phantom himself appeared.(It was actually a two way mirror with a mannequin behind it, but it looked very real.)

To the left of the mirror was another small room that was roped off with a sign hanging from the rope that read, Box 5, Reserved. It was a theatre room, with surround sound, and the Phantom's Organ. The walls were covered in curtains. This room is where the theme music was coming from. To the left of that room was the regular bathroom with shower and everything.

Once we checked in, we left, and went to the Hot Springs. It was still sunny outside, but the hot water still felt great! Before we went into the Hot Springs, we watched people floating the river there. It is set up extremely well for floating, with a few short but wide waterfalls and some small rapids. The town was full of people everywhere. Half of them carrying tubes or getting rides back up the hill to start down the river again. We decided we'll have to come back and float the river sometime since it is free if you have your own tubes. We spent quite a while in the Hot Springs, and tried out the different pools. It goes from 112 degrees where the spring starts, down to 104 where the water empties out of the pools. We grabbed some nice vinyl chairs to lay in as someone was leaving. We laid out in the sun and talked for a while before deciding to go to dinner. We ate at a little Thai food place at the top of the hill, and really enjoyed it. Then we went back to our room. We waited around for fireworks to start. The owner let us go through an unoccupied room to the front balcony, where he let us scoot the chairs together, and got us a blanket and some chocolates to share while we watched the fireworks. It was a really good show but from where we were we could not see the very end where they light a "waterfall" of a firework that zig-zags down the whole mountainside from where they light the fireworks. All in all, we had a great time. After Fireworks, we watched the Phantom of the Opera in the theatre, and the sound was amazing. We drank our sparkling cider I brought, then Cambria fell asleep as she usually does while I finished the movie.

Breakfast the next morning was amazing, and it seemed like there were more options than IHOP the day before. It was fun to come up through the bookcase while everyone was there starting their breakfast. There was another basement door we could have used and gone up the stairs, but the bookcase is more fun. The other couples there were enjoyable, and we had a great breakfast. The chairs of the dining room table were huge! They had lions heads carved into the arm rests, and other carvings all over them.

After breakfast, we cleaned up our stuff, and straightened up the room a bit since the other guests wanted to see it once we had left. We signed the guest book, returned our key ring that had a metal thing on it which looked like a ticket to the Phantom of the Opera, and left. He said that if we were ever in the area, to stop by and say hi. They are very nice there, and try to make you feel like family. We left for home, which is only an hour and a half away. Cambria said she had a wonderful time, and thought the room was really neat. We don't know if we would ever go back since one time is enough to have great memories, but would definitely recommend it to family and friends. We are going to go out for dinner this Friday on our actual anniversary. I had an amazing time, and look forward to an eternity of anniversaries with my wife.