twenty-two years ago....

....I married my sweetheart. TWENTY-TWO years, people!

We spent the day Saturday in St. George helping my brother and his family move to a new home. On our drive home that night we decided that instead of grabbing Arby's or McD's for dinner we would make the most of our anniversary and stop at a nice sit-down restaurant. Hey, after all it was our special day! The problem, we soon found, was that in these little tiny towns in the middle of Utah there is no such thing as "nice sit-down." Nope, those are words these small town folk maybe have never uttered in their communities with a population of 37.

We finally got off an exit after seeing several billboards for a sit-down that was claiming to be the best in the West. My first clue that we should avoid this place was evident on one of their billboards -"Come in and enjoy the best steak's in town."
Steak's? With an apostrophe "s" ???

BIG. RED. FLAG.

Our waitress was a sweet girl. A bit naive, but very sweet. Here are some excerpts from our conversations with her...

The restaurant was SO cold that we had to bring in our jackets and blankets from the car and bundle up in them.

Me to the waitress: "It is so cold in here!"

Her: "Oh, do you think it's cold in here? Well where are you from?"

I told her where we lived (a town that's even colder).

Her: "Oh, well that's why.....they keep their buildings warmer up there than we do down here. Ya, that's why you're cold."

Me: "What kind of lettuce is in the salad?"

Her, looking a bit confused: "Umm, just regular lettuce."

Me: "I mean is it Iceberg? Romaine? Spinach?"

Her: "It's just, ya know, regular lettuce. But there are some purple things in there that I think are just regular lettuce that they dye purple to make it look better."

After the salad came, we found that it actually was not "dyed regular lettuce" but "red Romaine." John explained this to her and she said,

"Oh, I always wondered how it got purple. I didn't know it GREW that way!"

Her: "We have two kinds of pies for dessert - Pumpkin and Mince Meat."

Us: "What exactly is Mince Meat Pie?"

Her: "Well, it has apples. And some nuts........or something like that. And then some spices....I think."

Us: "Why is it called Mince Meat when it is more of an apple pie?

Her: "Well, I think it's because the little old lady who invented it a long time ago decided to call it Mince Meat so, ya know, it just stuck."

After bringing us vanilla ice cream (we passed on the pies, feeling that ice cream was the safer choice at this point).....

Her: "My boss's daughter is mad at me."

Me: "Why?"

Her: "Because I gave you two scoops of ice cream and I'm only supposed to give you one. Ya, she's really mad. She was giving me really dirty looks. But I don't care! I really really really really really don't care (as she was skipping away from our table)!"

Cutting the wedding cake - March 14, 1987

(Well, would ya look at that - I used to have a defined waist! Huh, whatdyaknow.)

When we got home late Saturday, the kids had made us an "anniversary cake" (totally delicious, from scratch Buttermilk Lemon cake). We tried to re-create the cutting-the-cake moment from 22 years earlier.

I know, it's cheesy.

Brooke originally had decorated our bedroom door with balloons. Matthew later moved them to the bed. (I don't know why - maybe to make us feel like we were in some cheap motel in Vegas or something.)