Happy Anniversary!

Guess what!? July 4th was me and Seth's 1 year anniversary! Wahoo! Can you believe it? We pretty much spent all last week celebrating, so it might take a couple posts to tell you the wonderful awesomeness of it all.

At the end of our little honeymoon last year we stopped at Lava Hot Springs and floated the river on tubes. So, Seth planned a three day trip there this year. He originally wanted the anniversary trip to be a surprise, but I accidentally saw where we were going from a charge on our bank account. I kept mum about it and played dumb until Seth slipped up and mentioned renting a house there while we were sitting by a stream filtering water on our backpacking trip. But still... that didn't prepare me for what he'd planned. Picture the cutest little house you've ever seen, and that's where we stayed!

We got to Lava last Wednesday afternoon and drove to the address we'd written down. We went past the main part of town and up a little hill until we came to this small log cabin-esque house. We met Kathy, who ran the place and she walked us through showing us where things were kept and how they worked. After she left we continued our exploration through the house and marveled at how beautiful it was.

The house had a small patio/deck out back with a brick path that led to a grill and some bikes. One set of french doors on the patio led to the master bedroom and another set of doors led into the kitchen/living room area. In the living room there was a comfy sectional couch and flat screen tv on the wall and big windows all around so we could see out into the street and enjoy the views. The kitchen had granite counter tops and dark tiled floors with really nice appliances. We even had a table... with place mats! Even Gracie seemed to like the place and spent some time sniffing around and exploring every nook and cranny.

Although the fridge was stocked with ice cubes and coffee creamer, we thought we might want more of a selection of food, so we rode the mountain bikes down the hill to the grocery store. I haven't been on a bike for awhile and I was amazed at how unstable I felt on one... especially going down such a steep hill. I'm pretty sure by the end of the trip I had the brakes worn down to little nubs. Anyway, we picked out a couple steaks and some corn on the cob for dinner and a few other snacks, and headed back to the house.

We decided to do a little fishing before dinner so we drove up past Lava and turned onto the Old Highway 30. The road follows along the Portneuf River for a few miles so we drove along until we found a place that was easily accessible.

The river looked alright, maybe a bit dirty and was pretty slow moving. We noticed there were quite a bit of mosquitoes out so we doused ourselves in bug spray and headed down to a spot that looked fishable.

After fishing for about a half hour, we called it quits. Neither of us had caught anything or even seen a fish. In fact the only thing getting eaten around there was us. Despite our precautionary measures, we still got sucked on by a bunch of those dang mosquitoes. But we weren't all that disappointed. We were both pretty hungry anyway, so we just headed back to the house.

For dinner Seth threw the steaks and corn on the grill. We ate out on the patio and had the best dinner I've had in a while. He can cook up a mean steak, I'll tell you what! I may be the regular cook around our house, but Seth is the grill master.

Oh yeah, when we got back from fishing we came in and called for Gracie like we normally do. We heard a meow, but that was it. She didn't come out to greet us or anything. I figured she was just being lazy like she sometimes is and went about my business doing something else. Seth on the other hand began to look for her and couldn't find her anywhere. He called her again as he was walking down the hall and heard another meow. Where was it coming from? He called again and when she meowed again, he heard it coming from behind the washer and dryer. Sure enough that crazy cat had somehow managed to fall down behind the washer and dryer and get stuck. Neither of us could fathom why or how she'd done this. Seth pulled out the dryer and let her out. She was fine other than being covered in dirt and lint.

The next day we got up and rode our bikes down to the local cafe for breakfast. I love small town cafes. The people are always much more friendly than in large cities. Everyone says hi or nods and this morning we even ran into Kathy the cabin owner again. We felt so popular. Small cafes also have great food, despite their traditional homely dive-ish looks. This place (I think it was called Ye 'Ole Wagonwheel or something) was using homemade bread for their toast. HOMEMADE. I've NEVER seen that. It was so good.

After breakfast we rode our bikes over to the far side of town to a small public garden. We strolled along the pathway while I quizzed Seth on all the names of the plants. He still needs a lot of work, but he's getting there.

When we got back from breakfast we called for Gracie again. To our utter amazement and surprise, she was stuck behind the washer and dryer. Again. Why? What the heck was she doing and why hadn't she learned her lesson the first time? I would love to know what goes on in the mind of that cat.

It was starting to get much hotter outside so we put on our swimsuits and sandals and walked back down to town to go tubing. We stopped and rented a double tube from a very bored looking teenage girl and then headed off up to the launch spot.

The first trip down the river is always the coldest and scariest. Of course Seth made me sit in the front. Somehow the rapids always look huge when you're on a tube. But, leaning on our tubing experience from last year, our first run was a success. I didn't hit my butt on any rocks and we didn't flip over. In fact, we managed to run the river probably five times without flipping over or getting any injuries other than minor bruises and scratches. A major improvement from last year. We've thought about becoming professional tubing guides.

We were pretty hungry by the time we got done tubing so we went back to the house and got all cleaned up. Thankfully Gracie wasn't stuck behind the washer and dryer again.

For dinner we went to a pizza place in town that Seth had never been to (he lived in Lava for about 4 months during his ISU days). It took awhile to get our food and we almost died, but the pizza turned out to be worth the wait. Our waiter was some young guy who was pretty much working the place by himself, along with a pregnant girl who we deemed his girlfriend, making pizzas in the back. Yes sir, good pizza and good Coke. We left satisfied and feeling much happier.

After dinner Seth convinced me to go on a bike ride. We found that Lava isn't the best place for bike rides. There are no flat roads and none of them are longer than a couple of blocks. It was still fun though. Seth showed me the apartment where he used to live and we rode up to the top of a big hill that overlooked the town. There was a nice little house at the top of the hill with a good 'spread.' A decent piece of land with a pasture and even some goats! I stole one and was going to take it home strapped to my handlebars, but Seth made me put it back.

The next morning we pretty much just packed up and got ready to leave. I'm still amazed at how wonderful that place was and what a killer deal Seth got! Isn't he the best? I would definitely go back there again.

We did technically extend our anniversary celebration into the July 4th weekend up in Idaho Falls, but that's gonna have to be another post.


I love you Seth! Happy Anniversary!