Our Valentine's Weekend

We had a crazy, wonderful, Valentine's Weekend!  It started on Friday when Eric made a romantic Valentine's dinner.  I've been gone for the last two Valentine's Days for work, so Eric wanted to have more than one Valentine's Event to make up for the last two years.  I came home from work to a romantic, delicious, candle-light dinner.

Eric wanted to surprise me so he didn't even buy any ingredients until after I went to work.  For an appetizer, Eric made me Emeril's Crab Cakes.  Crab Cakes are one of my all-time favorite foods so Eric found a recipe and made them.  Oh my gosh - so delicious.  It took him nearly all day to make them, but they were so worth it.

For the main course, Eric made lemon grilled Tilapia with Parmesan Pasta, Risotto, and Roasted Asparagus.  Again, it was amazing.  Eric is a wonderful cook.  And we finished off with some Red Velvet Cake.  Eric definitely spoiled me!

We woke up on Saturday, went to the gym, ran a few errands, and went for a long walk on the Jordan River Parkway Trail.  We love going on walks together. For dinner, we went to Brio.  It was so delicious - it's one of our favorite places to eat.  We came home and watched the second Harry Potter movie in preparation for our visit to Harry Potter World in a few weeks - we are trying to watch all of them before we go.  I'm not sure we will make it.

Overall, Valentine's Day was wonderful.  I'm so grateful for Eric who makes sure that I feel special every day but goes above and beyond on days like Valentine's Day.  He is the most wonderful husband I ever could have imagined.

Because of the long weekend for President's Day, Eric and I decided to take a last-minute trip to Goblin Valley.  Jake and Meg went a few weeks ago and loved it.  Eric and I have been dying to hike, and since it's too cold up here, we decided to head down South.  We left Sunday afternoon after church and drove 3 1/2 hours to Goblin Valley.  Unfortunately, the sun had already set by the time we got there, so we had to set up camp in the dark.  We were pretty worried about it, but it really wasn't that big of a deal.  We left our car lights on and got the tent and cots up rather quickly.  We had everything set up within an hour and we were ready for bed.

We knew that it was going to get below freezing during the night so we came prepared.  We each slept in several layers, and we brought warm sleeping bags with plenty of blankets.  Shout out to my parents who gave us Eddie Bauer down blankets for the last two Christmases.  They were amazing.  We slept with them in our sleeping bags with us.  I didn't get cold one time during the night, which is saying something because I'm pretty much always cold.

We woke up Monday morning, took down camp, and headed to see the Goblins.  It was actually pretty amazing to wake up to the Red Rock of Southern Utah.  Since we got to the campground after dark, we didn't realize how amazing it was.

Neither Eric nor I had been to Goblin Valley before and we were both so impressed.  It was so much fun to explore and wander through the goblins.  I climbed up a rock, which was not as much fun as I thought it would be.  I actually didn't like it very much.  And I felt a little bad because I HATE it when Eric climbs on rocks - it terrifies me.  Either way, I learned my lesson. Also, my Dad always said that it was more important to dress warm than to dress cute.  I obviously took his advice to heart because I'm very warm in that fleece.  Cute... I'm not so sure...

After we wandered through the Goblins we left the park and headed to Little Wild Horse Canyon.  It's about 5 miles outside of the park. Jake and Meg did this hike when they were out there, and we have never hiked a slot canyon, so we decided to give it a go.  We had a blast.  There are actually two canyons right by each other so we did both canyons and made it a loop.  Total it was 8 miles.  The first slot canyon was the best.  We loved the layers and waves in the rocks.  And it was fun to shimmy up the walls.  We loved it.

At the end of the first canyon, we somehow took a wrong trail and hit a dead end.  We ran into another couple that had taken the same path we had and tried to find out way out together.  There were some cairns on the rocks nearby so we decided to follow them.  We ended up climbing the rocks above the canyon and then dropping back into the canyon a little ways further.  It was pretty challenging and definitely not the right way to go, but it all worked out in the end.

Between the two canyons was a two-mile stretch that was pretty boring.  But when we got to Bell Canyon it got really cool again.  There were some really narrow portions and this canyon had more obstacles.  We were constantly climbing up and over boulders.  There was also a section with a little bit of water, but we were able to avoid it by climbing the walls around it.  It was an adventure.

The hike took us 4 hours and by the time we were done, we were very tired.  We climbed back in our car and headed home.  Overall, it was an awesome adventure.  I'm so glad that we both like hiking and camping and can have fun together.  I can't wait until our next adventure together!