uno yearo de love

as if three hundred and sixty-five days of wedded bliss aren't enough on their own, pete had to thrown in positively the best anniversary present ever. a secret trip to costa rica! yep, you heard that right. COSTA RICA!!! how long has this girl been dying to surf in god's fertile country? oh, at least a few years now. it had been my dream to live there on a self-sustaining farm. work the land in the mornings and surf in the afternoons. I never made it. {much to my mother's relief, I am sure} until now.

it had all been an elaborate rouse from the start. how about going to the grand canyon with scotty and his girlfriend? sure, I said. okay, we'll be gone from october 6th through the 13th. okay.

it didn't help that his friends kept slipping up. did you hear that scotty and athena are going to costa rica together?! what?!!

and I did overhear jim tell pete, she has no idea does she. . .

the major tip-off, though, was when pete walked into the room and announced that we had to go over to scotty's house right then because he owed him some money for a utility bill from a year ago. when I asked if I could write the check out {hey, a girl just likes to write sometimes. this is not an unusual occurrence.} he almost started laughing and gave me this look. after a few seconds of asking, I made myself slightly unavailable. if he wanted to write the check for the "utility bill," I would let him. inside, my heart was screaming. was I going to costa rica???

the night of our anniversary we went out to dinner at this little mediterranean place on main street before doing a session in the salt lake temple. while sitting outside, waiting for our food to come, we exchanged presents.

I gave him a new wedding band {funny story about his old ring, he broke it. he was so intrigued by trying to break stuff with it. and he did, mind you. he broke his watch. chipped and dented countless other things. but this supposedly tungsten ring would not hold up to the force of pete repeatedly throwing it on the ground to see how high it could bounce. the whole thing broke into fifty pieces. yeah, we're thinking it wasn't so much the strongest metal in the world, but some cheap fake. I guess that's what you get when you buy a ring for twenty bucks off ebay.} and a cute little notebook made from two pictures of us {the front cover is a photo of us in paris from our honeymoon, the back cover is a hammock shot from the engagement photo shoot.} the notebook pages are blank on the front side, and have all our old emails from the beginning of our love. priceless gems. the spine cover is an old airline ticket from our honeymoon.

he gave me a little white envelope with my name on it. inside was a card he had made. this was it, the moment of truth. this confirmed my suspiscions, hopes, and dreams! we weren't going to the grand canyon, we were going on the trip of a lifetime! surfing in costa rica for a week!

now I'm really glad he told me then. his first plan was to tell me when we got to the airport--in las vegas! I would have been none the wiser since we'd be driving that way to the grand canyon anyway. hey, do you mind if we make a stop at the airport? hope you packed a swimsuit!

which reminds me, I need to go find a cute, new swimsuit!