Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I know it's been a week by now, but I wanted to share with you all what a sweet husband I have! We had agreed to have our Valentine's Day on the 22nd since we had a ward party on Valentine's Day and we were going to Panaca that weekend. Bryan was really good at convincing me that the 22nd would be our day. Well, he was lying. Yep, right through his teeth so it was a COMPLETE surprise when I came out to my car for lunch and found this:


No, we're not announcing that we're pregnant. B just saw this and told me later that he knew I would be a wonderful mommy! The note was the beginning of a short scavenger hunt. (Isn't he darling? Wait, read on.) This cute note was taped to our door:


When I came inside, there was a trail of rose petals leading me to our kitchen (with another cute note) where I found this:


I know, I have the perfect husband! I'm thinking of having his name changed to Bryan Poppins! He decorated the kitchen with a dozen beautiful, pink roses and all sorts of Valentine's Day decor. The last note read:


I know! There was also a card that said, "To My Eternal Valentine" on the envelope and was so adorable on the inside along with some "Free Massage" and "Free Date" debit cards. Well, there I was on my lunch break speechless and bawling at my kitchen table. What an awesome Valentine's Day!! And, since I was expecting our Valentine's Day the next weekend, I had nothing prepared. So, I ditched work early and came home to surprise him! Now, you may or may not know that I HATE SEAFOOD! Actually, it's more like loathe it. But, I wanted to show my true love for Bryan, so I did this:

I know, it's freaking disgusting, but Bryan loves the stuff, so I cooked the hideous things up for him! And, I did this:

I had a trail of kisses (on top of the rose petals he'd already left for me) leading to the kitchen and a note that said, "Now that I've kissed the ground you walk on, sit down for some dinner that will soon be gone." We toasted (with Diet Coke) and dug in! He was so excited to have crab!

But, soon realized that it takes a lot of work to get the meat out, especially when it's been years since you've had the stuff. Finally, SUCCESS!!

And, while he was enjoyed his sick crab, I treated myself to a pepporoni hot pocket! Mmmmmmmm! Hot Pocket = Thumbs Up! Crab = Thumbs Down!

And, the jar on the table was for B from me. It was 100 plus reasons why I love him. (I tried to do 100, but it ended up being WAY more than that.) He enjoyed that as well! I would list the reasons here, but some are "X" Rated. :)

After dinner, I had one more surprise!


You got it! Chocolate strawberries!!! Delicious! Aren't my roses beautiful?

I'm such a lucky girl! We finished our Valentine's Day with a date to St. George this weekend where we went to the temple and ate at Olive Garden! Thank you, Bryan for such a wonderful week! You are the husband of my dreams plus so much more! I LOVE YOU!!!

Panaca Fun

We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend in Panaca! Panaca has it's first restaurant! On Saturday afternoon, we were treated to Cindy Sooz Country Kitchen for some good eatin! Isn't the restaurant cute?

After lunch, we walked to a family friend's house that is being built and look what was in the backyard! Yes, that's right, a chicken! It was mean too. And, yes, the chickens (plural) sat in the backyard making that hideous "wake up" noise! Hideous.

Saturday night was spent watching The DaVinci Code, which is a butt-clenching, (it's definitely filled with suspense) excellent movie! The movie generated an awesome conversation and it was our pleasure to stay up really late visiting with Mom Allen.

Sunday was filled with naps and drool. Later that day, we played a number of games and while I didn't win them all, I dominated at B.S.! (Nice try though Bryan and Mom Allen.)

Monday evening was spent on Bryan's dad's motorcycle! I always feel like I'm in a movie when my Bryan is taking me on a ride! You know, like Keith Urban's, "I Wanna Love Someone," is playing in the background and we're the characters in "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." (Side note: Bryan also has a motorcycle, but his only seats one person.)



The orange one is what B's motorcycle looks like. It's an orange Triumph Speed Four street bike. (B, aren't you proud of me for knowing such lingo?)

We finished our weekend at the Spring! I couldn't help but remember what happened here on our third or fourth date. Let me paint you a picture:

I wanted to swing on the rope swing (if you look closely, the rope is hanging from the tree on the left) so I kindly asked B if he would get me the rope. He stared blankly at me and with a smirk on his face answered no. I asked three or four more times and sweetly explained, "Honey, it will be easy. Focus. I will swing out over the Spring and come back. You will catch me. I will drop the rope. We will be safely on the shore."

He just shook his head and handed me the rope. (He had a HUGE smirk by this time.) Well, I definitely went out to the water, but gravity and the water took my legs and dragged me into the Spring before I even made it all the way out on the rope. Not expecting this tragedy, I went COMPLETELY under and hit the bottom of the Spring pretty hard. When I came up, I had juicy, green, squishy moss all over myself and hanging from my head. Not only moss, but little teeny guppy fish were nibbling at my toes and fingers and crawdads were biting my feet. In my distress, I took a deep breath and a SNOT ROCKET came out of my nose. So, there I was in all my rope-swinging glory! Moss on my head, snot all over my face, and speechless. Lovely!

Now, could Bryan save his damsel in distress? No! Why you might ask? Well, because he was doubled over in laughter on the shore and coudn't even speak to advise me of how to get out so I had to suffer to shore all by myself and shake the moss off. (And when I showered, I had dirt in my underwear because of the hard hit to the bottom of the Spring.)

Needless to say, I did not ask for the rope this weekend at the Spring!

We had a fantastic time in Panaca this weekend. It was fun to just visit and be with the wonderful family! We love you guys!

We hope all of our friends and family had a great weekend as well!

Let It Snow - Because We Don't Really Have a Choice

According to the resident Mr. Meterologist of our household, Bryan Allen, it snowed approximately 8" last Wednesday night! Bryan took the camera outside and took some pretty cool pictures (Bryan's also Mr. Photographer). This one is my favorite.
And, although we love the beauty of the fresh snow and the water that we will have during the summer, we are about ready for the snow to freaking stop coming!

Where in the World are Bryan and Chandi?

So, we've been everywhere in the past couple months (or so it feels like) and I wanted to think of a fun way to catch you all up, so . . .enter, "Where in the World are Bryan and Chandi," the game! To play, look at each picture BEFORE (no cheating) you read the caption. Have fun!

If you guessed that we went to Spamalot at the Wynn, Las Vegas on December 21st, give yourself a point because you're right! It was hilarious! Thanks to Mom & Dad Allen, we spent about 2 hours in hysterics, on the verge of peeing our pants, and making all sorts of hideous snorting sounds! If anyone is looking for a fun show, this is it!

Here we are aboard the Monarch of the Seas on a Mexican Cruise, baby! We spent four days on board with the entire Benson clan (21 people) where we witnessed the three oldest boys (17 & 18 year-olds) win the Sexy Legs Contest, ate all the food we wanted, and enjoyed the ocean and sunsets (plus MUCH more). The cruise was a complete hoot (you can imagine with my family)! Plus, extra bonus, it was all paid for by Granny Benson! Thank you!!

Just having fun on New Years Eve at the formal Captain's Ball on the ship in our rockin' hats!

Next stop, Catalina Island where we played for about four hours and then we got too cold. Plus, Bryan started doing things like picking me up and almost throwing me in the ocean!

Who thinks this looks like fun? Well, it was! Here we are at the Flea Market in Ensenada, Mexico where (you guessed it) we couldn't help but laugh at all of the "sweet deals" we were offered! It was also really nice of the folks to offer us a bracelet that would be "practically free" for us.

We finished our fantastic vacation in the most magical place in the entire universe - -Disneyland!! Anyone who knows me at all knows that I absolutely LOVE Disneyland (hence the Mickey ears on the 23-year-old couple)! What a perfect end to a perfect vacation!

Thank you, Mindy, for the fun day in Las Vegas at the Miss America Pageant! Although Miss Utah didn't win, we had fun at the pageant being Utah Groupies with our huge "Utah" sign! I also had a lot of fun at the after party where I sneakily put on her sash that was stowed away in the kitchen! (Is that illegal?)

Isn't the Cedar City snow beautiful? (Maybe in another blog, I'll tell you how I really feel about the snow.) In case you didn't know, we moved back to Cedar City so that Bryan could finish college at SUU. We live in the cutest little house and we're finally settled in!

And, for the finale, Bryan voted for the first time on Super Tuesday!! Great work, right?!

So, that's what we've been up to and now you're all caught up! Thanks for playing!

Ready, Set, Go!

I've been toying with the idea of creating a blog for a long time and - - TA DA - - I've finally done it! I've even created a Kick-Off Poem:

Roses are red,
Violets are mog.
We're really excited
About our new BLOG!

Chandi Allen 2007