The best things in life are FREE

Milestone

 April 29th, 2011 was not ONLY the date of the Royal Wedding, but also marked our 5th year of marriage. They definitely copied us :)

 

And can you believe that we didn't have anything fun planned that day!? What a disgrace! It was a Friday, but we both had a lot going on, so we just decided to celebrate on Saturday by going to the Second Chance Prom. I was really excited about dressing up and going out dancing again, but I was a little bit saddened by the idea that we would not do anything ON our Anniversary.... I'm weird like that.... so I devised a small scheme. I dug out our "box of sentimentals" from when we were dating and found a bunch of papers that Jake had used to ask me to a formal right after we first met. 

Background Story about back in the day:  He came over one day and pulled me aside all "sneaky" like. He told me that his roommate, Justin, wanted to ask out my roommate, Tanya. My job in all of this was to get her out of the house for a while so Justin could come in, decorate, and ask her creatively. I was of course intrigued and excited to be an accomplice. Well.... when Tanya and I returned to the apartment there were red and blue balloons everywhere, and a big banner explaining that the Red ones were for me and the Blue ones were for her. Say What!? I had been bunkoed! They had wanted me out of the house as well - Ssnneeaakkyy! We popped all the balloons, which each contained a funny comment. In one of the blue ones Tanya eventually found Justin's name. In one of the Red ones I found "Congratulations! You have a FREE date with Jacob Free.

Anyway, I kept all the slips of paper from that night and tucked them away until now. I rewrote them word for word and put them in my own balloons --- only I went Helium! There I was with 30 Red and Blue balloons and man was it EVER difficult to walk outside in the wind, put them in the car, and drive a few blocks! wowza! But it was worth it when I took them into Jake's work and embarrassed him in front of some of his employees. (Especially for Katy Wilson--- No...I did not lay a big wet one on him in the name of romance, but I figured I was pushing my luck as it was) At this point, I had spent entirely too long concocting and carrying out the plan, so I had to rush home and back to the busy world. Jake said later that after he popped the first one, he immediately recognized the saying.  Ha! Probably because they were all so weird: 

For Example:

"Don't think of a pink elephant dancing on a table"

"I'm cold and hungry, but at least I saved %15"

"You popped my bald spot!"(referring to the balloon)

"I like jello"

"I'm an award winning essay. Read me again."

"Hurray! You found me! My name is.... Muerte. It means death."

" Hail Hitler!" (I know... what a crazy person)

"Just keep looking. Just keep looking. What do we do we looooook."

"I want you to know that I calculated the odds of this actually working versus the odds that I   

was doing something incredibly stupid, and I went ahead and did it anyway."

... And many more wonderful ramblings of my charismatic spouse :) So that was a good trip down memory lane. I thought it was fitting because he had asked me to a dance, and we were going to go to one on Saturday. See? I'm clever, right? Ok, moving on....

Well, after Jake got home and we laughed about the balloon incident, he abruptly told me I needed to pack an overnight bag! Say What!? I began rambling about all the stuff I have to do, and how I can't go anywhere because I have appointments to keep on Saturday... and blah blah blah. He told me he had it all worked out and again said "Go Pack A Bag!" Yay for the happy jumpy feeling you get inside when you know you are getting a surprise! We were out of the house within the hour and on our way to Idaho Falls. You can bet there was a big smile on my face when we pulled into Olive Garden for dinner. Mmmm, I seriously can't get enough of their salad. 

Directly after dinner we went to ENGLAND --- okay, before you get too jealous it was NOT the actual country. We checked into the England themed room at Destinations Inn!  Good enough for me! (Or as Jake would say... "good enough for the girls I date" - haha) I think he did an excellent job on choosing the room that we would both think was cool. It was definitely beautiful and fun all at the same time. 

When you first entered the room there was a stone castle wall and a draw bridge...

The drawbridge led up to the jacuzzi where there were murals painted on all sides. There was also a big stone lion sculpture and cool plants surrounding the area...

 

Then there was a tall narrow hallway decorated with an intricate mirror and subdued lighting....

...which led to a gorgeous "bed chamber" complete with movie projector...

 

Off to the side was a quaint little bookshelf - which was ACTUALLY a secret passage...

This doorway had to be one of the coolest features! When you opened the shelves, there was another sliding door where they had painted a mural to look like a tunnel. Past the tunnel door was the bathroom facilities and steam bath shower. I called it the "dungeon"  because it was on the other side of the stony castle wall where the "windows" were covered with steel bars. We really enjoyed exploring all the details.

Unfortunately... I had to spend some of the time there studying! I had a test to take for my job early the next morning and could not afford to just lounge about. It took all my self discipline to go over my notes for awhile and try to absorb the information. Luckily, my conscience got tired after about an hour and let me watch a movie instead! Jake had brought popcorn, movie theater candy, and rootbeer (my favorite) for the occasion! What a thoughtful guy. He had picked up the movie The Tourist that we had both been wanting to see, and it turned out to be pretty good.  There was also sparkling cider and cheesecake provided in the room! wow.... yum! I was stuffed (like Thanksgiving stuffed) and slept like a baby. But up bright and early, took a luxurious steam bath, and rushed out of there by 5:30 a.m. leaving Jake behind. What a shame huh!  I had to be in Pocatello at 7:30 for the exam and thank goodness that all went well. I got back to the hotel just before checkout time and had a few minutes to eat the breakfast they had brought- Pastries, Parfait, and juice! We made a quick exit, very satisfied with our Destination Inn experience :)

Jake's intention for the rest of  our Saturday was to duplicate our date from "back in the day" by going to Smitty's for breakfast and feeding the ducks at the falls.... It made me WAY happy that he was pursuing this sentiment, but we realized we were too full to eat another breakfast, and it was too cold outside to be walking along the river :(   We attempted to walk around for a bit, and found a small flea market, but it was just too chilly. So it was back to our humble abode to hang out. We considered going bowling, but I guess we're too old and practical to spend more money - because we went home and rested :) I was really sleepy and we both wanted to chill so we would be re-energized for the events of the evening --- The Second Chance Prom.

I took my time getting ready for the dance and took forever deciding what to do with my hair. (I know... such a girly thing to do. sigh...but we have to impress our husbands once in a while, don't we?)  For every dance we have ever gone to together I have worn my hair half up and half down. I always figured - what's the point in having long hair if you wear it all up? BUT, since I had just trimmed my hair quite a bit I decided that long was just not going to look as fancy as usual. By the time I did ringlets or anything, it would look short. boo! So, thanks to my little sister (and google) I found some hair-do inspiration...

How did I do? Ok... I know I am no Kate Beckinsale so no comparing the face :) And my chin is not tilted down enough to be completely accurate, but they're pretty similar. Here are a few more shots, because I am pretty proud of my work:

FRONT

SIDE

BACK

I was going for the poofy look, and it was kind of hard for me NOT to make the curls smooth. I had never done the light and frizzy thing before, so I learned something new. Anyway... Enough about the hair

Here's a shot of the dress (just the dress, since I chopped off my head with the "self timer" gadget on the camera.) This is the dress I got for my Senior Prom in High School.  Felt pretty good about that... even though it's not that long ago, I was glad it still fit. It is also the dress I wore to the first formal with Jake. It's his favorite, and so it just seemed the right one to wear.

We had a REALLY great time at the dance. We found some people we knew (quite a few from our ward, some childhood friends, and one of Jake's employees.) One of the first things we did was go get our "prom" pictures taken before we got to wild and crazy on the dance floor. It was a little expensive, but considering the dance was Free, we forked out the dough. We haven't got those in the mail yet, but maybe I will add them once they come. For now, it's just the one we took at home:

 

I was amazed at how many people turned out. A few hundred at least. I also thought they did a great job of picking music --- lots of big band songs we could dance to, some latin, some basic ballroom, some oldies, some new stuff, and some funny ones that everyone could relate too. Every few hours they would draw names for door prized, and about half way through the dance, they drew some names to be "King" and "Queen" which I thought was quite comical. They got to wear crowns, and won some really nice stuff. Just after they made this announcement, they had a local ballroom dance team take the floor and perform for us -Really fun to watch. Jake actually knew the instructor from his ballroom days and had a nice chat with him. More dancing the night away... and then we hit the snack table. They had a great spread with chicken sandwiches, veggies, cookies and the works! We didn't eat a whole lot, so we wouldn't be big fatty whales trying to get our boogie on.

As time rolled by, we realized that Jake had to go into work early the next morning. So we ditched a little early -because we could! Isn't that funny, that after "real" prom we do anything possible to stay out later, and now that we have a "second chance" prom we go home early. I find humor in that. But even better than "real" prom was being able to go with someone who actually loves me.... that way I could let him kiss me goodnight :)

"I climbed up the door and opened the stairs,
Said my pajamas and put on my prayers,
Then I turned off the bed and crawled into the light
All because you kissed me goodnight!"

Here's to 5 years! (and the trillions more ahead of us that I hope are just like them.)