1st Anniversary in Brian Head

We decided to celebrate our first anniversary at my parent's condo in Brian Head.  We brought hiking gear, our wedding video and photos (we really can't thank Mike -video- and Michelle -photos- enough for capturing our big day so perfectly), and lots of really delicious food.

We even brought the frozen top of our wedding cake.

According to some crazy archaic tradition, first anniversary gift should be paper.  So, we decided to roll with that as our big anniversary gift to each other is a trip to Europe in October.

  Scott gave me a framed copy of his proposal to me, the Julia Child Cookbook (how have neither of us owned a copy of that wonderful book yet!?!  Julia is my culinary hero!).  He also had our rings inscribed (we talked about doing that for a long time but never actually took the time to get it done). 

I made Scott a map of the world that we can use to mark the places we've been (blue flags), the places we're going (green flags), and the places we want to go (white flags).  I put cork board around the map so we can post photos of the places we've been.

Then we made breakfast!  Calories don't count on anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, or Thanksgiving.  So, we went all out with the good stuff.  A pan of melting butter makes me jump for joy.  Mmmm!

I am the luckiest woman in the world.  My man can COOK!

We made brie stuffed french toast topped with a caramelized banana, walnut, and maple syrup heaven sauce.

And popovers!  They are SO yummy fresh out of the oven with some melted butter and good jam.

After breakfast we got a visit from Scott's parents (they were in Parowan for Scott's Dad's 50th! High School reunion) and my parents (they wanted to go for a drive and wish us a happy Anniversary).  It was really fun to visit with them and reminisce about our wedding weekend.  We had an absolutely amazing wedding.  Wow!

After our parents left we finally made our way outside to attempt a hike.

There are a lot of cool rock formations at the top of Brian Head peak.

We didn't actually make it on a hike because we met the most wonderful couple from Rome on their honeymoon.  So right now you have to be thinking, 'why would a couple from Rome come all the way to southern Utah for their HONEYMOON?  Long story short, she's a physician, he's a geologist.  Southern Utah is a geologist's paradise.  They started out at the Grand Canyon, made their way to Cedar Breaks, Zion, Bryce, etc., saw some other places, and finished their trip in San Francisco.  We talked to them for a while and then decided to head out on our hike. As we were leaving they asked if we knew any decent places to eat dinner in the area.  We couldn't think of anywhere nearby that would be better than what we had planned for dinner (crostini, steak, garlic mashed potatoes, salad, and more popovers), so we had a quick team Topham meeting and decided to be bold and invite total strangers to share our Anniversary dinner with us.  It sounds completely nuts in hindsight, but it turned out to be the icing on the cake (pardon the bad pun) of our celebration.

We had SO much fun cooking and laughing with Sandro and Alessandra.  

We enjoyed learning about Rome and getting to know our new friends.  They are REALLY cool people. 

Dinner was delicious! (thank goodness!)

We ate and ate and ate until we nearly burst.

As a bonus, our frozen cake was almost as delicious as it was on our wedding day! (nice work Erin!  A big thank you to my Mom for doing such a good job of freezing our cake!)

We want to visit our new friends in Rome someday, so we added a green pin to the map.

The next morning we made a second attempt at hiking.  This time it worked!

I haven't seen the whole world yet (and I emphasize yet.  We have plans!), but I think I can safely say there aren't may places more breathtaking than Cedar Breaks.

Scott's Grandpa was a park ranger at Cedar Breaks, so we decided to check out the ranger station and visitor center to see where he worked.  It was pretty cool to see old photos of Grandpa Morris in his ranger uniform and see Scott light up when he told me stories of coming here as a little kid.  I'm guessing Grandpa Morris wouldn't have been thrilled to see us sitting on the fence like this so close to a huge cliff.

And he would be even less thrilled about Scott standing up on the fence like this.

I know this photo has been done by so many people before, but I still think it's pretty cool to look like you're holding the sun.  FYI, we may or may not have showered before we left the condo.  There's nothing wrong with a little greasy hair in the wilderness.

Why?  Because I can.  

Scott got a little too close while taking video of this little critter.  It was pretty funny to watch him squeal in terror as the tiny chipmunk leapt towards the camera.  Scott: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!  Katie: AAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAA!  Chipmunk (in highbrow accent): Well, I never!

Next we hiked to Cascade Falls near Navajo Lake.   It's pretty amazing that this waterfall just gushes out of a cliff in the middle of the desert.

The runoff from the waterfall creates this beautiful little oasis.

We wrapped up the day at Mammoth Cave.  The navigation in my car was absolutely no help.  I've never seen it just give up like this.  It wouldn't have surprised me if the computerized voice said something like, "look, you're on your own here.  I have NO idea where we are right now."

Thanks to my Scott Scout we were able to find the cave and had a great time exploring.

Rrrroar!

Exploring the smaller cave was a lot of fun.

And incredibly dusty.  Apparently there are a lot of bats that spend the winter in the caves... I don't want to think about what could be in that dust.  Ugh!

We decided to navigate through the larger cave and ended up having to squeeze out of this tiny opening.

This must have been what it was like to be born.  Good heavens!  Scott and I are not extremely large people, but I can't even imagine anyone much bigger than us fitting through that exit without some seriously crazy joint dislocation and Houdini moves.

We couldn't have asked for a better anniversary weekend.  It's pretty crazy to think that we've only just begun our celebration!  We'll leave for Europe in exactly one month!