Nashville

So I kind of have this fascination/borderline obsession with fish. I could watch fish swim all day, and when I say it like that I realize it sounds like the most boring thing in the world and it probably is, but it's so fun and relaxing to me. When I was a kid my family went to Hawaii and all I wanted to do there was snorkel so I could swim with the fish. I didn't care about sight seeing, or food, or doing all the normal touristy stuff, I just wanted to be with the fish. So everyday I snorkeled, and it was awesome. I love to go to aquariums, and we just decided that we're going to San Diego next week and we're going to Sea World and now I can't sleep cause I'm so excited about it. So when I heard that there was a restaurant in Nashville where the walls were made of giant aquariums, I told Rick I didn't care what else we did in Nashville, but we were absolutely going to go to that restaurant. It was the first thing we did when we got there and it did not disappoint.

I'm pretty sure we didn't talk at all during dinner, cause I was just sitting there hypnotized by watching the fish/sharks/stingrays/eels. The food was good (because neither of us ordered seafood because seafood is gross), and I don't understand why seafood restaurants can do stuff like this. If you went to KFC and you got to watch all the chickens in the back walk around and then you ordered a bucket of wings wouldn't PETA be all over that? It's just weird to me that you can go to a restaurant like this and you can see the signs that tell you to please don't tap on the glass cause it scares the fish but don't worry cause you're gonna eat Nemo in just a few minutes. I was bummed that we were only able to go to the restaurant once, but someday I'll go back.

The next night we walked around downtown Nashville and found the best BBQ place ever. Like in the whole world, probably.

 

Then it was onto shopping, sight seeing, trying not to get lost in a sea of drunken cowboys, and enjoying the music.

We stood and listened to this guy for about 10 minutes.
The whole time he didn't stop rapping. He made up raps about all the people walking by.

Dance off. I'm serious. It was like we were in a musical.

A few seconds after this picture was taken a guy that was hiding in a tree jumped over me
and started dancing.
Awesome, but also terrifying.

Don't worry, we left a good tip.

Afterward we went back to the hotel and for the first and last time ever we ordered room service. It was good, but not $50 good.

So that wraps up the anniversary celebration. It was a fun trip and it was nice to go somewhere we had never been before. Rick's favorite part of the whole thing was when I surprised him with an iPad. I can only get him to genuinely smile in pictures where an Apple product is involved.

Anniversary in Memphis

Memphis is only about 2 hours from Little Rock, so our plan was to go to Memphis, spend the night, then the next day drive another 3 hours to Nashville. Nashville was fun, but Memphis was my favorite. It was a very pretty drive the whole way there. Memphis is right on the border of Arkansas and Tennessee. As we were passing over the state line, we drove across a big river. The only river I'm familiar with is the Provo river, which takes 3 steps to get across. Arkansas has a big river here that is beautiful and I love to watch them raise the bridges to let the boats go under. So when we passed this big river in Tennessee I asked Rick which River it was. He didn't know, but our hotel overlooked the river so we could ask the people at the front desk. Turns out it was the Mississippi river. Yep, we made reservations at a hotel called the River Inn that overlooked the river and we didn't even know it was the Mississippi river. I told the guy at the front desk we had never been here before (to try to somehow redeem ourselves and possibly make us look less like idiots) and he looked at me like "you've never been where before? America? Bless your hearts."

Our hotel room view. Right on the Mississippi River, you might have heard of it before.

Watching the sun set.

Rick carved our initials into the bench we sat on.

We were told that Beale street was the place to go in Memphis. We went and happened to be there on a Wednesday night which is bike night. Everyone brings their motorcycle and parks it along the road. I texted this picture to my mom and told her to show my dad. He and my brothers would have loved this.

Carriage Ride around Memphis.

3 years already, I can't believe it. Happy Anniversary to us!

Two Years According to Rick

This is Rick the other half of this wonderful marriage. I probably should write on this blog more than once a year. I'll work on it. For you all, here are my thoughts and feelings about our life together thus far.

It is very interesting to me that two people come together, in union, to propose a life long commitment to each other. In our marriage it is more than a mortal existence, it’s eternal. Our two years together have only been the start of our lives as a married eternal couple. We have learned the importance of caring for each other to the fullest and we make sure we are eye to eye and carrying the balance of our marriage equally. There is not one person who is designated to carry more weight than the other. We do it together as a team. Thus, Team Brimhall.

I can still say that our marriage is beautiful and will always be that way. I often think of how fast these two years went by, this only means one thing. We are enjoying each other’s company! There is no ball and chain in this marriage only a wife who I can proudly say she chose me and that I waited for her. Together we both wanted the same dream. Because of those important decisions we are now married and living in Arizona starting the life we have been dreaming about since we said “Yes”. I love her so much. I cannot even express in words how much she means to me.

In the last two years, but especially these last few months, we have proven to ourselves that we can make it through anything that comes our way. We have laughed and cried on many occasions because our relationship lets us. That is beautiful. We laugh at each other’s jokes on a daily basis. That is comforting. We disagree from time to time then find a way to bring our ideas together, which I find amazing. We will go out any time of the day or night to make sure we can help each other feel better when we are sick or having a bad day. The best part of our marriage is knowing we are in love. Each kiss and hug given is a sign of our love that is cherished on both ends.

I can’t wait to see what this next year brings. I know it will bring us closer. The idea of getting out of debt and preparing ourselves for a family excites me. If anybody knows me, then you know the idea of having little kids scare me. Not because of the responsibility but because they throw up in your face when they come to tell you they don’t feel good. I hope that both of us working will strengthen our marriage to prepare us to bring little Brimhall’s into this crazy world. I know Jodi will probably freak out because I am talking about babies on the internet, because usually the talk of babies doesn't happen in our house hold. We can now talk about our future family with my new job. What a relief. The next few years will be the start of why we are married. Two years down in the book. I love Jodi to the fullest. She is my life and my light. I am here to protect her heart.

Bring on year three!

Below are a few pictures of our anniversary dinner at The Melting Pot. It was amazing.

This is what it looked like when we arrived.

Even though we were both tired from work, we were very happy to be celebrating.

Our first course. Bread, apples, and vegetables that you can dip in the cheese fondue.

The main meal. They would bring the food out raw and you would cook it yourself in the fondue pot. We ordered chicken, duck, shrimp, steak, and pot stickers.

Jodi's favorite part - the dessert. You would pick a chocolate flavor (ours was s'mores - chocolate, marshmallows, and crushed up graham crackers) and then they brought you a plate of all sorts of sweets. We asked for 3rds or 4ths on the bananas. It was delicious.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Anniversary

So we went to St. George this weekend to celebrate our 1st Anniversary. People say the first year of marriage is hard. I say that getting a good picture of the 2 of us together has been the hardest part. I don't like having my picture taken but I know that our future children will want to see pictures of us when we were hot and in our prime. They're going to be disappointed.

Here we are just leaving Provo. You will notice that Rick's eyes are mostly shut. This was the best picture out of the 6 that we took.

By the time we get from Provo to Spanish Fork I get pretty tuckered out. Napping is my favorite part of road trips. Here I am trying to even out my farmers "tan" but instead I now have a sunburn on half of my face.

Where is the best place to put a Petting Zoo? If you guessed by the gas station in Scipio, you couldn't be more right. If I look confused it's because I am. And my hair looks like that because I had just woken up. See previous picture for proof.

Someday I'm going to trick Rick into getting me a pet goat. It's a dream of mine I've inherited from my Mother.

I wanted to ride him but I don't think he would have enjoyed it very much.

A road trip isn't a road trip if you don't eat a lot of crappy food. Guess which treats are mine and which are Ricks. I'll give you a hint: His "treats" are the gross ones in the picture.

If you look closely you will notice that Chucky is tied to the front of the truck. Makes for a good conversation piece, I guess.

When we got to St. George we went out to eat at a place called Samurai. Being the daring and adventurous people that we are, we ordered sushi. I stand firm in my opinion that sushi is disgusting and makes me want to barf. Of all the sushi I've tried this was the best (because it had crab and not fish) but I still didn't like it. Rick doesn't like sushi either but he loved this kind.

The onion volcano is always a big hit.

Here is where we stayed. I found this place thanks to my good friend Google. It's called the 7 Wives Inn. Rick thinks it was a Polygamists house. I think that a guy married and killed 7 women and you had to figure out which wife in what room with what weapon. I played a lot of Clue as a child. His theory is probably more accurate.

We stayed in the Ada Cottage. It's separate from the 2 main houses and was in it's own little area.

Rick's favorite part was the California King sized bed.

My favorite part was that we weren't in Provo. Also, this huge jetted tub.

We were both really impressed with the breakfast there. Rick was so happy about it that he took an embarrassing amount of pictures of the food.

I wish I had a picture that showed just how tiny and cute that little cup of milk was. I had a picture of me holding it up pretending to drink it but in the picture I had just woken up (really like 40 seconds earlier) and looked like I was one of the 7 murdered wives. You'll just have to use your imagination. Also, the oatmeal was delicious and was enough to feed an elephant.

Rick made me take this picture of him to show off the breakfast area and then this sweet old lady was like "would you like me to take a picture of the both of you?" And I laughed. She must have not had her glasses on to see what kind of shape I was in.

After we checked out we decided to hit the town for some shopping, lunch, and pedicures - plural. A true man gets pedicures with his wife. We also got some sweet new exercising gear.

I'll be honest, the main reason I picked St. George was because when we drove through it on our last road trip I saw a sign for Durango's. This was my favorite place to eat in high school. And it was just as good as I remembered it. And now you can get "wheat" tortillas for only 23 cents more. Good health comes at a price.

Our actual anniversary is tomorrow. That's when we'll be eating year old cake followed by teaching Primary Kids that hate us. It'll be a fun day. Next time you see us feel free to congratulate us on being good at marriage. And if you have comments about how it's been a year and we still haven't mailed our thank you cards, keep it to yourself :)