Three years.

Yesterday marked three years that Zak and I have been a couple.  I know, not as exciting as a wedding anniversary, but I think it's worth noting.  I'm proud of our relationship history; we stayed together despite school problems, distance, jobs, and every day complications.  I think it's pretty cool that we took the time to get to know each other before we got engaged.  At times it was frustrating, but it has been worth it in the end.  Last year, Zak proposed to me by the elephant periodic tables, and we spent the night telling our family and friends.  The year before that, we were in opposite sides of the country.  I sent him homemade chocolates and cookies and he had a beautiful rose bouquet delivered to my apartment (it completely made my day, considering I had come home from a 2 hour soul-wrenching drawing class). 

This year we had a fun evening out.  We went to a concert at school and to Idaho Falls for dinner.  The concert we went to was the school Symphony Orchestra with a special guest, Stephen Beus.  You can find his website here.  He is an amazing pianist, especially for his young age.  I heard about him about a month ago in a class (a girl showed a clip of him playing) and decided to get tickets for us.  The day before the concert, when I went to get the tickets, I found out that he was going to play Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A Minor Opus 43 by Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of my favorite favorite pieces of music.  (You should listen to it, it's incredible.  Here is Mikhail Pletnev playing it.)  I was excited before, but now I was S U P E R  E X C I T E D. 

Last night we got dressed up (gotta love concert dress) and arrived with plenty of time.  Once the concert started, to my horror, I realized the seats we had chosen didn't let me see Mr. Beus' hands, which is half of the performance of any Rachmaninoff piece (Rachmaninoff's hands were huge; an average person usually can spread 8-9 keys, he had like an 11 finger span).  I was a bit upset, but got over it, because he was absolutely incredible.  I thought it was just perfect.  I had tears in my eyes, it was so beautiful.

The second half of the concert was just the Symphony Orchestra playing Anton Bruckner's Symphony no. 4: Romantic with four movements.  It lasted a little over an hour and, for the most part, was beautiful and interesting.  I had never heard it before, so I was happy to be exposed to something new.  Although, it did drag a little in a few places, and the final movement had several 'gotcha' moments-the orchestra would build into a crescendo only to reprise an earlier section.

We quickly left, so we would have enough time to eat.  My parents gave us a $50 gift card to Outback Steakhouse, so that is where we went.  We both have only been once, and that was a long time ago.  We had a lovely time, while waiting for food, we enjoyed the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on the tvs.  Unfortunately, we did not realize how gigantic the portions were; we were unable to finish the entirety of our meal.  Zak had the 'New York Strip' and I had a combo of a third rack of ribs and a 6 oz. sirloin steak.  Neither of us could remember the last time we had steak, so we enjoyed our meals.  We left around 10:45, and at 11:10, right as we got into Rexburg, I realized I didn't have our leftovers.  I felt so stupid and mad at myself, we each had enough leftovers for another meal!  Ughhhh. 

Overall, it was a success.  I got Zak some awesome books about the Hubble telescope and its pictures of the universe; he sweetly got me a hair product I only briefly talked about.  When I got my hair cut, my friend used Moroccan Oil on it, which makes it shiny and beautiful.  I told Zak about it that day and didn't expect anything, because it was pretty expensive.  But I guess he found a good deal and got me a bottle of it!  What a sweetheart I married. :)

Here's us in our fancy clothes before changing.