He chose not to

All too often I find myself in the trap of thinking, " Man, this is just not fair!" The word "fair" has been promoted in our culture as something that should happen, something that we deserve. But all of us know that life is all but fair, and in fact, life seems to often run more along the lines of "unfair".

One morning, I read this passage from Sarah Young's "Jesus Calling":

"I could have called legions of angels to rescue me at any point. Imagine the self-control required of a martyr who could free Himself at will! All of this was necessary to provide the relationship with Me that you now enjoy. Let your life become a praise song to Me by proclaiming My glorious presence in the world."

(If you haven't read this book before, it's written as though Jesus is speaking directly to you, the reader). 

All I could think about when I read this was talk about UNFAIR! 

Here was Jesus, the only man who never sinned, about to die a brutal death. And what struck me in a new way was that He could have freed himself at.any.point. Any second, any moment, He could have been free of the pain. He could have thought, "Well this is just not fair!" and peaced out in a second. 

BUT HE DIDN'T

How many of us are ready to get out of a tough situation because it just doesn't seem fair? How many of us are willing to look PAST the currently painful, unfair, and difficult situation to the potential beauty it may bring? #preachingtomyself

Jesus stayed on that cross, knowing full well that He could end His misery at any time, because He saw past the trial of the cross to the victory of the future. Namely, the victory of having His children live in relationship with Him, and ultimately spend eternal life in His presence. 

This brought a change to my thinking about the "unfairness" of life. If Jesus, who had done no wrong, faced unfairness at the ultimate level of death, who's to say that I "deserve" life to treat me well and treat me fairly? Instead, I can choose to treat the "unfair" situations in life with the perspective that Jesus did. 

Having the perspective of Christ means that we can remember that this is not the end. Amid the unfair and sometimes unexplainably tragic trials, there is a VICTORY on the other end. It may take weeks, months, or years to see the victory, but the Lord does promise to ultimately work all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). 

Second, we can pray for the same self-control that Jesus showed as He hung on the cross. Self-control when we face our remarkable desire to escape our trials, and the self-control that we need to persevere once we realize our trials are unescapable. 

Third, and perhaps the most important thing we can do, is to remember that: 

Jesus COULD HAVE. But He CHOSE NOT TO. 

Of all people in history, the man who never sinned, should be exempt from all unfair circumstances, right? He could have saved himself. But He chose not to, because He loves us, loves me, loves you more than we will ever fathom. 

He LOVES the fact that He and you can talk directly. He LOVES that you will get to spend eternity with Him. 

Let us forever praise His name, because it was for US, that 

HE. CHOSE. NOT. TO.

Melted Froyo & Chicken Wings

About a month ago, I told you all about me and the husband's man to venture on a monthly date challenge . We're pretty very frugal people, and we decided to challenge ourselves to do a  fun date twice a month. We have fun and enjoy each other's company {mostly} every day, so it's not like this twice a month thing is the only time we're into each other. It's just a way for us to have something to look forward to and get us out of the house. 

Without further ado... Here's date #1

Sarah's Date 

In the spirit of trying to keep things in a budget, my date was the "stay-at-home-but-do-something-different-date." 

I started the night by getting on some pretty clothes and confining my husband to the bedroom while I got to work in the kitchen. For all that think that shoving him in the bedroom is spousal abuse- he had homework that he had to do anyway so he was fine with it... promise. 

Then I got to work cooking up this Chicken Parmesan with Linguine and Broccoli  (Thanks, Pinterest). 

I pulled out the fancy stuff for the table... place mats and napkins I was given when I left Guatemala! 

Throw in some boxed  really fancy schmancy wine, and you're set for dinner! 

I set Alex free from his captivity in the bedroom and we enjoyed our dinner that felt a little more special than normal. 

I've gotta admit, when he came out I had everything dark (blinds closed etc.) and candles lit for a candlelight dinner. But I had gotten so hot making dinner that the "candlelit part" lasted about 2.4 seconds before I'd had enough and opened the blinds, windows, and lights just so I could breathe. Summer- 1 Sarah-0. 

After dinner we hopped in the car and went to our favorite frozen yogurt place and each got a nice serving of froyo. 

Instead of sitting at the froyo place and eating it, I had planned to take it to a little area I had researched in advance and hike around while eating froyo. 

This kind of failed for two reasons. 

Reason #1

Froyo melts. Quick. The hike was only an 8 minute drive and by the time we got there, my coffee frozen yogurt tasted more like iced coffee with gummy bears in it. 

Reason #2. 

It got dark quicker than we were expecting, making hiking whilst eating/drinking frozen yogurt not the greatest idea. 

All in all though, it was a great time and date #1 for the monthly date challenge went down in the books. 

Alex's Date

August was super busy for us because we were apartment hunting and then packing to move at the end of the month. We were pretty tired, so Alex's date was pretty low key but got us out of the house which is the important thing! 

We'd been talking about going to Buffalo Wild Wings for their 60 cent boneless chicken wing night for a lonnnnnng time and hadn't done it yet. We decided to change that. 

What you may not know about me is that chicken isn't my favorite thing... which is ironic considering both of our dates night this month included chicken. 

I like chicken if:

1. It doesn't have bones 

2. It has enough sauce or dressing that I don't actually taste chicken

Buffalo Wild Wings meets both of these criteria... boneless and I really just go for all the delicious sauce on the chicken. 

We stuffed our faces full of poultry and then went home to cook up a tasty dessert. 

Not gonna lie... This was my first time doing s'mores over an electric stove (got the idea from a friend). In case you were wondering- it works GREAT! I had done it over a gas stove before and in comparing the two I would say the electric stove is easier and provides a more even brown. 

This may be the one and only way that an electric stove is better than gas. 

All in all, month #1 of our monthly date challenge went well and was worth the extra effort to plan some dates that weren't "normal" for us. Look for the dates in month #2 of our date challenge in a post coming early October! 

Does anyone else not really like chicken? And did you know that frozen yogurt melts so quick?!

My Wedding Miracle- Part 4

If you missed the miracles that played into my wedding day click here, here, and here so that you know the background to the finale of this incredible day!

The whole day was my favorite, but I especially loved the reception. The hard part was over- I had just gotten married yo! I felt like a champ and was ready to enjoy some good food and good dancing. 

We walked into a (mostly) standing ovation (holla!)....

... And then sat down to feast. I must say, I can't remember the food much, but I've heard from friends that it was good so there's that.

At the prompting of our pastor's wife Kristen, we went and made the whole thing legal. We definitely almost forgot this minor detail.

Then it was time to nicely feed each other cake. This picture is deceiving. Alex started it. Promise.

Then came the moment that I had been anxiously waiting for... mostly because I wanted to get it over with. Watch below. (If you're on a mobile device, click here to watch the video.)

Alex and I had discussed doing a surprise first dance even before we were engaged. I gotta tell you, though, it almost didn't happen. It was two weeks before the wedding, we basically didn't have any moves together and I was stressed about other things. Thanks to Alex's persistence (he said a fun first dance was one of the only things he cared about in our wedding), we choreographed and got the whole thing ready in less than two weeks. 

And I'm SO glad we did, because it was probably in the top 3 moments of my wedding. What made it awesome was that we told no one. 

The photographer (my brother) and videographer were told and sworn to secrecy at the rehearsal dinner the night before our wedding. The DJ found out a couple days before the wedding and agreed to play along (what you don't see in the video is him scrambling as the disc is skipping acting like he's trying to fix the problem). Other than those three people, no one had a clue, and therefore expected nothing.

The entire crowd was surprised- one of my bridesmaids even told me later, "Sarah, I was so mad at that DJ for letting the song skip. It was your first dance! And then I realized..." 

Everyone loved it, and the best part of it for us was watching everyone's faces as they reacted to each new song. 

Moral of that story? Do a surprise dance at your wedding. It will probably be one of the best moments of your life. 

The dancing continued... 

 And then the party really got started as I was stolen by a few cousins, had a drink at a local bar, and came back in time to participate in possibly my favorite thing ever- La Marcha (read about both of those traditions here). 

In case you haven't picked up on it by now, my wedding was really fun. All the Hispanic traditions that come into play just make it a big, fun party. If you've never been to a Hispanic wedding, you should probably become my friend so I can take you to one! 

You can't have a dance party without including the Dollar Dance or my personal favorite... La Macarena.

One of my best friends (and bridesmaids) caught the bouquet and following tradition (for the first time I've ever heard!) got married next... about a month later. 

And you can't forget the fierce fight that transpired over the garter. The winner of that one was my maid of honor's boyfriend... now fiance!

We danced and danced, until we could dance no more. Sometime during the night, all the groomsmen disappeared for quite a long while. We later found out why... 

 Our getaway car!

Well, all good things must come to end and September 14th most certainly had to too. There's only so much party and celebration to be had in one day. 

Every little girl dreams of her perfect wedding day. And mine was exactly that- perfect. Miracles surrounded our wedding day from the rain, to God's hand clearly orchestrating September 14th to be our wedding day. God was glorified and I spent the day laughing, smiling, and joyfully celebrating the beginning of my journey with the one whom my soul loves.

My Wedding Miracle- Part 3

If you haven't read part one of our wedding miracle head over here. And be sure to get every detail of the story in part two which you can find here.

The sun had just begun to peek through as both of my parents walked me down the aisle. Walking down the aisle was 60 seconds of my life that I will never forget. I struggled to keep tears from streaming down my face as I saw people in the audience crying, and saw Alex's face when he turned around to see his bride for the first time.

My youth pastor from high school, Adam, officiated the wedding and did a truly amazing job. Adam and his wife, Kristen, played a vital part in helping my relationship with Christ grow, and walked beside me during some hard times in high school. It was a blessing and an honor to have someone who had played such an important role in my life officiate the most important event of my life.

Alex and I decided early on in our engagement that we wanted two things for our wedding day. One, was to have fun, and two, we wanted the entire day to reflect Christ. Therefore, as the rain ceased and the sun shined overhead, Adam began our ceremony by proclaiming, "We are here to glorify God".

We had a good friend, Leah, read from Ecclesiastes, which Adam followed with a short message. Alex and I then washed each others feet, symbolically pledging to always serve one another as Jesus did with his disciples in John 13:1-17.

We each had written our own vows which we then read to each other, followed by the exchanging of rings.

 Communion with our parents followed. We chose to include our parents in communion because we know that marriage is a union of Alex and I, but also a union of two families, and we knew that we would need both families' support in our days and marriage ahead. Communion together felt like an outward expression that we and our families were unified and blessed in Christ.

Our musicians played "1000 Reasons: Bless the Lord" by Matt Redman and we, along with all our guests, worshiped to this beautiful song.

We kissed for the first time as man and wife, and walked down the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. Jenik as the sun shined brightly overhead.

The sun miraculously continued through the next two hours of pictures. So much sun that some of my ladies landed up getting sunburned... and remember that just a couple hours prior, the rain was pouring and weather channel predicted an 80% chance of continuing rain. 

Our backup plan of praying (or lack of a proper backup plan according to most who asked), had totally worked and the God who creates the weather had indeed showed his sovereignty over those who predict the weather.

Alex and I took our fair share of couple pictures all over the picturesque town of Silverton, and even had tourists from Utah ask if they could take our picture as we posed in the middle of main street for a shot. 

I think their exact words were "Can we take a picture of you two so that we can show our friends in Utah what we saw in Colorado?" 

I'm pretty sure we were going to be shown among pictures of bears and big horn sheep as they show their friends what crazy things they find in dat der' crazy Coloraduh! 

Several hundred pictures later and we hopped in our limousine to head over to the reception venue. And by limousine I mean my parents' rental car because they had totaled their own car just a couple of days before the wedding.

The story continues (and finishes) here! You don't want to miss it! There may or may not be an awesome video involved.

My Wedding Miracle- Part 2

If you missed the first part of the story, click on over here so that you don't miss a detail!

It was a week before my wedding when the rain started. And this rain was no ordinary late summer Colorado monsoon. This rain was coming down all day, causing floods, making news, and breaking state records. Normally we would be rejoicing in a record breaking week of rain, but for this bride expecting to walk down an outside aisle, the rain was causing some pretty major stress. 

I obsessively checked the Weather Channel app on my phone that predicted weather 10 days in advance, and as September 14th neared, reports consistently showed an 80% chance of rain that day. 

The Wednesday before my wedding (the wedding was on a Saturday), I was checking the weather (yet again) when I felt God whisper to me, 

"Sarah, you're trusting the men who predict the weather, more than you're trusting the man who creates the weather." 

The whisper stopped me mid-click as I realized God was right (as He always is). I was trusting man's predictions over God's perfect sovereignty, and I knew that God had planned September 14th to be my wedding day (click here to read the first part of this story). This whisper and the assurance that September 14th was a day chosen by God, allowed me to have peace in the days leading up to the wedding, as the rainfall continued to break records. 

It rained through the rehearsal dinner and poured outside the night before the wedding as I gifted my purity pledge card to Alex before we parted ways for our last night as singles. Leading up until this point, everyone had been asking what our backup plan was for the ceremony (which was to be outside; reception was inside). I responded each and every time, "Our backup plan is to pray really hard." This answer was less than satisfactory to many people but I refused to seriously think through any serious backup plans (mostly because we had no good options).

(Giving gifts to all the people involved in the wedding at our rehearsal dinner. Yes, Coors Lite is the best kind of gift).

The morning of September 14th dawned bright and... cloudy. My girls and I met at the hair salon at 8AM and I truly enjoyed the next few hours of getting my hair did, makeup done, and sipping on Durango Joe's coffee while forcing myself to eat a breakfast burrito. Excitement for me = not hungry, so my ladies were forcing me to eat all day.

The girls and I piled in two cars for the hour drive up to Silverton just as it started raining. It rained the entire way up and continued raining as we had lunch and finished getting ready at a little house that some friends had lent us. Thankfully no one asked me what my backup plan was that morning because my answer was the same, and I was about one person away from killing really flipping out on the next person who asked me what my backup plan was.

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't nervous at all the morning of my wedding. I definitely had some wedding jitters, but I feel like they were mostly related to the fact that I was getting.married. (and could hardly believe it myself!) 

At one point, however, the emotion of the day (worried about the rain, nervous and excited about getting married, nervous that there was going to be 200 people watching me) caught up to me and I went downstairs to where my aunt, cousin, and mom were finishing the flower bouquets. 

I walked in the room and started crying immediately. My mom walked over, prayed over me, and fifteen minutes later I felt much better having let out some of the emotions that I was feeling in a good cry.

I slipped on my dress, had my precious Grandma fasten my pearl necklace and then went downstairs so my Dad could see. 

Alex and I then met and exchanged letters and prayed together (without seeing each other!). It was  1:30 PM (wedding was set to start at 2 PM), and it was still drizzling, but seemed as though it was slowing down. I later found out that around 1:45PM the rain had mostly stopped and some family members furiously began drying the 200 plastic chairs at the ceremony site while the musicians set up.

The girls and I drove over to the venue and stepped out into the cool air. I was shielded by umbrellas as I walked to the beginning of the aisle.

The ladies and men lined up, I took both my parents' arms and at 2pm the music started right as sun started peeking through the clouds... 

Click here to read part 3!

My Wedding Miracle

Alex and I got engaged September 15, 2012 (read that story here and here ), and spent the next couple of months just being engaged. Everyone's first question in response to our engagement was when is the big day, but my mind took awhile to connect the fact that being engaged meant that I was now to get married. 

We spent several deliberate occasions praying specifically for the Lord's guidance on when to get married and eventually decided on fall of 2013 (thinking late September or early October). We spent probably close to a month praying about when to get married- this important detail comes into play later!

My frugal side came out as we spent months (literally) relentlessly searching for a venue that was pretty, affordable, and big enough to fit 200+ guests.  In March (remember, we got engaged in September), we finally decided on a beautiful little event center called Kendal Mountain Recreation Center in Silverton, Colorado. The only dates they had however, were late in October, or September 14. We decided to go with September 14th even though it was a little earlier in the fall than we had originally planned.  We chose this date simply because of venue availability... or so we thought.

I joyfully planned my wedding over the next few months- and by plan I mean I looked on Pinterest a lot. And by joyful I mean I tried not to get annoyed on a daily basis with all the ridiculous details that go into a wedding (I am not a details person, people).

I spent the vast majority of my engagement in peace, confident in my decision to marry Alex. The main (and really the only) thing I questioned throughout our engagement was if we had chosen to get married at the right time.We had prayed so deliberately about when to get married that I wondered if we were following God's will or simply our own desires.

But enter wedding miracle #1.

About two weeks before the wedding, I was sifting through a box of momentos I had kept and I stumbled across a blue velvet drawstring bag. I immediately remembered what it held. Five years prior when I was 16, my parents had taken me out to a nice dinner and given me my purity ring. In the blue velvet drawstring bag came with a pledge that I signed, promising to save myself till my wedding night, and a silver ring that had adorned my hand ever since.

The memories washed over me as I opened the drawstring bag and pulled out the card that I had signed years back. I reread the pledge and then my breath was taken away as I saw my signature and the date that was signed at the bottom.

At the bottom of the purity pledge that I had signed five years earlier was my name and the date September 14, 2007.

That's right, my wedding date was exactly five years after I signed a pledge promising to save myself for my future husband and wedding night.

As the chills ran over me, it was then I knew. I knew that this day had been chosen by the Lord. September 14th was no arbitrary day that was decided on because it was the only date the venue had available. September 14th was a date that was chosen and ordained long before I signed the purity pledge at age 16, and long before Alex and I decided that that would be the date of our wedding. Our quest to get married in God's timing, and our intentional prayer surrounding the issue had truly been heard- God had answered our prayers and that night I knew we were getting married in His timing.

I went to bed that night completely at peace that, not only was Alex the man I was supposed to marry, but that September 14, 2013 was the day that I was supposed to marry him.

This peace and assurance was a blessing, and the necessary assurance I needed to make it through the week leading up to my wedding...

Read part 2 of the story here

Linking up with the Jack of All Trades link up!

The Day I Never Saw Coming- Part 2

I had just decided to pay attention to what my boyfriend was saying as we stood suspended a hundred feet in the air on a three foot by three foot platform. (Read how we landed on this platform here). 

Right as I turned to face him, he finished pulling out a black box from his pocket and dropped to one knee (he had been loosening his harness earlier in order to have enough slack on it to be able to go to one knee). I realized what was happening at this point (I pick up on things quickly, can you tell?), and started crying.

Through both of our tears, I don't remember exactly what was said (he has the whole thing written down somewhere!), but it was something along the lines of,

"Sarah, just like today is an adventure, life is and will be an adventure too. I can't think of anyone else I'd rather adventure through life together with... Will you marry me?" 

I sobbed out a "yes", he slipped a beautiful shiny thing on my finger (he later said that he was terrified of dropping the ring into the canyon), and stood up to hug me. I then remembered something important and quickly pulled away from the hug and asked,

"Wait... did you ask my Dad?" 

He replied with a satisfactory "yes" and we cried and hugged some more. After I had calmed down and gathered my thoughts, I told him, "Let's take out your phone and take a picture." He said,

"Well we can do that, but my parents are actually down there on the ground taking pictures and videoing the whole thing." 

Commence another round of sobs. Having someone take pictures and video the whole thing was truly just icing on the cake.  The truly miraculous part about his family taking pictures and video was that I did not spot them once (I was looking for them once I knew they were around!). They had gotten there a little after us and had managed to slink around enough corners and hide in just the right places, that I didn't see them as they took pictures of us on the ropes course and the zipline.

People, Cave of the Winds is not that big of a place. It has one entrance, one parking lot and not a ton of places to hide. Not to mention that Alex's 6 foot dad, 6'2 brother, and 5'8 mother were all present to take pictures and video.

I may or may not have married into a family of spies.

After about twenty minutes of just standing on the platform trying to regain feeling back into my extremities and thoughts back into my brain (it was textbook shock, people), I realized I still had to get back down to the ground. I must have gotten a rush of adrenaline because all of a sudden I felt energized to swing around the ropes course like a little monkey. I had just gotten engaged... there wasn't a thing I couldn't do now!

Thankfully this incident of invincibility ended well, and Alex and I both safely made it back down to solid ground where the guys manning the ropes course congratulated us and gave Alex major man points for such a cool proposal.

It was now time for the cave tour (the main attraction at this place, mind you), and I will tell you that I remember two things from a two hour underground, lantern-lit, cave tour.

#1 I was engaged
#2 I didn't have cell phone service

You guys, no cell phone service for two hours after you're engaged is excruciating! I was bursting with news and was walking around a dark cave! We finished the tour and Cave of the Winds landed up giving us a souvenir photo for free (they were the best-totally accommodating the entire day, making the experience that much better!)

We get back to the car and I call my Mom. No answer. I call my Dad. No answer. My mom texts me that they were at a youth conference and wouldn't be available for a phone call till later that night (another 3-4 hours).

I figured I probably shouldn't tell my parents that I was engaged via text so I waited. And waited. And waited. I didn't want to tell anyone before my parents (obviously), but when I got home to change into nice clothes for a celebratory dinner, my roommate Lauren was there and I couldn't help yelling "I'm engaged" as I whipped out my sparkling left hand right as I walked in the door.

Finally, after finishing dinner my parents were available for a phone call. I practically shouted the news into the phone, they congratulated me and I hung up and began calling close friends. The next day or two was a whirlwind of calling friends and family, and then, of course, making it facebook official.

(our celebratory dinner)

Alex had indeed asked my Dad the weekend we went camping, and my Dad did a great job of acting normal (I trust no one anymore). Everything perfectly fell into place to make the day special and memorable. This included the fact that I randomly had decided to put makeup on that morning (potentially making no difference at all because of my absurd amount of tears), Alex's family miraculously made it through traffic that was threatening to make them miss photographing the entire event, and the staff at Cave of the Winds who was so helpful (to the point of letting my crazy boy loosen his harness on the ropes course).

 My engagement day was perfect, memorable, better than I ever expected, and truly

the day I never saw coming.

The Day I Never Saw Coming

Alex and I had been dating for about a year and a half (ish) when we mentioned the "M" word. Marriage that is. I think we had both thought about it before that point, but we hadn't talked about it seriously until a year and a half into things. Now, you may remember that I don't take "I love you" and marriage lightly... in fact I almost broke up with Alex over it (maybe someday I'll tell that story). So, actually speaking the word "marriage" out loud was a big deal and big step for me. 

Now I could go into the details of what we talked about but basically, Alex told me that he was going to wait until he was accepted into PA school before he proposed. That way he could have a nice, thought out life plan with evidence to present to my Dad when he asked for my hand in marriage (that prepared guy!) I thought that made perfect sense, after all, I'm all about planning and preparation (more about that here). 

So, when we went camping Labor Day 2012 with my family and my Dad and Alex randomly went to sit in my Dad's truck while my mom and I were in the camper playing Bananagrams, I thought nothing of it. 

     (Labor Day camping 2012)

My mom exclaimed, "Sarah, they are having the talk." Me, being the all observant and intuitive person that I am, replied, "What talk?" 

Mom: "The talk."

Me: Still no clue

Mom: "The talk. About marriage!"

Me: I basically laughed her off, and spent the next 20 minutes convincing her that she was crazy, that Alex said he wouldn't propose until he got into PA school (which he hadn't yet). And besides, if Alex did indeed ask my Dad, I would know instantly because my Dad is the worst liar in the world. 

We packed up camp a half hour later and my acting-very-normal father gave me a very-normal-hug goodbye and my family and Alex and I parted ways. I was 100% convinced I was right because my Dad had acted so normal, and I'd forgotten the whole little episode by the time we reached Colorado Springs 6 hours later.

 ~ ~ ~

A couple weeks later, I woke up September 15, 2012 thinking it was any other normal day. It was a very normal Saturday and Alex and I had planned to hang out later that day. 

As I stumbled downstairs and half awake flipped my eggs on the stove, I briefly thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be funny if I got engaged today?" 

You see, my roommate Emily, had gotten engaged the weekend prior so engagement was on the mind. Her engagement mostly. I laughed at my own thinking and sat down to enjoy my breakfast. 

Alex picked me up a couple of hours later and we drove to the surprise location. Now, I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE surprises, and Alex knows that, so a lot of our dates were surprises just because that makes it that much more fun to me. Did I mention I love surprises? So, basically, the fact that I didn't know where we were going was completely normal because we always did little surprise dates. 

Half hour later as we pulled into the parking lot of Cave of the Winds I got incredibly excited but also slightly suspicious. You see, we had been wanting to go to Cave of the Winds for a long time, but never did it because it's kind of expensive (in Alex and Sarah world at least). So, my blunt self asked Alex about it and he responded, "Oh I found a Groupon for it." My man is the coupon king so I was like awesome! All suspicion dissolved in his one explanation. 

We went in and he purchased tickets while my overactive bladder called me to the bathroom. When I came out he explained that the Groupon included a couple of the outside attractions that we could do before going on the actual cave tour (Cave of the Winds is the coolest place! Check out their website here). Once again, his coupon excuse totally worked and we boarded this zipline that takes you out over this brilliantly deep canyon. 

(That's us! More on who was creeping later)

We did that a couple times and proceeded to our next attraction, the ropes course. 

Now, I love roller coasters and don't really have a problem with heights, but standing on a rope 50 feet off the ground while the wind blew definitely got my adrenaline going. We monkeyed around for awhile on the ropes (literally), and I kept noticing Alex loosening the harness that hooked him into the ropes above us. The cautious nurse in me asked him "What on earth are you doing? Keep that fastened, I don't want you to die!" To which he responded, "It's too tight on my crotch area!" I then figured, he's a guy and I'm not so who's to say what is and what is not comfortable in a man's crotch area. Problem solved.

After exploring the bottom half of the course, Alex suggested that we go to the highest platform on the course. Oh and did I mention this ropes course was also half suspended over a deep canyon? The highest platform happened to hang well over the canyon edge, making it that much more terrifying  exhilarating. 

Alex went ahead of me and I was on the last rope headed toward the platform and I remember Alex encouraging me a lot as I made my way across the rope. I remember thinking, "Wow he's being really nice today." He is always nice, but I thought it was weird how extra nice he was being. 

{How horrible am I to be that girlfriend who questions when her boyfriend is being too nice to her??}

(me making my way to the highest platform)

Anyway, I made it to the tallest platform and enjoyed the rush of adrenaline that came with the incredible view of the canyon and Colorado Springs. I half noticed that Alex was saying some nice things to me but I was mostly captivated by the view. Out of the corner I see Alex tearing up and fumbling in his pocket and I snapped to attention. 

All of a sudden I realized that I better start paying attention, he might be saying something important! 

Come back tomorrow for Part 2!