Last weekend Mark and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary by taking a quick overnight trip to D.C. Mark really surprised me a couple months ago when he suggested going out of town for our anniversary and then he planned the whole thing out for us! We left early Friday morning and headed straight up to the Air and Space Museum's annex hanger outside of D.C. Neither of us had been there before so we were both excited to check it out. Mark was especially excited because he wanted to see the space shuttle!
It doesn't feel likes its been 25 days since I last posted but I guess it has!
When I last wrote I showed a pretty poor quality picture of our new house that was taken through my car window on a random drive-by of the house after we bought it but before it was officially ours. And unfortunately I haven't taken a better one yet.
Things that I normally blog about but that got totally overlooked this month because of all of the moving craziness were Mothers Day and our Anniversary. I feel like those are events that I have to write down so I can look back and remember them so here's just a quick recap of them both:
When I last wrote I showed a pretty poor quality picture of our new house that was taken through my car window on a random drive-by of the house after we bought it but before it was officially ours. And unfortunately I haven't taken a better one yet.
Things that I normally blog about but that got totally overlooked this month because of all of the moving craziness were Mothers Day and our Anniversary. I feel like those are events that I have to write down so I can look back and remember them so here's just a quick recap of them both:
I've been the queen of starting posts and not finishing them lately... I think it might have something to do with having an 8 month old thats on the move, so sitting down for more than a few minutes at a time has become a rarity. : )
A couple of weeks ago Mark and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! It fell on a Tuesday so Mark took the day off so we could spend some time together. We had originally planned on going to the beach like we did last year, but it ended up being super hot and we didn't really want to take Reaghan out there. We decided to go to the zoo instead - yea, it was still really hot, but we could make pit stops inside cooled exhibits and gift shops and walk through lots of shaded areas. :)
Our first stop was grabbing some lunch though! We went to Doumar's - a classic, drive in/eat in your car place in Norfolk, Va. thats been around for a few decades.
We had some yummy burgers and fries.
And Reaghan enjoyed people watching.
This was Reaghan's first trip to the zoo!
She was happy as long as she had her water cup :)
We enjoyed watching this Orangutan groom himself.
And a picture by the elephants is a must.
We love elephants!
Every year we've been getting each other a little something that corresponds with the "traditional" anniversary gift list, but this year, since the gift was supposed to be leather, I had a brilliant idea! An autographed football! *pats self on back* Its leather and its awesome. I wanted to get him a Tony Romo signed football, but those were like $500 a pop, so I went with another of his favorite players for much less.
(Okay. So actually my first idea was to get him an autographed Cal Ripken Jr. baseball - which I did - I got it super early and I was so proud of myself only to walk up into his office room and see a signed Cal Ripken Jr. autographed ball sitting on a shelf!!!! What?!? How did I not know he had that?!?! Wife fail. So anyways, I panicked, sent it back and got a football instead. I told him the story and he was really excited about the football, so I'll still give myself that pat on the back. ;) )
Later that night we took Reaghan over to my parents. They watched her for us so we could go out to dinner at the Melting Pot (my favorite!)
After the Melting Pot we really tapped in to our romantic sides and went grocery shopping at Trader Joes and Whole Foods! We never get out to these places because they're a good 35 minutes away from our house, but since it was right next to the Melting Pot we really wanted to stop in there and get some of our favorites! I did get a bouquet of wild flowers while we there, so that counts as romance right? Actually, we truly did enjoy ourselves. It's really doing the every day, ordinary things together that remind us so much of why we fell in love. : )
3 years in and a lifetime to go. <3
Mark and I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary this past May 12th. With everything thats going on in our lives right now - house projects and preparing for baby we didn't quite get to turn our anniversary into a little babymoon/getaway like we were thinking about back in March. But we didn't need to, we enjoyed a beautiful day together down at the beach with our pup instead.
I had to get in for a little bit too - but not too deep because the water was freezing!
Our anniversary fell on a Monday, so we both decided to take the day off and spend the whole day together.
We stopped at our favorite little local sandwich shop/bakery/dairy farm - Bergey's Breadbasket - for lunch. They have picnic tables outside so we were able to take Piper with us while we ate.
After lunch we headed to the beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon.
Piper couldn't wait to see where we were at when we got to the beach...
Since it was a Monday, the beach wasn't too crowded. We found a nice open spot to set up our little camp and enjoy the warm sun and the ocean air.
My love and our first "baby".
There are few things better than spending the day with your toes in the sand, sun on your skin and your love by your side. (And your sweet pup.)
After we spent some time just relaxing, we couldn't resist seeing what Piper would do when she got to the water - and Piper had pretty much exhausted all of her patience with us just sitting around when there was so much to do and see! I would apologize for all of the pictures we took, but she's just so cute and we had so much fun playing with her in the water, I had to post them all!
I had to get in for a little bit too - but not too deep because the water was freezing!
Yay for the Baby Bump ;)
I ended up purchasing a maternity swim suit just before Memorial Day, because even though my normal suit fit me fine here - I knew it wasn't going to last very long!
Our sweet girl didn't like laying in the sand after she got all wet, which makes no sense since she loves to get wet and dirty, but we let her have the beach blanket anyways.
After the beach we came home, got cleaned up and exchanged a couple gifts. Spending the day in the sun feels amazing, but it tends to put you in a pretty drowsy, chill state of mind, so we just decided to keep with our laid back Anniversary theme and went to one of our favorite pizza shops for dinner and then got some ice cream for dessert.
The day was perfect. Incredibly relaxing and focused just on spending time together without any distractions. I could never have imagined this beautiful love that God has allowed me to enjoy with this man. Here's to 2 whole years of marriage, many many more years, and a house full of babies to come.
Mark and I celebrated our 1 YEAR Anniversary this past weekend.
1 year? Already? Really??? Wow.
I can't believe I've been living with my husband, in our new home, as a married couple for a year already. I guess time flies when you're having fun. :)
We celebrated our 1 year by heading to the OBX for a little R&R.
Here are a few snap shots from our trip:
Our Hotel Room :)
Mark and I did a lot of traveling this past year and I'm still not over the thrill of getting to stay in the same hotel room as him.
We had a balcony with a great view of the ocean.
After we checked into the hotel Mark had a surprise for me...
He looked at the traditional anniversary gift list and saw that a gift of Paper was traditional for year 1.
He put a creative spin on something paper and bought us a kite to fly together at Jockey's Ridge.
It just so happened to be the best, blustery day possible for flying kites. :)
He's sort of a pro at it.
But he got tired after a while. :)
I don't mean to brag or anything buuuttt I was pretty great at flying the air plane kite too.
One day I'll remember to stop pulling my hair back in buns and ponytails so I can look cute in the unexpected moments of fun and memories that we capture in photos.
(Like the night Mark proposed!)
The foot prints we left in the sand on our way down the dunes.
Friday night we had a casual dinner at Mark's favorite BBQ place.
PIGMAN's!
I'm not a huge Pulled Pork, Carolina Style, BBQ fan. Actually I don't like it all. But they had a delicious beef brisket BBQ so I enjoyed that while Mark savored his pulled pork.
After dinner we did some shopping at the outlet stores there. Fortunately they weren't having that great of sales, so I refrained from spending too much. :)
Saturday we spent the day at the beach together.
Mark splurged for some top scale beach snacks. It definitely beats the usual of Sun Chips and Wheat Thins that we take to the beach.
Just some fun editing I did of a picture. Probably my favorite from the trip. :)
It would be nice to always have someone around to take a picture for you, because this is just not the most flattering of poses. Especially when you're all dressed up.
Some Sea Food on Water Front.
We enjoyed some local catch flounder, she crab soup, and coconut shrimp.
We tried to get some cute pictures outside but it was just little too windy for that to happen. : /
A little Cotton Gin Shopping after dinner... My Mr. Right. ; )
I don't know about you, but some sort of dessert is always a must for me after special dinners. Ice cream was deliciously messy on this particular night.
Some Anniversary Presents for Mark. Joullies for his coffee cup. Just a little something practical to go along with his big present.
My sister Erin Helped me make a Pinterest Inspired Project. He was super excited about it!
All of his old Tshirts that he didn't wear any more but didn't want to get rid of made into a blanket for him. :) It turned out wayyyy better than I thought it would, most of the thanks to Erin's sewing skills.
The Sweetest of cards. I love cards and I've probably saved every card Mark has ever gotten me.
Mark bought me Tom's! I've been dying to get a pair.
Sporting my new shoes... And also my dress since I didn't really get a good picture of it before. :)
We ended the night with some sparkling grape juice and the top of our wedding cake.
Which unfortunately turned out to be inedible. Darn Freezer Burn.
But it was fun unwrapping it, setting it out and reminiscing about our cake cutting during the reception.
Enjoying some sparkling grape juice :)
We got up early the next morning, the day of our actual anniversary, to have breakfast since we would be heading home right after to spend some time celebrating Mothers Day with our Beautiful Mama's.
{Again, this pose, not really working for us ;)}
French Toast for me, Waffles for my man. :)
When we got home I had my sister Mallory take some pictures of us to officially commemorate our ONE YEAR Anniversary. I want to buy a photo album and put one picture along with a memory from that anniversary each year. It will be fun to see how we change over the years.
Happy Anniversary Mark Thomas.
Thank you for loving me, learning to live with me this past year and for choosing me to be your partner in what will be the adventure of a lifetime.
Thank you for the best year of my life so far.
Here's to many, many more.
