Reminiscing over the past five years

 2009

So, I guess when you get married- you're technically suppose to stop "celebrating" your dating anniversary, but I do just want to acknowledge it. Because it's a big deal. Tristan and I just celebrated our fifth anniversary of the day he asked me to be his girlfriend yesterday. We didn't really DO anything to celebrate, but it's a sweet day to just talk to each other and reminisce about the last five years. My favorite part of dating anniversaries is asking Tristan to tell me the story of him asking me. Every year. I'll keep doing it forever and ever, because I want him to have it down PAT to tell to Fern when she's older. I like the parts he puts in about how we'd been hanging out for a long time before and were basically dating already, but he was still so nervous to ask me. I also like the part he puts in about asking me "officially" over text, and me turning him down, and telling him he needed to ask me in person. atta girl. pat my own back. ;) Reminiscing is so much fun. I was just listening to John Tesh the other day (who I get MOST of my life advice from) and he was just talking about how great reminiscing about the good times with your significant other helps you get over the hard times so much faster, and helps grow and strengthen your relationship. It's so true. Five years of great memories is such a wonderful thing to go back and remember together. Laughing at silly things that happened. It's like going back and re-living that great time together. I'm so excited for next year, and 10 years.. AND WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES!  anniversaries are so great.

2013

joined together, forever.

Here are some sweet photos from our wedding. I'm basically re-posting these photos from our wedding photographer's blog because I haven't received our CD with all of our photos on it, and I'm much too impatient to wait for it to come. I've already waited THIS long to share them. I find that very impressive.

Our wedding was perfect. It was at my grandparents house in the country, where I grew up. It was a romantic evening wedding. Just a tad of chill in the air. The sun sat as we said our vows and afterwards we went into the pasture and celebrated with all of our loved ones with campfire, dancing, and libations to warm us. We wanted our entire wedding to have a very community feel. We set the tables up in a large circle(ish) shape so we could all enjoy one another and the dance floor was in the center. For dinner, I asked everyone to bring a dish of any sort. We had such a fantastic turnout. It couldn't have gone better. I'm so thankful The Hibben's were there to capture it all. 

I didn't snag all of the photos from the photographers blog, but I snagged many of them. So if you'd like to go see a few more you can head here. 

Our Colorado honeymoon

We're back, we're back! I had such a wonderful time reading the girls' guest posts the last two weeks. Aren't they just the best? I hope you got a chance to visit each one of their personal blogs and get to know them a little better, because truly, they're just the most wonderful women. If you haven't, I encourage you to do so. You won't be sorry. 

Now... I know you all want to see photos from the wedding, but they're just not quite ready yet. Until they are, though, I'd like to share a bit about the places we got to visit on our honeymoon! This post may be a bit photo-lengthy, as I usually try to stick to between 1 and 3 photos per post. It was just so beautiful, this time of year. I couldn't help myself. Enjoy!

Where we stayed: 

We stayed at a little lodge a little ways up the mountain called "Boulder Mountain Lodge". We had no cell phone reception, and no wifi. It was perfect. The first photo in the collection of three, above, was taken along the road up the mountain to our lodge the day we arrived. As you see in photos above; while we were enjoying our crisp afternoon in our private hot tub, a doe and her fawn came to visit. It was magical. We sat quietly for nearly 20 minutes in awe of them. They noticed us, but didn't seem to mind that we were there. 

What we did:

We visited several places while in Colorado. Denver, Boulder, and Nederland were the three towns we frequented.

 While in Boulder, one of our favorite things to do was to hop coffee shops. If there's anything that isn't hard to find in Boulder, it's coffee and pizza. A few of our favorite places to stop for a cup were: Boxcar Coffee Roasters, The Laughing Goat, and The Cup. We ate breakfast at Snooze, which was incredible; I had a breakfast pot pie, and Tristan had a sweet potato pancake. Of course, we also had our fair share of pizza as well from Beau Jo's and Backcountry pizza. We went on a brewery tour at Avery Brewery, which was so fun and educational. We now proudly display our "A-hole" sticker on our vehicle. We also got to go to Boulder's Dinner Theatre and see "The Full Monty", which was hilarious and so so good. We tried to visit Boulder Falls, but due to falling rocks it was closed for the season. That's what the sign said. Later somebody informed us that it had been closed for years. 

We went into Denver, and I have to admit.. I did a lot of shopping. Mostly at forever21 which is so lame, because we have two here in OKC. What's a girl to do? We also got to hit up H&M which was a treat, because we don't have one of those.. yet. We spent our day shopping and roaming 16th street mall, and in the evening we walked Larimer Square (second picture, above, in the collection of three) and ended the night at Punch Bowl Social where we indulged in some adult beverages and spent all of our quarters on old arcade games, bowling, and Tristan taught me to play darts. There's even a rather embarrassing photo somewhere of my impeccable (not at all) aim. :: Spoiler:: I hit the scoreboard. 

Later in the week we decided to take a trip up the mountain to Nederland, a small hippie town that looks just like Frontier City with mountains for a background... and no rides of course. We had coffee in a little sidecar called Buffalo Bills, which was adorable. We spend the rest of our trip traveling up the mountains. Just exploring. Most of my more scenic photos are from that trip. I can't tell you how many times I made T pull over on the side of the road so I could capture the perfect photo.

Weather:

The weather was incredible last week. There was a light snowfall the first day we were there. Perfect. It looked like powdered sugar being sifted all over the rocks and trees. The rest of the week was just chilly enough to wear a sweater, but usually not cold enough for a coat until the sun went down. I wore tights, and sweaters and boots and scarves all week long and it was  b l i s s . 

Most importantly, I got to spend some good quality time with my husband. Something that we rarely get due to our opposite schedules. Our scheduling conflicts are our choice, so that we can each spend time with our daughter, but still... It was so nice to have him to myself for five days. I loved Colorado. I loved time with my husband ...

... but my goodness, You can't know how good it is to be back to this. 

Insta-birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. I've been trying to document via Instagram without overloading it, so some of these may be a bit of a repeat for any of you that follow me there, but I did try to go easy, so some are stolen photos from friends' instagrams. Let me tell you about my day!


Sunday, we went to celebrate my birthday with my family. (Which, if you don't know me, this is my favorite thing to do) Any reason for celebration and we get together for a cookout. Yesterday was the best, just getting to spend it with all the people I love and care about most. We played volleyball, and basketball, and shuffleboard. We ate, we teased, we loved. We ate cake. It was a pretty perfect day.

1. My sweet momma playing volleyball with Fern. <<<>>> 2. An innocent family game of volleyball including Fern.

For those of you who don't know, T's car is seriously jacked up. I don't like for him to drive it ever, at all, but we still have it in case of emergency. We're in the process of finding more reliable transportation, but until then, we stick to sharing my car. Which unfortunately for me, means that Fern and I are stuck at home all week during the day while he's at work. Today was a special treat, because T insisted on risking his life so that I could have the car for my birthday, which was a birthday blessing in itself. I took Fern to panera bread (She's a big fan of the strawberry parfait) and then we spent the rest of the morning at the Library until naptime. This girl was hilariously entertaining all day.

1.I love our Library, so much. It has the neatest kids center. 2. I wish you could see how incredibly crossed her eyes are.

After using our mobile afternoon to run some much needed errands, and a second nap for the day, T came home from work. Earlier last week he had asked if he could take me out to birthday dinner while his mom watched Fern for us. He wanted to take me to a little place in the Paseo called Sauced before dinner, he said, because the weather was so nice. We could sit out on the patio and have a glass of wine before dinner. You don't have to ask me twice. Little did I know that this little sneak had gone behind my back texting and sending messages to all of my friends! As we walked around the corner, they all yelled "SURPRISE!!!" and sang me happy birthday! I never suspected a thing! I still can't believe it.

1.Fern being super cute with gma. 2. Meanwhile, my friends are scaring the pants off of me. Apparently this is my surprised face. I should work on that.

We ended up staying at Sauced to eat and celebrate with all of our friends from every circle. My sisters were even there! Work friends, My oldest friends, my friends I've made through my relationship with Tristan. (They were his friends first, but I claim them too, now.) My maid of honor, Tristan's brother, and his wife. ... I mean.. gosh. I never would've imagined everybody all there at one place together like that. It was so great! We ate pizza, and talked, and had wine (of course) There were PRESENTS! .... man. I'm such a lucky girl.

1. Showing off my fancy earrings that Marek (pictured) and Casey got me. 2. Some of my oldest most dear friends. <3

We ended the beautiful evening by heading to Whiskey Cake, a new restaurant around here that is MY NEW FAVE. It had been where we planned to have dinner, but after the night we had, we just finished up there with a specialty cocktail and [obviously] a piece of the whiskey cake.. mind blowing.My cocktail was called "Tracy's garden". It was made with New amsterdam gin, cucumber, local basil and lime. So tasty.  Unfortunately It was late, and the lighting was poor, so I didn't get many photos. Which is very sad, because this place is charming. I guarantee we'll go back again, though. If you're a local Okie, you've just gotta go check it out. They use all local farmers for their food and drinks. They grow their own herbs, and there's a couch to lounge on around every corner.

ahh. The end to a perfect birthday.

also. In case you didn't notice ( and you probably didn't), but, a sweet sweet friend of mine bought me a legitimate url for my blogsite. I feel so official now. What a great birthday gift! Thank you sweet Tillie!
What a blessing, and huge surprise! Showering me with gifts all the way across the sea.

engagement.

I love engagement photos I decided. I've partaken in a few photo shoots in my time, and I have to say, I'm not into them. I can't pose for anything. I am awkward. I panic. I think too much. The second that camera is aiming at me, My body automatically rejects it and does the most embarrassing response it can think of, as if to reject the inevitable. I was not looking forward to engagement pictures. Somehow, be it the great guidance of the ever sweet Hibben Photography, or that I was with T and he was calm and collected as always, somehow, someway they turned out pretty fantastic. I'm now a fan of engagement shoots. Here are a few of my favorites.

 

He's so cute. 

I'm gonna marry him.