Celebrating our 10th Anniversary

 We celebrated our 10 years of marriage by taking off on a cruise with our friends, Christian and Jackie. It was the perfect getaway and as much as we loved spending time just us, having our friends there made the card games more competitive, dinner conversations more interesting, hot tub hang outs and all our excursions even more fun. 

Those handstands on the beach are in Grand Cayman, that stop was a bit dissapointing, i'm sure Ben would rather forget it... due to the rainy weather conditions we weren't able to port where we were supposed to which confused things and made it so we didn't get off the boat until it was way later than planned, leaving us not enough time to swim with the sting rays. Ben has talked about the time he swam with the sting rays here so many time and how he wants to take me, making this stop the. most important and anticipated stop.  When we found out we couldn't swim with the sting rays, we went to the beach instead and the sun came out just enough to really enjoy it.  Later, on our way back to the ship Ben left our brand new go pro in the taxi. AHH! What a day.

 

Our stop in Puerta Maya, Cozumel: we rented a jeep and took off to the beach where we drank virgin lime mojitos and sun bathed.

 Our stop in Honduras: zip lining through the jungle and laying out on the beach eating nachos.

 

 Ben and I were contestants on the Love and Marriage show and won!? That was a fun evening but definitely too much about our love life got out.

3 is the magic number

"ya it is."

(love that song when Ben sings it in such a high voice, imitating Blind Melon)



For our 3 year Anniversary we bought a super nice camera.  We both said that we wouldn't do anything else for each other but I had to.  I'm still trying to make up for all the outrageously wonderful gifts Ben gives me all the time.   So I decided to be sentimental and I printed off our old email messages from back in the day when we were dating.  We read a few pages together which consisted of us asking each other random questions back and forth, like "stung by a bee or ten mosquito bites?" or "if you could invent anything what would it be?"  When we reached certain points in the reading of our messages I would stop and have Ben open a gift that went along with what was just read.  I gave him a total of 3 gifts (of course):
1. bubble bath
2. The office season 7 DVDs
3. Pottery classes for the two of us in 2012!  In our messages I asked Ben the question "What is something you want to learn how to do?" and he answered "...I want to get a little better at pottery.  We should take a class in the fall?!?  I loved pottery in High School and I've always wanted to brush-up on my pottery knowledge."  Now, over 3 years later, we are actually taking a pottery class together and we both CAN'T WAIT!

2 and a 1/2sy

Already?

And since when do we celebrate halves?

Seriously, Ben? Stop making me look bad.

But. THANK YOU. Love you. You're the best.

On June 17, 2011 I came home from work to see this big display of balloons and a lamp in my bedroom. Oh stink. I forgot it was the day that marked 2 1/2 years of marriage. How could I forget? But, how impressive that my husband didn't forget, and even better that he celebrated it!  He surprised me with a lamp I saw months ago at Anthropologie. I text him the picture from the store saying that I wanted to buy it-- it was the last lamp and it was on sale, but of course I didn't make the purchase.  A couple days later I showed up at Anthropologie, not planning on buying the lamp, yet I was still disappointed it was gone!  

Little did I know that my hubby was the one that bought it and that it was sitting in my storage unit until that special day when he would spoil me rotten and make me the happiest girl.

I want to remember and I want Ben to remember and never ever forget his sweet and clever message that day-so i've posted the note here.  I "light up" his world. Yup. He loves me.

And I love him. Happy Anniversary hunny.

TWO Be Continued...

Remember these two love birds?

We celebrated two years of marriage December 17th and yes, we are still crazy in love!

One thing I never ever get tired of: hearing the words "I love you," all throughout the day, everyday, from my hunny (sigh).


Here is how our romantic evening went...

We sat down for dinner at Ellerby's Fine Foods, a quaint and fancy restaurant on Magnolia Avenue.

Then we took a stroll hand in hand around beautiful downtown Fort Worth.




We gazed at the Christmas Tree glistening with lights. (We tried to catch photos of us but the lighting was wrong and our camera didn't cooperate.)

We finally had the chance to step inside the Bass Hall. This building is just so pretty, pictures do not do justice!

We saw the Canadian Tenors, accompanied by the Forth Worth Symphony Orchestra--AMAZING show! I was on the edge of my seat gawking and singing along. I would see it again in a heartbeat.

All in all... it was such a lovely evening. Two years flew by and I am already losing count. But I look forward to next year, and the year after, and the year after that...

happy.


happy then and still happy now.

silly.

silly then and still silly now.

passionate.

passionate then and still passionate now.

Celebrating everyday of our marriage but especially today...

Happy 1.5 years of marital bliss with my baby hunny!

ONE year with the ONE I love

It is hard to believe that we've been married for ONE YEAR already. The time has flown by super fast! This year has been so full of love, laughter, travel, adventure, and growth. I have the happiest, healthiest, sweetest marriage. I couldn't be more blessed!

I gave Ben a sear for grilling with our initials "BS." The initials represent us and it is something that will last forever...like our marriage. I wrapped it in paper that I wrote words about our year on. I made the funniest card for him...just imagine a picture of Ben when he was about 3 years old, squating with two feet on the toilet seat, holding his wee wee to aim in the toilet, a smile wide across his face. Inside I wrote: "You've got mad skills! That's why I married you." Clever. I know. :)

Ben totally showed me up on the whole gift thing and planned a backpacking trip to the Dominican Republic! We got off the boat from the family cruise in Florida and hopped on a plane to the DR where we spent 12 spectacular days.

Doing something that you love with someone that you love = happiness

Ok ok we finally did realize we were crazy once we were lying in a bed with Winnie the Pooh sheets, dying of heat, in a strangers home whom we had known for an hour, in the middle of a foreign country, in one of the most dangerous parts of town...

We met this sweet little lady, Ada, on the airplane. When she learned that we were going to get off the plane and find a place to stay the night, she insisted that we stay with her. She wouldn't take any payment and kept saying the Lord would bless her. She even served us breakfast in the morning and drove us to the bus station. Thankfully it worked out to be safe and sweet.

So that is where our adventure ONLY began...

After a 3 hour bus ride, seated like sardines, we arrived in a little town, El Cedro, located on the northern shores, where we then took a 20 minute motorcycle ride to a bed and breakfast on Playa Limon (Lemon Beach). We were the only tourists staying there, we had miles of beach to ourselves!

Our daily walk to the beach consisted of palm trees and wild horses:

Man's best friend, "Tigre," lived at the house we stayed at and he was our guard dog. He would take us to the beach and stay with us, chasing away any strangers or animals, and guarding our things from the local fisherman that were sometimes around while we swam in the ocean.

One day we climbed a nearby mountain...from the top we could see rolling hills, and endless ocean. It was just us, the swings, the breeze, and the open blue sky.

Another day, we rode a paddle boat through a lagoon which lead to the ocean:

After 5 nights at Playa Limon, we packed our backpacks and made our way south to a little fisherman village, Boca De Yuma. We stayed in such a pretty Italian owned villa.

On the day of our ANNIVERSARY we went horseback riding to a secluded cave with a natural spring of clear water which we enjoyed swiming in:

Afterwards, we were still feeling a little adventurous and we SWAM to a little island we could see from the shore:

We had a romantic ANNIVERSARY DINNER at a little restaurant overlooking the Caribbean Sea. We shared the Dominican Republics national fish, the Butu, for dinner...absolutely delicious!

After a few days in the southeastern coast we headed to the capitol city, Santo Domingo to finish out our adventure! We made previous arrangements to meet up with close family friends of the Snarrs, Kay and Cheryl Briggs, who have been living there for the last three years serving the church. We met at the LDS Temple, in the heart of the city. There we were able to witness a beautiful sealing ceremony of a family from French Guyana, and Kay was the officiator.

Kay and Cheryl were generous and kind to let us stay with them in their beautiful home right next door to the Temple. There we were close to the city and sites.

We visited the Christopher Columbus home:

Modelo Market:

Old Town Square:

The first Christian Cathedral in the New World:

Columbus Park:

Downtown Market:

All in all, it was an adventure, with my adventuresome husband. A great way to wrap up 2009.