Austin and I celebrated our first anniversary on Tuesday! It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been married one year. In some ways, it feels like our wedding was yesterday, and in other ways it feels like we’ve been husband and wife forever (in a good way!) I was joking with Austin about how I know I’m growing up because I was honestly more excited about our anniversary this year than my own birthday.
On Tuesday morning, Austin came home from his night shift at work while I was still sleeping. Before I woke up, he set up a whole scavenger hunt for me in our little apartment, with notes, cards, and gifts along the way! I woke up to find the first clue on my bedside table. That led me to our guest bathroom where I found this:
Then I went to our guest bedroom and found some lovely roses waiting for me.
The rest of the scavenger hunt led me to my car, our mailbox, the laundry room, the fireplace, and finally the pantry. Austin got me a new flat iron (which I desperately needed, seeing as how I scorched my other one by plugging it into a European outlet while we were in Uganda). It was really sweet and thoughtful. All of the clues rhymed and I told Austin that I was legitimately impressed with his poetry skills. I’ll definitely be keeping those little notes forever.
That afternoon, we went to the movies and watched Madagascar 3. Then we came back home and watched our wedding video. Austin thought that was really cheesy, but I’m sentimental and I thought it would be special to re-live that day in our lives. Finally, we got all dressed up and went out to a super fancy dinner at Donovan’s (a steakhouse in Phoenix where my sister-in-law, Kori, works as the head hostess!) Austin had made reservations for us, and when we got to our table we saw that it was sprinkled with rose petals and had a card from my in-laws with a Donovan’s gift certificate inside (so sweet!) After I got over my sticker shock upon opening the menu, I had probably the yummiest steak dinner of my life. And we got free crème brulee for desert! It was definitely a rare occurrence for us to spend so much money on one meal, but I had to remind myself that our first anniversary only comes around once.
We knew that our trip to Uganda would be our big “vacation” for the year, so instead we opted for a stay-cation for our first anniversary trip. We stayed for 3 nights at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, which was really special for us because it was where we stayed for the first 2 nights after our wedding last year! It was awesome to be able to relax without having to travel very far. And we were even able to stop by our apartment once to check on our little cat, Lily. All in all, I loved spending time with Austin without needing to be anywhere or do anything. We tried several new restaurants in our area that we had never been to. My favorite was a breakfast place called Butterfield’s Pancake House where I ordered the Nutella Banana Crepes (ohmygoshIthinkIdiedandwenttofoodheaven!) and Grazie, which is a little pizza restaurant in old town that makes their own mozzarella. We spent an evening by the pool and just relaxed and enjoyed each other for three days. It was very much needed for us.
I had lots of fun celebrating our first year of marriage. I’m thrilled that this is only the beginning of our story together, and that I’m blessed enough to look forward to many more happy years with my husband. God has truly blessed me with him, and I can’t wait to see where He takes us in the future.
