The Paper Anniversary

A year ago this past Sunday,  I was blessed enough to marry my best friend. The past year has taught me many things (but that's another post: "What I Learned in Our First Year of Marriage") and has been absolutely wonderful. It's so hard to believe that we're already embarking on the second year of our lifelong journey together! We certainly kicked off the year with a great bang by celebrating our anniversary together, starting early in the morning and ending later that night (not too late . . . we're old people at heart). 

To start the day, I got up before Hubby to start getting ready for church and make banana pancakes. They're super simple, and we already had everything on hand! Thanks to Pinterest, the recipe was easy to find! (Find it here: Three-Ingredient Banana Pancakes). Hubby and I both loved them!

While I finished getting ready, Hubby presented me with an invitation:

So, after taking communion with each other at church (such a cool way to start our second year together), we did some quick grocery shopping to prep for the picnic, then headed home to get ready to go. Before we left, I begged Geoff to let us go ahead and exchange gifts. I had been working on his all week and was really excited to give it to him (plus I have the worst poker face and couldn't keep his gift a secret any longer than I had to). I made him a deck of cards with "52 Reasons I'm Blessed to be Your Wife" written on them, an idea I found via Pinterest (of course): 52 Things I Love About You. I did mine a little differently by handwriting each one (instead of formatting them on the computer and printing) and gluing them to the face of each card instead of the back. I think they turned out pretty well, and he really seemed to love them! 

After exchanging gifts, we headed out for Tallulah Gorge State Park. It only took a little over an hour to get there, and the weather was perfect for all that we had planned! We found a nice patio by the Interpretive Center to lay down our quilt and have our picnic before we headed off to explore! When I say Tallulah Gorge is beautiful . . . y'all, I don't know that I've ever seen something so breathtakingly beautiful in my life. We literally had to stop and perch on a giant rock for a while just to take it all in (okay, and partially because I needed to take a break; there are a million stairs on those trails)! We had such a great time walking around, talking, and taking in the views!

Hanging out on the bridge

Down at the basin

Our favorite perch for the day, a giant rock close to the top

Taking it all in

In front of one of the falls

Going down the stairs wasn't bad; I was okay to smile.

Seriously, stairs for days.

After that, we headed home (taking a quick detour to stop by an outlet mall we discovered on the way home--it's seriously 30 minutes away from where we live; how did we not know about it?), did some prep-work to get ready for the week, and curled up to watch the newest Walking Dead. (I HATED that show the first time he made me watch it; then I went back to the beginning and got hooked. It's a "guilty pleasure.") 



It wouldn't be the first wedding anniversary without cake though . . . BUT we forgot to get our wedding cake from my parents' house last time we visited, so we had to improvise with some little store-bought molten lava cakes. I'm not complaining; those suckers were delicious, so delicious that Hubby threatened to eat mine if I didn't get to it first, and he's NOT a "sweets person" (which Queen Sweet Tooth here is still trying to wrap her mind around). 

Our first anniversary was so wonderful, just like our first year of marriage! I'm so blessed to have spent this time with the love of my life, and I'm looking forward to the many years ahead!