Happy Anniversary to Us!!!

On June 28^th, Peter and I celebrated our first anniversary.  A whole year. Wow.  Newlyweds, Ebola, pregnancy, NICU….quite the year we’ve had.  I had a romantic getaway planned for his return from Sierra Leone but that got nipped in the bud with the surprise delivery of our son.  The maternity dress that I spent about an hour debating whether or not to buy to look cute when I picked him up from the airport (as cute as a 9 month pregnant lady can look….I mean….let’s be honest) remains unworn in my closet.  Along with my maternity swim suit.  Maybe next time…..

Our anniversary came and went with little fanfare as we were still busy figuring out this whole “newborn” thing.  So when my mom gave us the opportunity to use a family friend’s timeshare at the coast for a couple nights as a belated anniversary present, we jumped at the chance. Especially since she volunteered to keep BOTH of our kiddos!!  While Peter was in Sierra Leone I had some pregnancy insomnia, which gave me some brilliant ideas. One of my brilliant ideas was that we should stop renting our house and….move into my parents’ camper, located in their backyard.  Their very small, weekend camper.  I maintain that it was a brilliant, cost-saving idea but….it’s a little tight.  It was fine when it was just Marie and I but when Peter came home…and then Ben, well.  Snug. It’s snug.  The condo that Peter and I stayed in at the coast was 3 bedrooms.  Just for us!!!  We didn’t know what to do with so much space.

Several years ago I came to this same timeshare with the rest of my family.  Peter and I had just begun dating a few months before and it was the first time we were separated.  Even though Peter had never been to this town, it was filled with memories of our relationship for me.  There was the Subway that I was eating in with my family while they were teasing me about texting Peter.  There was the beach that I used to write a message to him in the sand and e-mail him the picture.  There was the movie theater that I remember sitting in wondering if Peter would enjoy the movie we were watching (The Hobbit) and the store that was having a 90% off sale where I bought Peter his first swimming suit. (Who, when I texted him to ask him his size responded with….”I don’t know. You’ve seen me. You should know my size.”)

One of my favorite things about Peter is his giggle.  Sometimes we'll just be driving around and he'll start giggling.  The first time he saw one of these bikes, I got the giggle. :)  So when we saw people riding around on these, we knew we needed to give it a try.

Peter and I had a pretty un-conventional dating life so in order to make up for that, we did the traditional date of mini-golf for our anniversary. :) 

We were at the coast so....of course we had to fly a kite!!  Since we're not really "kite" people, we got the cheapest (and simplest) one we could find.  Turns out....kite flying isn't really that exciting.  I have such fond memories of flying kites as a kid but since there was such a great wind we literally just let it go and let the string out.  Then what do you do? We stood there for 10 minutes or so....and then we were done.  Good time had by all.

And sleep. Precious, long, uninterrupted sleep.  That might have been the best part!

Thank you Mom for keeping our kiddos so we could have this awesome time together!!

I love doing life with this guy!