Anniversary wish ... granted!

Our five year anniversary was this past Saturday and we thought we could swing a night away.  My one wish for a night away was to have electricity.  After doing without for nearly nine months, I thought that was a reasonable splurge (and probably a very doable one).

Funny though how my mind works ...  as the day approached I started tacking more things onto my wishlist -- 'gee since we both sleep poorly, maybe trying out a king size bed would be nice' and 'man, I'd sure love to be able to take a bath'.  As I looked for those things within our budget, I got pretty discouraged.  It seemed impossible and made me just not want to do anything (great attitude, right?).

Luckily, I checked myself -- remembering how completely blessed I am just to have Jason in my life.  With that, I remembered I really didn't need ANY of the things on my wishlist.  My new wish was just to be able to hang out with my amazing husband.  That was very doable and completely within our budget :)

With that we headed out to Lake George in New York on Saturday morning and enjoyed a gorgeous drive -- can I even describe to you how green it is here right now???!!?

When we arrived there, the lake was really pretty, but the village of Lake George was terrible. Seriously. It felt like we were at a carnival or a fair or something.  Fun in their own right, but not what we'd had in mind.  We just laughed, it was that bad. They were even having amateur speed boat races -- think NASCAR on water.  Not romantic.  So, we just decided to drive north along the lake and if we didn't find something that fit us, we'd rather just come back to our creaky, non-electrified barn.

I'm happy to report that not all of Lake George is like the village and we found a perfect spot to stay - on the water, away from the noise, with electricity, a king bed and a bath -- all within our budget.  Woo-hoo!  We had a fantastic time, kayaking, hiking and exploring a new place.

Four down .... sixty-one to go!

Four years ago today, I had the unimaginable joy of being able to marry a man who's qualities far exceeded everything I had ever dreamed of.  After being married for four years, I still catch myself wondering how I came to be so fortunate.  I like that and I hope I never lose the feeling of awe.

With our job, going out in the evening isn't an option so instead we celebrated by going on a lunch date to a place that we both love.  Although we got off to a rough start (my self-esteem issues pick the worst moments to knock me down), we had an terrific date and ate some amazing Thai curry!  Yum!

Still wondering ... "How did this happen???"

This was us, two years ago yesterday ... we still look at each other on almost a daily basis and ask in disbelief, "how did this happen?" We feel so incredibly blessed that God saw fit to bring us together and still can't believe that we get to spend the rest of our lives together!!

To start off our celebration this year, we had cheese omelets & chocolate chip pancakes while enjoying the perfect view from our deck.

Jason had planned a great, surprise date for our afternoon/evening. A trip to the lighthouse ruins to watch the sunset was the beginning.

We had some fun taking a few pictures - Jason's pose is a bit of a mockery ... many, many Palauans are sporting the peace sign or the hang loose sign, in every picture. So we had to have atleast one :)

Right as the sun started getting in a good position for a sunset, a rain cloud came by, blocking it out. We still had some beautiful colors though.

After the sunset, we wandered around for a while. All I knew is that we had "reservations" for 7:30. Since there aren't any restaurants on Angaur, I was really curious where exactly we had reservations. Jason had worked some magic and had hired one of the local ladies to make us a full dinner. It was all set up and ready for us to eat on the big porch at one of the local guest houses that sits right on a beach. We had a delicious meal, it was such a wonderful surprise!

Celebrating One Year of Marriage ... in Montauk

Today is our one year anniversary ... it's hard to believe that it has already been a year! Since we are always happy to have an excuse to explore a new place, we took the opportunity to spend the weekend in the East Hampton village of Montauk. The weatherman had predicted temps in the low 50's with clouds and rain, so we were ecstatic to awaken in our little beach condo on Saturday morning to the view of clouds rolling away and the beautiful sunshine pouring in.

The balcony at the condo we rented, had a wonderful ocean view.

At the beach our first morning...enjoying the SUN! ... And, Jason finds a new friend...

We rented a couple bikes and rode the 6 miles out to the Montauk lighthouse ... I hadn't ridden a bike since I was in Tonga!