One Year

David and I snuck away last weekend to celebrate our first year married. As cliche as it sounds - I can't wrap my head around the fact that a year has already slipped by. In May we actually celebrated 11 years together - and he still manages to give me butterflies. This time last year we had grand dreams of spending our anniversary in Paris (in our dreams!) Instead we went to one of our favorite places. We drove up to Mammoth where my family has a cabin and spent the weekend, just the two of us. It was heaven.

{Twin Lake, Mammoth Lakes}

We spent an entire day biking around all of the lakes, went on a sunset horseback ride, and had a lakeside dinner. I couldn't think of anywhere I would have rather been.

On our way home we drove off the highway to the Bristlecone Forest. It's the home of some of the world's oldest trees. Some even argue that the Methuselah Tree is actually the oldest tree in the world. The best part about our detour is that there wasn't a single person around. We stopped on the side of one of the dirt roads and had sandwiches for two.

While we're on the subject of anniversaries, I had to share these two gifts we received. Both are so incredibly thoughtful and are a great idea for anyone special you may know with an important anniversary coming up.

The first is from our dear, dear friends Kathy and Micky. They were the one's that gave us our very first wedding gift here. Micky was the officiant at our wedding that married us. To say they are important people in our lives would be an understatement. On the morning of our wedding, Kathy snatched up the paper from the day. She's been saving it and wrapped it up for us for our anniversary. It's such a simple, thoughtful gift. I love knowing that I'll be able to look back and read about what else was going on that day.

Our second gift was from my Mom & Dad and has a little bit of a back-story. Growing up , probably starting at the age of 7, my Mom pulled out an old demijohn bottle as a place to throw extra change. Over the years it slowly filled. It's where hot lunch money in elementary school, quarters for arcade games in Jr.High, and laundry change in college all came from. We always talked about what we were going to do with the money once it was filled. The jar is finally a few weeks away from being completely filled and my mom has decided that whoever is closest to guessing the correct amount in the jar gets to choose an activity the entire family can do.

The Friday we left for Mammoth we had a jar with a small pile of change in the bottom waiting on our doorstep. David and I now have our own change jar to fill.

David - Happy Anniversary. I love you always. zo