4th of July Weekend

As you know, Dave and I celebrated our five-year anniversary on July 2nd of this year.  What you might not know is that July 1st marked three months until our wedding and July 3rd was our one-year anniversary of being engaged!  I was lucky enough to be able to take a day off work, fly down to Maryland on Thursday evening, and spend time with Dave until Monday night.

For those of you who know Dave, you may know that he isn't the "planner" in our relationship.  That falls entirely to me!  However, I told Dave back in May that I expected him to plan some fun things for us to do while I visited him... after all, it was the trifecta of anniversaries, ha!  Well, you'd be proud of him... Dave arranged a WONDERFUL four days for us!

On Friday evening, we ventured down to Baltimore for a surprise night.  When we got there, I discovered that it was a dinner cruise around Baltimore!  We had a really great time celebrating our anniversary a day early.  Dave remembered that we had celebrated one one-year anniversary on a dinner cruise in Albany, so what a perfect way to celebrate this year!  So romantic!

(Sitting on a bench waiting to board!)

(Waiting in line to board the ship!)

(On the ship at our table, complete with flowers and champagne!)

(The beautiful view from the top of the ship)

Little did I know the fun activities didn't stop there!  On Saturday, we woke up, and Dave had to go "run some errands" without me.  Hmmm... sounds fishy to me!  We left about 12 to head to an unknown location, although I did figure out (due to my excellent sleuthing abilities) that we were headed down to DC.  When we arrived, we found a great parking spot, and Dave told me that we were going to have a picnic in a park!  How sweet is that!  He had gone shopping that morning for food and supplies, and we had a great lunch eating and sitting on a blanket together, watching everyone go by.

(Our smorgasbord of food!)

Since we were in DC, we decided to head more downtown and check out some of the sights.  I haven't been to DC since Erin's Spelling Bee days, and Dave hadn't been since he was much younger.

(A cute fountain where I could cool off my feet)

(Washington Monument)

(Cooling off at the WW II Memorial)

(Getting our feet wet--it was super hot out!)

(The Reflecting Pool that is being torn up... boo!
What our view should have looked like)

(The Lincoln Memorial)

(In front of the White House!)

Saturday night, while still in DC, Dave had planned for us to go to one of the best Thai restaurants in DC!  I've been craving some good pad thai lately, AND, we went on our first date at a Thai restaurant... precisely the reason Dave chose this place.  How thoughtful!  (Don't worry, I've already informed him that after this weekend, he no longer can claim that he's "not romantic" or "can't come up with any good ideas"!)

On Sunday, we hung out, went to a movie, and ran some errands.  That evening, we went up to Havre de Grace to watch the fireworks and go to the carnival with Dave's new ARL intern friends Brian and Allison.

(Pretty fireworks!)

(This is Dave's new boyfriend Brian, and yes, they're matching!)

On Monday, we enjoyed each other's company for the last day and talked about some wedding plans we needed to make decisions on.  All in all, it was an amazingly fun weekend and I'm so glad we were able to spend it together!  Only 4 more weeks until Dave is back in Albany... woo!!!  And we're down to 2.5 months until the wedding!

xoxo

Celebrating Five Years Together

July 2nd marked the fifth anniversary of the first date Dave and I had.  We had dinner at Basil, a Thai restaurant in Cool Springs, and he paid for me.  That's how I knew it was more than just a friendly date :)

In the beginning, we were just friends who cooked together

(Cooking at the Dorias)

and hung out together.

Then we decided to give dating a try.  We went out with friends and on our own

(With the Dittus' at the Williamson County Fair)

(Watching comedy at Zanies)

After our first summer together, we had to head back to college.  But we still managed to visit a few times...

once in the fall in San Antonio,

(Saw the Alamo!)

over the winter break in Albany,

(It was much colder up in Albany)

and spending our back-to-back spring breaks in Texas,

(At the Tower of the Americas restaurant)

 then New York.

(It was still much colder in Albany)

One day in the winter, David nervously asked me if I would move to New York to be with him while he continued his schooling.  I said yes.

We had a fun, yet difficult time our first year, learning how to live together, learning more about each other, growing independently as individuals, but also as a couple.

(At the Saratoga race track)

We adopted two kitties, who became the loves of our life.

(Bebop!)

(Ella!)

And after a year, we moved into a new apartment, where we've been ever since.

We made great friends, and took fun trips with them

(Annual Daniels family apple picking)

(At the Saratoga race track another year)

(Skiing in Massachusetts)

and each year of our relationship, we've visited an amusement park for a day in the summer.

(2006--Six Flags Over Georgia: Atlanta)

(2007--Six Flags Great Escape: Lake George) 

(2008--Six Flags New England: Springfield)

(2009--Hershey, PA in our sweet ponchos in the rain)


[I could cry because I vividly remember the security guard taking a
photo of us (in fact, waiting a very long time so that the roller coaster
would be behind us at precisely the right time), but I can't find it :(  ]

(2010--Six Flags Great Adventure: New Jersey)

Then in 2010, Dave was given an opportunity to visit Italy for an educational seminar.  Of course he accepted.  And I decided I would tag along for a week prior to his conference.

We flew out of New York on our 4 year anniversary.

(On the plane!)

And when we landed the next morning, within hours we were engaged :)

The last year has been a whirlwind of planning a wedding,

me graduating and starting a new job,

(SPH graduation in May 2010)

Dave working hard on his PhD, accepting a position at the Army Research Lab in May 2012, and living life to its fullest.  This will be the last July 2nd anniversary we celebrate, and while I'm so thankful for all the memories the past 5 years have given us, I can't wait for the future October 1st anniversaries ahead.

xoxo