Four Years

Haaaaappy anniversary to me and C! Today marks four years since our wedding day - it was truly the best day of my life thus far, surrounded by my favorite people in the most beautiful setting. It exceeded my dreams and it holds such a special place in my memory. It was not only beautiful but it was FUN! It is kinda nuts to see how much weddings and styles have changed just since our own special day.....but looking back on it I still wouldn't change a thing (except maybe the lavender toss at the end......that stuff went all down my dress and in my hair, lol).

Our wedding day was perfect but our marriage is what really matters. This year had its fair share of challenges, both as individuals and as a couple, but I'm thankful that with each struggle we've faced we have strengthened our relationship and become stronger as a team. I'm so thankful to have someone I can face the world with, side-by-side and hand-in-hand (or as the kids say these days, someone to "do life with"). Someone who shares the same views on the big things, has the same long term goals and helps me to be the best version of myself. Someone who keeps me accountable and balances out my strengths and weaknesses (and vice-versa). Yes, we have our own struggles, but I think we make a pretty great pair.

To celebrate our anniversary we're going out for a healthy dinner tonight after a workout (it's a weeknight after all haha) but we will be brunching hard on Saturday at En Croute. Per tradition, we'll follow it up with patio drinks, Roxy's Ice Cream and watching our wedding video. We had Roxy's at our reception in lieu of a groom's cake so it's become an annual anniversary treat! I always look forward to our brunch date each year; spending a whole day focused on fun, just the two of us, is always so special......and I always love an excuse to get dressed up!

I put together this questionnaire on our first anniversary as a way to look back on our first year of marriage and ended up revisiting it every year since. It's always so fun to go back and re-read questionnaires from years past. Some things never seem to change (like our favorite restaurants and past times).....and others are harder to remember than you would think. I always struggle with what TV shows we watched because I don't have photographic evidence to jog my memory haha.

Places We Visited Together
Nashville, Oregon, Vermont, New York City, Crested Butte

Restaurants We Loved
Hopdoddy, Jone's Assembly, The Drake, Hall's Pizza Kitchen, Aurora, Barrio's, Shake Shack, Halal Street Cart Chicken in NYC, The Secret Stash Pizza in Crested Butte

Things We Did
We traveled, a lot! Both together and apart. We became an aunt and uncle for the first time. We both got new (to us) cars. We ate and drank our way through Nashville. I had my gallbladder removed...so fun...and C nursed me back to health. We finally finished our house renovations by adding shiplap to our sunroom. My blog really took off and Cole took on the role as #InstagramHusband. We cheered on the Pokes, per the usual. We went to Oregon to visit family and did a bunch of exploring! We saw Multnomah Falls, we explored Crater Lake, we walked through a lava tube cave and we hiked Smith Rock. Grocery stores started selling wine and Oklahoma got high point beer. We flew to Vermont for my first hotel collaboration and saw where my mom and grandad grew up. It was a basic white girl's dream come true....apple cider, pumpkin everything, and fall foliage galore. We dressed up as Regina George and Aaron Samuels for Halloween. We switched family holidays for the first time spending Thanksgiving with my parents and Christmas with Cole's family. We visited New York City during the holidays, ice skated in Central Park and saw the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular....hello bucket list! C made me a delicious and beautiful birthday cake and I made him sloppy joes. We went to Crested Butte with some of our best friends and drank beer while watching the snow fall. We got a new mattress....#adulting. We fought hard and loved hard and cuddled our dogs hard.....and were each other's biggest cheerleaders through it all.

Shows We Watched Together
Schitt's Creek, Killing Eve, Atlanta, Maniac, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, Goliath, Catastrophe, Better Call Saul ... probably forgetting some!

Movies We Saw
Solo: A Star Wars Movie. According to my yearly anniversary questionnaire posts, we literally only see Star Wars movies in theatres haha.

Our Favorite Homemade Meals
Copycat Egg McMuffins, smoked chicken, steak pita wraps, Thai salad, Vietnamese pork chops, tacos, healthy chicken carbonara noodles, Light & Fit Greek yogurt every single day

Gifts We Gave Each Other
Amanda: David Yurman Bracelet, T3 Hairdryer
Cole: Car stereo, smoke gun

Favorite Treats
Trader Joe's Old Fashioned Cinnamon Graham Crackers, Chick-fil-a Chocolate Chip Cookies, flavored Oreos, TJ's Elote Corn Chips, grocery store chocolate cake (me), Pop Tart bites (Cole), Sour Patch Kids (me), all the cereals

Favorite Past Times
Some things never change. We still enjoy traveling, slow mornings with coffee, trying new foods and restaurants, sipping drinks on patios, working out and anything dog-related.

We usually try to give each other gifts based on the traditional anniversary gift.....well, year four is supposed to be flowers or fruit (lame) and we couldn't come up with any creative spins on fruit or flowers to get something that we actually wanted or would be special. The modern gift is an appliance (not very romantic) but we are talking about going in on a fancy coffee/espresso machine. I'm a coffee SNOB and love making fancy coffee at home, so I'm feeling pretty good about this gift option. Do you have any recommendations on espresso machines or coffee makers that can make lattes or froth milk? Particularly ones that don't cost a bajillion dollars. I'd love to hear, if so.

Happy anniversary, man. Thanks for cooking all of my meals, putting up with my travel anxiety, picking up your dirty socks and taking all of my blog pictures. Even after four years of marriage and seven and a half years of being together, you're still my favorite person! Here's to whatever the future holds for us, now and down the road.