Anniversary WEEK!

At the time, I was not too happy about choosing a wedding date in December.  I mean I was, because I was getting MARRIED to the most wonderful man ever, so that made me very happy.  But since I was a little girl, I always wanted to get married in May... when it would be 70 degrees and look like this:

But I certainly didn't want to be engaged for 9 months.  So we got married in December, and it was about 15 degrees and looked a little like this:

However, as we were celebrating our 1 year anniversary last month, I realized that we may have picked a pretty good day after all.  Since it is in between Christmas and New Year's, Joe and I both got the whole WEEK off from school and work and anything else!  It was so wonderful to spend the whole week together and do all kinds of fun things.   

On our actual anniversary, December 29th, we woke up and decided to go sledding.  Although it was pouring rain where we live, just a few minutes up the mountain it was dumping snow.  We had some tubes we bought for floating the river last summer, and they doubled very nicely for the snow.  We did realize, however, that even though as kids we could sled from sun up to sun down, we had had enough fun (and walking UP the hill....) after a little over an hour.

Bundled up like marshmallows?  Check.

Catching air on our homemade jump!

Then we cleaned up and went to the temple to do some sealings.  As I listened to those sacred words, I thought a lot about our own sealing one year ago and how grateful I am that we chose to get married in the temple.  No other place could ever compare in its beauty, simplicity, and especially in those sacred promises we made.  My favorite primary song was always "I Love to See The Temple".  The words go:

I love to see the temple,

I'll go inside someday.

To cov'nant with my Father;

I'll promise to obey.

For the temple is a holy place,

where we are sealed together.

As a child of God I learned this truth:

A fam'ly is forever.

And now Joe and I get to go to the temple as often as we want, to feel so close to one another and to focus on what is truly important in life.  I STILL love to see the temple.  But now I get to go inside all the time.

We finished off the day by going to dinner at one of our favorites, Olive Garden, and pulling out the cake we saved from our wedding.  Both Joe and I were seriously worried about the intactness and taste of the cake... it somehow ended up covered in plastic wrap and on the BOTTOM of our freezer.  Completely smooshed.  But dedicated to at least attempting to follow tradition, we pulled it out and gave it a try.  After peeling off all the fondant, it actually wasn't too bad.  Albeit a little dry.  Really though, it was pretty good.  

Well Joe had a few more surprises up his sleeve.  A few days later, for New Years Eve, Joe surprised me with tickets to go see Jim Brickman in Salt Lake!    

We had a pretty good laugh about this dreamy-model-pose from Jim.  The man is 49 years old, but apparently still poses like he's a twenty-something.

Sneaking a quick picture when the usher wasn't looking ( :

As much as I worried about the potential boring-ness of listening to piano for 2 hours straight, the concert was absolutely amazing.  He had some guests that sang for him that were incredible.  It really was such a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary because since we played Jim Brickman at our receptions, hearing his songs always remind me of our wedding and of how much I love Joe. 

While in Salt Lake, we also got to go shopping at the Gateway and see the lights at temple square.   I was pretty impressed that not only was Joe the one who suggested we go shopping, but he also endured several hours of it, and was quite helpful in helping me make decisions about things.  He's quite the catch.

And to top it all off, the hotel room we stayed in was directly facing the New Year's fireworks show at the Salt Palace.  What a perfect ending to a great week!  

Well here's the part where I'm going to get a bit mushy.  You can quit reading if you'd like ( :

I just wanted to say that the past year has been the best of my life.   I'm so lucky to have married a man that loves me so much, and shows me all the time!  He still pushes me aside so he can do the dishes, laughs when I'm a little silly, gives me spontaneous neck massages, indulges my addictive need to play games all the time, tells me I'm beautiful every single night, and loves to hold me and listen to every little detail of my day, no matter how insignificant.  He helps me make decisions, supports me in everything I do, and is my very best friend.  We scare each other every time we say the exact same thing at the same time...which happens quite often ( :  I love how I'm learning more and more why we're so perfect for each other, and can't wait to discover more reasons in the many years ahead.  I sure love you Joe Hill.