The Best Year of My Life!

I can't believe it has already been a year. Yesterday was our one year anniversary. For many years I never knew if I would ever see the day and now, here it is. We have had a tough few weeks so it was nice to have a chance to relax, spend some good quality time together and think about the last year we spent together.

After work we headed over to Del Navio for dinner. Del Navio is the restaurant we went to for our wedding luncheon exactly one year ago. It is a small quiet Italian restaurant that is tucked away on a side street by the Oakland Temple. It was defiantly a good find. We were the only two in the restaurant. We started off with an appetizer -some Italian meatballs with marinara and a polenta cream sauce. We then ordered our favorite dish there, chicken breast wrapped in procuitto and cheese with a side of fettuccine and the other dish was fettuccine carbonara with pancetta, olives and tomatoes. They were both pretty good. We did not eat dessert at the restaurant since we had some waiting at home for us.

We then headed back home for the moment Rick has been waiting for most of his life - the wedding cake. When Rick proposed to me, a few minutes later I told him that he had to make me a promise. This made him very curious. I told him that he had to promise me, not to smash cake in my face on our wedding day. This was something that he had been planning on doing for most of his life so he wouldn't make me the promise. This worried me, even up to the second we cut the cake on our wedding day. 

My sweet new husband was so good to me and did not smash the cake in my face on our day. I told him that he could have his moment on our one year anniversary.

Since we didn't save the top of our wedding cake for our anniversary (who wants to eat old freezer burn cake) I ordered us a fresh new one. I ordered the same exact cake we had at our wedding but made it look a little different (more anniversary like than wedding like). I decided to have it light blue which was the color of our wedding and add a little design to the sides. We had a great time cutting the cake together, smashing it in each others face, eating it with our hands, and trying to document it all with our tripod and camera timer. We laughed and enjoyed ourselves. Trying to clean it all up was another story. Who knew buttercream would be so difficult to get off your face. It was like we smeared Crisco all over.

Who knows, maybe eating cake with our hands each year for our anniversary will become a fun tradition for us.

A few weeks ago I told Rick that I wasn't sure his anniversary gift was going to arrive on time and he said "What, are we doing gifts?" Typically we aren't that big into giving each other gifts for birthdays and Christmas. It's just not that big of a deal. We do buy each other gifts but it's usually not too much. Plus it's more fun to buy for others than just ourselves. I told him that out of all the different days of the year that we celebrate with gifts, our anniversary is the one day I wouldn't mind celebrating with a thoughtful gift for each other. 

A few weeks later I told him that if he wanted to, he could buy me some Amber in the Domincan Republic (they are famous for it) for our anniversary and he said "Maybe for Valentine's Day, you can't give Amber for your one year anniversary. A non traditional gift would be a clock and a traditional gift would be paper."

I knew that my comment a few weeks prior sparked him to investigate what he should get me for our anniversary. After several hours on the Internet ( I am sure) and some consultation from some girl friends he probably knows more about one year anniversaries than I do (I had no idea it was paper for the first year).

I spent a lot of time trying to think about all the different things I could get Rick and then the perfect gift popped into my head. A bonsai tree. Now why would I think a bonsai tree would be the perfect gift? Because if you nourish it, love it and take care of it, it will last forever. Rick is such a good husband and is always working on nourishing, loving and take care or our marriage so we'll be happy together forever. I know it sounds kinda of cheesy but it just seemed to fit perfectly for the way I feel about him and our marriage. I also thought he might enjoy taking care of it, training it and sculpting the cute little tree into a piece of art.

I ordered him a Chinese Elm bonsai tree. The shipment did come on time. However, it was a little damaged in shipping and I think they sent me the wrong tree. I ordered a trained tree that was 10 years old and 14 inches high. We got an untrained tree that was 9 inches high. As you can see the branches are scattered all over the place and it still needs to be formed and shaped. It does have the potential to be a beautiful piece of art.

Sweet Rick brought me some beautiful flowers - roses, tiger lilies, and tulips (all some of my favorites) and the best card in the world. I don't know how he finds them, but he always seems to find the perfect card, and believe it or not he writes the most romantic words. He is so romantic it makes me cry. Instead of actual paper, he decided to buy me a stamp embosser of a B for Bingham (I'm pretty happy to be a Bingham now!). This way I can make my own stationary or use it for what ever I want rather than just buying me boring paper. He knows me pretty well, I love anything monogrammed.

We are going to finish our anniversary celebration with a great trip to the Dominican Republic where we will enjoy some kiteboarding, scuba diving, warm sunny weather and some beautiful white sandy beaches. We are leaving the day before Valentine's Day.

Happy Anniversary sweet pea. I love you!