Anniversary Adventures!

We have had so much fun celebrating our marriage this last week. I think we both agree that this year, we have had the most meaningful and fun anniversary celebrations of all! And of course, since our anniversary was on a weekday...we got to spread the celebration into the weekend!

May 2nd was a Thursday morning and it began like most mornings, Max got up and left for work. I stayed in bed due to a grumpy baby that tried to get up too early and I spent a good amount of my sleeping time trying to get him to go back to sleep. We were hoping to have Max come home on his lunch break but then, the night before he informed us that he probably couldn't come home for lunch because he was going to be working on a project far away, but then, a couple hours before lunch Max let us know that he could definitely come home for lunch and other arrangements had been made for that project. We were so excited but had no exciting food planned! He came home and we had Peanut Butter sandwiches and then put Charlie down for his nap. I made fruit and yogurt smoothies in memory of our Jamba Juice wedding date. (My smoothies are way tastier, healthier, and cheaper than Jamba) The weather was amazing, in the 80s all day so we planned to tan out on the deck for our lunch break, cheap, fun, and romantic. We took our smoothies out and Max had surprised me with some brand new fold out luxurious lawn chairs. I was totally surprised because we barely buy anything that is not a necessity but he splurged a bit and it is amazing how much more enjoyable time out on the deck is. (Plus it is somewhat of a replacement of our hammock that was destroyed last summer may it Rest in Peace)

Our smoothies in 2 of our anniversary glasses. (we collect a glass each year) 

So we laid out in the sun, drinking our smoothies in our very private backyard (the "clothing optional" kind of backyard...)
Max usually only has an hour for lunch so an hour had passed and he wasn't getting ready to go back. He then informed me that he was allowed to take a little longer lunch today! I was so excited.. He got to stay a couple extra hours and we enjoyed each other's company at home while Charlie took an extra long nap. He did have to go back to work for a little bit to finish a project but then got a text from his boss telling him to go back home and celebrate his anniversary. ( I really love the people he works for)

That evening, we went out to eat as a family. We probably could have had someone babysit Charlie but we were going to be away from him for the following weekend so we didn't mind him coming along one bit. He even helped me get ready for our family date by brushing my hair.

Don't worry, I didn't wear the BYU shirt on our date

He missed my hair a couple of times. 

Our family is ready for summer...and a night out!

 We ate out at Red Robin and had an enjoyable time. I love little family outings, and I'm always impressed with how well Charlie does at these outings. We came home after eating and put Charlie right into bed. Max and I let our food settle a little more then decided to do our workout. We decided it would be more romantic to exercise together than to splurge on dessert because we want to live a long healthy life together. Plus we've been working out everyday anyway but not usually together. I exercise in the morning or during Charlie's nap time and Max exercises before bed. We do the same workouts though. Anyway, this day was special because we did it together and out on the deck at night...did I mention that the weather was amazing?


The following pictures aren't really related to our anniversary but I added them because I think they are awesome. Saturday morning before we left for our beach getaway, We did our morning workout and Charlie wanted in on the action. There was no enticing at all, he just jumped in and started doing yoga.

Ok, so when the weekend came around Max and I went on a weekend getaway to the Oregon Coast. My mom was so kind to take Charlie for the weekend, she even had her two granddaughters that weekend so she had a fun time with all the kids. I really wouldn't trust anyone else with Charlie overnight. I knew my mom would take good care of him and that she loves him almost as much as we do!

This was the very first time Max and I went on an overnight trip without our baby. I surprisingly wasn't that nervous either. I knew he was in good hands. 

We started our two hour drive to the beach but couldn't resist stopping at some garage sales on the way out of town. We really have become quite the expert garage sale shoppers. 

I forgot what it was like to go road tripping with just Max. I liked it. We reminisced on some of our favorite wedding memories. Max said his overall best memory was the feeling that we had done everything right. We had made so many good choices that led to that point and we were both 100% certain that marrying each other in the temple was the perfect choice for us. He sure knows how to make me all butterfly-ish inside.   

We stopped in Cloverdale, a town just outside Tillamook. Cloverdale is where Max's dad grew up and Max has many fond memories of visiting his grandparents there. It is a tiny town and we stopped at the one little market store to get some chocolate drops. This was something Max enjoyed as a child, his parents would stop and get him chocolate drops whenever they drove through town. We were disappointed to see that the store had been completely remodeled and updated and looked like any old 7-11. there were no chocolate drops to be found. We left candy-less! So much for small town charm. We then came to another place from Max's childhood. On the side of the highway is this sand dune. 

when Max was a little kid they would pull over to the side of the road and climb the sand dune and go on a little hike to see the Ocean. He hasn't done this for 15 years but it was such a wonderful memory he wanted to take me there to explore it. I seriously love these experiences. I love reliving Max's childhood with him, even though we spent a good portion of our childhoods together it is so fun to see what memories he cherished and the traditions he wants to continue in our family. Alright, back to the dune. It was a lot steeper and longer than it looks in this picture. We huffed and puffed and took breaks. ( I seriously love the feeling of not being in a rush. We all need vacations more often) We found that the path had overgrown with weeds quite a bit. Once we got to the top there should have been about a 10 minute walk to a place with a great ocean view.

On the way up the dune

get ready for a whole lot of pictures we took like this. I guess that's just what happens when you go on a secluded romantic getaway. We have to take our own pictures!

So, remember how the path was overgrown?...Once we got to the top we couldn't find the trail that led to the ocean anywhere. We tried searching several parts of the hill...so what do we do? My determined husband forges his own trail to make sure I get to see the Ocean. Romantic right? I'm pretty sure I was terrified at several points. I figured we would get really lost and starve to death or a mountain lion would come and eat us. Max made sure we cleared a path as we hiked so we could find our way back.

Lost in the Jungle. 

 We eventually made it to a clearing which then led us to the ocean. The nerdy sides of us kept comparing ourselves to Lewis and Clark and how exciting it must be to see the ocean after a long trek through the forest.

We then tried to let this weed mound take our picture of us with the ocean  in the background...artsy right?  :/

More than anything it was so fun to be in beautiful secluded spot in nature where we didn't cross paths with any other people. We felt like we had the whole forest to ourselves. I'm sure there is a lot of symbolism of spending your anniversary forging a path to reach a beautiful goal but I'm not a writer so I won't expound on that thought at this time.

 We made our way back in less than half the time it took to forge our way to our destination. Thanks to Max's eagle scout skills, he knew we would make it the whole time.

We then made our way to our hotel and quickly checked in then headed out to dinner. We chose to have dinner at Mo's restaurant for their world famous clam chowder. We had both been here as kids so it was fun to go again as adults. During dinner we had a great view of the bay where sea otters were splashing and playing.

 We finished dinner just in time to walk on the beach as the sun was setting.

In the meantime, we took more awkward pictures of ourselves.

We then turned into Oompa Loompas

 After the sun was set, it got a little cold so we headed back to the hotel for some hot tub and sauna time. We didn't stay there too long and soon went back to our room to spend a nice evening together.

When we were at the pool we noticed that they had shuffle board right outside so we took a mental note that our 65-year-old selves had to play before we checked out of the hotel.

We had a nice lazy morning with a complimentary breakfast and some rounds of shuffle board. We were so excited about shuffle board because there have two other significant times in our past when we have played together. One of them was on our honeymoon (this is where max saw a more competitive side of me I'm not sure he was bargaining for.) The other time was as 17 year-olds at  a beach resort.

Here's a shot from the Honeymoon, broken nose and all.
I have a picture from our 17 year old days but it's a print and pretty blurry so I won't try to add that one. 

After checking out we visited a bunch of little beach stores. We made sure to get some saltwater taffy to give to Charlie so he would be excited to see us home. We also went on our search to find our annual drinking glass. We finally found one we really love in an antique store. Our collection is getting pretty random and I love it. 

After finding the perfect glass we changed into our swimsuits and went to spend the rest of the day on the beach. Oregon beaches kind of have a reputation of being cold and wet. I feel that it is pretty rare for you to be in a swimsuit on an Oregon beach and still be warm. This has been true on many of our visits but this weekend had the perfect weather. We were roasting on the beach and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We sure picked a great weekend to get married! We spent a lot of time relaxing in our new chairs.

We tried to go in the ocean several times but it really was cold.


We brought Charlie's sand castle building set. (he has never used it at a beach) because we thought it would be fun to build a sand castle. I wonder if it looked weird that two adults were playing with these toys but we didn't care.

I had to make sure I documented the progress in case a tsunami hit. 

In honor of him sharing his toys, we dedicated this castle to him. 

We were pretty proud of the outcome

We joked about how in the real world we would never have time to make a sand castle and how lucky we were to spend so much time doing something so fun.

adding the finishing touches

We are amateurs but we are still so proud with how it turned out.

 After our sand castle was built we decided it was time to go be reunited with our little boy. On our way out of town we planned on visiting captain Dan's pirate pastry shop. We have heard about it and seen excellent reviews but it ended up being closed because the air conditioning wasn't working. We were bummed but we will just have to go again.

It was exciting to get home to our little guy who of course showed indifference when we came home. ( I guess it's a blessing that he's not clingy but sometimes a mama just wants some extra love) We were happy to be reunited as a family.

 Max and I got these terrific sunburns as souvenirs from our trip.

 Overall we had an amazing anniversary celebration and realized how important it is for us to spend time together as a couple. We're thinking over-nighters are going to happen more often from now on. I love that man of mine more than ever and I feel overly blessed that I get to be his forever wife!