Seven Beautiful Years!

We celebrated our seventh anniversary on May second. We started our celebration early, the weekend before since that is when my mom was able to take our boys for a night. We were pretty excited about the idea of exploring our own backyard and spending our anniversary downtown Portland. we've always felt it to be a bit daunting going downtown and have had bad experiences paying way more in parking than we wanted. Max also brought up the idea of a couples massage and did some research on some romantic date locations in Portland. Blooming Moon Spa came up and after some more research we made an appointment there for a couple's massage and a body scrub. We have had a couple's massage before and it was great but we weren't getting massaged at the same time. We had to rotate having either the massage or a foot scrub, so this was a real treat to get full massages at the same time.  And all my pictures are random and mostly with a phone and it felt great to just be wild and carefree and lazy with the picture taking...most of the time.

Aren't we cute? hahaha!

After the scrub we got to go rinse of in a shower that was like ten times bigger than our little shoe box shower.




We left feeling wonderful and clean and a little like a wet dog since my hair was still wet. But then we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted and nothing was planned and it was perfect. Max and I had both separately heard about a little restaurant called the Grilled Cheese Grill that's in a school bus. We decided that's where we were going to go for lunch.
And you can order your grilled cheese with the crusts cut off, this was wildly funny to me.



Max ordered a  burger with two grilled cheese sandwiches as buns. It was pretty intense but he worked hard to successfully finish it.




I got a grilled BLTA





Have you noticed all the food photos and awkward selfies? Not my best day of photography and totally worth it.  Just wait...we got some mirror selfies coming up!

So, it seemed perfect to spend part of our anniversary on a bus because it was 11 years ago that I was a bus driver and Max was a senior in high school and I would sometimes pick him up for school and take him on his water polo games, swim meets, and choir concerts. One particular time I drove the choir to The Grotto for a Christmas concert. Before it was time to leave I had to go check the bus and get it warmed up, it was dark and rainy and I had never been to the Grotto before so I was a little nervous, Max was done singing so he came with me and (after the bus was all checked and in working order) we ended up making out on the bus.




And then we ended up at the Pioneer place mall. And we went clothes shopping. It's funny that we realized we do this almost every anniversary and we don't even like shopping for clothes that much, it just seems like a good time to do it when the kids are away. 






And for the times we weren't allowed in the same dressing room we sent awesome mirror selfies to each other. And I'm adding them here...and no, we did not buy all these outfits!

And I like to make him try on really tight shirts... which he couldn't move in...

 

Max told me I needed to work on my expression so he knew if I liked the dress I was wearing or not.










I ended up walking away with two new dresses! And now, looking at these photos I kinda wish I got more.

We threw some other Mall shopping in there as well and ended up getting our traditional anniversary glass (which we've slacked on the last couple years because we didn't find a perfect one) We visited some other stores just enjoying that we were together and didn't have to worry about little hands grabbing everything off the shelves. 

We then made our way to the super trendy Salt & Straw ice cream place. And we had to wait in a long line that went out the door and around the building which moved pretty quickly, we were in no rush so it was enjoyable.  




And it was very delicious, yet I don't think I will ever stand in that line with my kids.

After our bellies were way too full, we went home to a quiet and empty house and crashed.

The next morning started early. with a morning segway tour. This was another activity that Max suggested but I was hesitant, besides thinking I would fall off and die, I was also worried about riding by all the people doing their morning jogs on the water front. How embarrassing! After finding an awesome discount on an already low priced Groupon, we just went for it. The whole theme of our anniversary was to explore our own backyard, so this worked perfectly.

IT WAS SO FUN!! And I only kind of fell off once: ;)

We learned so much about Portland, visited the world's smallest garden, learned about many of the bridges, strolled right by the March of Dimes runners, went to the Art Museum, train station, Chinese Gardens, learned about some of Portland's weirdest traditions and history, and I'm sure a whole bunch more. They were really easy to drive, and at some point I need to realize whenever Max makes me try something new I always enjoy it. (except Paintball..gah)

And you were supposed to hold on to the middle of the handle while stepping off, which is what I'm doing in this picture, but Max and I were laughing so hard because it looked like I was praying. 

 

He was getting my attention for a picture...not pushing me off!

After our two hour tour. We got some caramel apple cider to warm up our freezing hands. Then went to explore the Saturday market. We didn't have much time before we needed to pick up the boys so we did a quick walk through, grabbed some lunch then got in the car to drive up to my mom's house. When I got there, my mom was going out to lunch with my aunt and a mom of my friend. I was invited as well, so Max stayed with the boys while I went and had a girls lunch. (My second lunch of the day)

Our actual anniversary was the following Monday which Max spent working and I spent I ttaking the boys to the park because it was an extremely hot day. We had homemade smoothies for lunch (with Max) to celebrate our wedding day Jamba Juice trip. Later in the evening, after Max got a sufficient amount of work done, we went to Baja Fresh as a family with some gift certificates, we then went towel shopping because we felt after 7 years it was a good time to get new towels. Exciting right? Anyway, The point is that everything was perfect. Trying new things with my wonderful husband is the best way to spend our anniversary. These seven years have been the best of my life and I love that I have a true patient and loving partner by my side for eternity, not to mention the handsomeness and his incredible daddy-ness (I'm making up words now so I should probably end this post.)