Vacation Part II - Our ONE Year Anniversary

We celebrated our first anniversary in Orange Beach and it couldn't have been more perfect! It was our second day and we both got a little toasty the first day so Ryan told me he would take me shopping at the Outlets instead of going to the beach. Of course I jumped right on that! We actually had a lot of fun shopping together. We got several Christmas presents for our family and Ryan fell in love with the Tool Outlet we found. He came home with a new toy.

After the Outlets we decided to go back and get ready for an early dinner. I decided to get sentimental and I wore the dress I wore at my rehearsal dinner. It hadn't been worn since then so that was kind of neat. We attempted about 20 self-timer pictures in the condo before we left. It was quite humorous and turned into a 10 minute ordeal. Below are the 2 best ones.

The restaurant we chose was Louisiana Lagniappe and was right next door to our condo so we were able to walk there. We had amazing food, a great bottle of wine, took our time eating and celebrating and got a free creme brulee for our anniversary. We watched boats come into the Harbour and talked about our year. Perfect!

After dinner we went back to the condo for some year-old cake. As you can see in the picture below, the cake had a rough trip down from Arkansas but I was determined to eat it on that day. Stacia also left us a bottle of bubbly.

I had a few bites which actually weren't terrible. My husband on the other hand, still loved it and took out a good chuck. The rest went into the trash.

We opened gifts next and Ryan got me the best card. As you can see it has fireworks coming out of the chimney of a house which we both though were perfect for our 4th of July wedding. The message he wrote was amazing and made me cry!  

I had decided that I wasn't going to tell Ryan about the traditional anniversary gifts (you know paper, clocks, etc.) just because he gets stressed about gifts and I didn't want him to be confined. Well, being the awesome husband he is, he did that research on his own and got me a "paper" gift which is the traditional one-year symbol. We both love Miranda Lambert and she will be at the AMP in August so the Pettigrews will be in the audience! I also got him tickets but he is going to the NASCAR race at Talledaga. He loves NASCAR but has never been so I wanted to be able to give him his first experience. 



We ended the night by sitting on our balcony, sipping more wine and loving life. While this year had its challenges, I wouldn't change it for the world. God has truly blessed me with an amazing husband and I couldn't imagine spending my life with anybody else. Ryan - I love you MORE!