Two Years.

On Monday Andrew & I celebrated two years. Two years. How is that even possible? Just yesterday I was walking down the aisle of our church with the cutest boy waiting at the altar. Just yesterday we were dancing to Frank Sinatra in his parent’s front yard surrounded by our family and friends. But two years worth of memories bridge the gap between then and now and convince me that here we are. Two years later. 

As I was just reminiscing on how absolutely wonderful our wedding day was, the thought hit me that if someone was to offer me the chance to go back to that day, my answer would always be no. Because as wonderful as that day was, today is even better. Today – with all of its messiness and chaos that is life – is so much sweeter because of the days in between that have shaped us. The days that were hard and we woke up a little less giddy than on that first morning. The days that broke us down and forced us to rely on each other. The days that we learned what made each other tick – and the days we learned how to love in each others language. 

Every time we were forced to sit down and have the hard conversation, to say the hard words, to extend forgiveness, to choose love. Every prayer that we uttered, every inside joke we shared, every time we danced in the kitchen. I am a much better person – we are a much better couple – than we even could have imagined that night as we swayed and twirled in our fancy clothes and our shiny new rings. We couldn’t have known that it was possible for our hearts to expand in such ways, to love deeper. For our hearts to actually feel like one and the same.

Andrew's love has taught me more about Christ's love in two years than I could have learned in a lifetime. He loves me when I am not lovable and extends grace when I definitely don't deserve it.

He is my biggest supporter, my most loyal friend, my forever dancing partner. I cannot wait to see what the next few years bring because I can't imagine loving him any more than I do now. My heart is full.

                                       

We were actually worried that we wouldn't get to spend our anniversary together because Andrew is working out of town most nights of the week right now. At the last minute he got to come home, but had to get up super early Tuesday morning to drive back to work. We are thankful for such small blessings.

Since we were on vacation last year we didn't eat our wedding cake so we dug it out of the freezer and tried to eat it - it was awful. You aren't missing anything if you have never tasted a 2 year old cake.

 

Happy anniversary to my sweet sweet husband!

And thanks to Courtney Fallin at www.courtneyfallinphotography.net for the use of these pictures and for doing such a fabulous job! The pictures were taken on our property where we plan to build a house next year so they are special to us. :-)

Caribbean Getaway 2014

Andrew and I have been counting down to this trip since we booked it back in February. So sad that this vacation is over but thankful for the opportunity to go and the memories that we made. We decided to take a big trip this year since next year we will be building our house and most likely will not get to go anywhere. It came at just the right time since Andrew has been traveling for work each week for the  past five months and it has been that long since we have spent a full week together. We had a wonderful time.

We started our trip off with a bang with almost missing our plane leaving out of our local airport headed to Atlanta. Our flight was to leave at 6:00 a.m. and I don’t know what possessed us to think we could get to the airport at 5:30 and still make it. We thought we remembered it only taking that long last time (our regional airport is very small with only a few flights leaving each morning). Talk about living on the edge. I thought the guy checking us in was joking when he asked why we had arrived so late. Then when he handed me our boarding passes and said ‘good luck making your flight’ I knew we were in trouble. The line for security was so long and seemed like it took forever – I was praying so hard we would make it. In Andrew’s version of the story he says I was crying. I say I was doing a nervous dance. Either way when we got through security we ran all the way to the gate to hear them making final boarding call. That was way too close for me! Lesson learned. The rest of our trip went smoothly with on time flights and no lost luggage. Small blessings. The worst part of the whole trip was the hour and half ride from the airport to our resort on the most curvy mountain road you can imagine. But we made it!

I don’t even know where to start with talking about how beautiful everything was. The only way I know how to explain it is that I felt like it absolutely exhausted me to keep looking at everything because I had reached my limit of how much beauty I could see at one time. I am not kidding. We stayed  at the Sandals Halcyon resort but there were two other Sandals resorts on the island, the Grande St. Lucian and Regency La Toc. There was a complimentary shuttle that ran between all three (only 15 minutes apart) and you could use amenities at any of them. I fell in love with the Sandals resorts. Everything was so nice and well taken care of – we were waited on hand and foot! Our favorite resort was the Grande St. Lucian just because it was the newest and had the best atmosphere. Our resort was smaller and quieter with more of a garden type feel than a tropical one. If we go back we will definitely stay at the Grande but we enjoyed our resort too! There is no way you couldn’t enjoy it no matter where you stay.

We had the opportunity to go on a sunset sail to see The Pitons and swim/snorkel in a bay area between the two peaks. I was nervous about going because I get seasick but the waters were super calm and I didn't worry about that at all once we were on the water. It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad we went! The area where we snorkeled was over a protected reef and it was so beautiful. Wish we had had a water camera!

 We also went ziplining! I had been before on a smaller zipline but nothing like this! We got to ride on twelve different lines through the rainforest - some that were almost 700 feet long and with speeds up to 30 mph. It was so much fun! 

Andrew got to play golf at the Regency La Toc course. Golf was included but they required you have a caddy to play. I think Andrew liked having someone carry his clubs, help decide which one to use, and get down and look at breaks on the greens for him. I told him not to get too used to it! The course was beautiful – located partly on the side of a mountain and some in a valley.

We were so blessed to have the opportunity to take this trip! If you ever get the chance to go to St. Lucia - you should definitely go!