Yesterday we celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary!

In July we hit our decade mark of being together, and it seems like so long ago, and also like it was just yesterday. That's a long time to get to know somebody!

I'd like to think we've learned a thing or two over nine years, but I don't think I'm one to give marriage advice. We've had our ups and downs, good times and bad, like any marriage. And nine years is enough time to get comfortable and know each other pretty well, but even after all this time, I think we're still learning some things. As your life changes, so do you, and still, on occasion, we learn things about the other one that we didn't know.

Overall though, we know each other's likes and dislikes and I always joke that we are two peas in a pod! We have a tendency to say the same things and read the other's thoughts all the time, and we always get a good laugh out of it when we do.

And that's probably what I'd say my favorite thing is about us, the laughing. We are both kind of dorky, and we love to make each other laugh. We have the same sense of humor, and we enjoy being silly. I would say laughing is the best way we get over arguments. It's hard to stay mad when you're laughing together, haha!

Alright, that's probably enough mushy-gushy about us, and I wanted to share how we celebrated this year! I had a hard time coming up with something fun to do that was a little out of the ordinary. We wanted to go out, but we've tried most of the restaurants in our town, and even though we love to go to our favorite places, I wanted something a little different.

I was up the night before, wracking my brain, and since southern Oregon has some cool hidden spots, I decided to get on google maps and see if anything came up. We both enjoy being outdoors, and the weather this week has been perfectly fall, so it seemed like something would work out! I was scanning around our area and the name Mckee popped out at me.



I looked it up, and it turned out to be the Mckee covered bridge over Applegate River. It's no longer in use for driving, but it's a pedestrian bridge with a day use park next to it. Apparently in the summer, it's a great swimming spot, but I figured (correctly) that 57 degrees and a chance of showers would give us the whole place to ourselves. So, after work, I had Dane pick up pizza and meet me and I drove us out there. He didn't know where we were going until we arrived, and I lucked out and he'd never been there before either ;)


So we had ourselves a romantic little pizza picnic, and checked out the old bridge. There was also a covered gazebo that had a neat vintage piano (that worked!) but I didn't get a picture before it got dark. It was so nice, and we both agreed that we enjoyed it more than if we'd just gone to a nice restaurant. And the setting was so neat, I think we'll definitely be back.

Now, in the interest of transparency, here's some blog/instagram vs. reality for ya! ;)

Here's what I had pictured in my head:


And here's what it actually looked like, haha!!


Still nice, but definitely less pretty!

If you live in the southern Oregon area, I definitely recommend checking this place out, and if not, maybe check and see if there are any cool historical places in your own area!

Happy Thursday, and happy fall eve! Thanks for stopping by :)
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It's well into October, but I forgot to mention that last month we celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary!

<3 <3 <3

I can't believe it's been that long already. I still remember when we started dating like it was yesterday! But, seven great years it has been, and I can't wait for the many more to come. Every day I know I am so blessed to have the amazing husband I do, and I still consider myself the luckiest girl in the world!

This year we decided to spend a night away, but not too far away. We drove about an hour-ish from where we live to Idaho City. It's a cute, tiny little town that has been described as a living ghost town! It is full of so much history, and at one point in it's gold rush hey-day, it was bigger than Portland! (though you wouldn't know it now).

There are a lot of very cool historic buildings there, and we had a great time walking around the town and looking at them.

For the evening, we went to a hot springs that has been built into a spa and resort, and we spent the night in an adorable little cabin!

As those of you who have been following this blog for a while know, I love to do special things for our anniversary weekends, and this definitely fit the bill!

And if you're ever in the Boise area (or if you live here already) I definitely recommend taking the drive up to Idaho City and checking it out!

Well, actually yesterday was.

But I feel like I haven't really blogged much since I wrote about our last anniversary!

This year marks six years since we've been married. We've had our bumps along the road,like everyone does, but we all know that bumps just make you stronger.

I love planning fun things for us to do, and I love to go all out. It works really well, because there's not much I enjoy more than planning an event (whether it's a party, vacation, or date night), and watching an idea unfold is almost as exciting to me as the actual occasion!

This year, I wanted to do a picnic, even though that's similar to what we did last year. This time though, I wanted to go somewhere special, instead of staying at home.

Since our move to Idaho, we have loved spending time in Boise. One thing that we haven't gotten to do yet though, was hike in the foothills. I decided to find the spot with the best views, and go there to have a picnic, so off to Tablerock we went!




I managed to keep it a surprise until we got to the trail head, and we had a bunch of goodies packed in back packs to take up the hill.

Now, I figure that I'm in pretty decent shape. I work out and go to the gym pretty regularly, and I didn't think the hill would be any big deal. Oh, so it takes most people an hour to climb to the top? Pshhh, well we would probably do it in 45 minutes, tops!

Hahaha!

Let's just say, that trail knocked me down a couple pegs....




Anyway, after about an hour (and a whole lot of stops for rest), we made it to the top. Right in time to catch the sunset! The views were stunning, and it was definitely worth the climb.



After we watched the sun go down, with all of the other sunset chasers and their cameras, we found a quieter spot nearby and set up our picnic. I went with all the works! Italian themed, sandwiches, chocolate, strawberries, candles...you get the gist.

And we watched as it got darker and darker, and the lights of Boise glowed brighter and brighter.




It was such a nice, relaxing dinner, even if it took so much work to get there! It's definitely somewhere we would like to go again.

I would recommend it to anyone, because you really can't beat the view. One bit of advice though: if you're coming down after dark, like we were, don't forget to bring a flashlight that works! It's a challenging trek when you can't see where you're going. Ooops!




Now, I'm going to continue to lay around and rest my sore muscles, because the gym is going to come too soon! Enjoy this last evening of the weekend!

I knew Dane would love something like this, because he's such an outdoorsy guy, and even if it was just camping in our backyard, he would really enjoy it! Plus, who doesn't love a good sheet/blanket fort?

I was so excited that I got started right away! I went to the store and bought all of my wood and supplies. I think I spent about twenty bucks on all of the stuff for the frame, which consisted of several lengths of 1x2 and 2x2 wood, some bolts, and a couple packages of rope. Everything else, like the lights and coverings, I already had. Most of my information came from a couple of tutorials, here and here.

Now, you can go as fancy or as simple as you want, and I went with very simple. My coverings just bed sheets, and they weren't really attached very well to my frame, just to each other (although that would have been helpful when the wind was blowing!). And I didn't use a dowel rod on the top like that first tutorial did, but in hind sight I think that was the way to go. Instead, I just used screws to attach one of my boards, and I ended up snapping one! It never fell down on us though, so I guess it worked just fine. Like I said, this is no tutorial. I am not a good enough craftsman for that! So, just refer to those links up there :)




For dinner I wanted to go with something light and easy, and I'm glad that I did! Setting up the tent took a lot time and energy, so when it came to the food, I didn't want to have to put a ton of work into it. I still wanted it to tasted good though, so I made some bruschetta with fresh tomatoes from the garden, basil, and fresh mozzarella! I also set out some pita chips and hummus, prosciutto, and a bag of assorted dark chocolates (because those are Dane's favorite!).

 So, besides the fact that I basically spilled the beans (twice! Both on the what and the when) Dane never knew exactly what I had up my sleeve, and he was very impressed with all that I did! We pretty much just hung out and did our usual thing, talking and watching netflix (because what's glam-ping without internet access?) but it was all the more special, because everything is better with twinkle lights!


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As some of you may or may not have noticed, I added Dane's and my love story to my pages. Because I'm sure you were all waiting on pins and needles for it! I actually really enjoy reading about other people's love stories. How they met, what all went down. There are some really sweet ones out there! So, if you're interested in reading about how an Idaho girl fell in love with an Oregon boy, check it out.

In honor of me finally posting that, I wanted to share another special gem with you all! It's the story of the most unforgettable anniversary we've ever had! (And not for the reasons some of you may be thinking).

It was our second wedding anniversary. We decided to stay close to home, and just go out for a romantic dinner. We chose a restaurant a little further away than normal, and a little more expensive too!

Fun fact, it was so expensive that I decided to buy the gift card pack from Costco. Yeah.

I remember really looking forward to it, because even though we went on date nights a lot, I'd heard a lot of good things about the restaurant. You could even buy cigars from them and smoke on the deck off of the lounge! If that is not the epitome of classiness, I just don't know what is.

For the most part, everything was going great! The food was delicious, and since I had gotten a 20% savings on the gift card, we decided to order appetizers, as well as entrees. Big spenders over here, look out! As a result, we decided to opt out of dessert. Fast forward to the end of our meal (where I had finished off ALL of my food), and the staff decided to surprise us! In honor of our anniversary, they gave us a free dessert. It even came with a little card, signed by all of them. It was very sweet!

The dessert was just as good as the rest of the food. It was a delicious peach cobbler, with cinnamon and nutmeg. So, so good. So good, that I didn't stop eating, even though I was so stuffed! This was the start of my problem.

After we finished, we left the restaurant. I remember feeling like I hadn't ate that much food in a long, long time. And that I probably didn't need to eat ever again! We were both in minor food comas, and we just wanted to go home and go to bed. Just a few minutes after we started driving, it happened.

"It" would be the weirdest burp/cough thing in the world, which resulted in my vomiting all over myself!

I was horrified! And covered. My hands, my lap, my purse. All covered in regurgitated peach cobbler.

I'm sure you are wondering what exactly in the world happened, so let me explain. Dane likes to make fun of me and say that I over ate to the point of throwing up, but I don't think that was  know that wasn't the case!

We've all had that moment where you burp after a meal, and a little bit comes up into your throat. Don't act like you've never done it. It is so gross, and super unpleasant when it happens! Body fluids are supposed to stay in their designated spot, darn it!

So, this was just that. Whenever I burped, I felt some of that dessert start to come up with it! In that same split second, before I could do anything to stop it, I coughed! That projected everything that was in my throat, up into my mouth! It happened so fast, that there was no time for me to try to control anything!

You can only imagine how disgusting it was. Here I am, covered in my own vomit, gagging, nothing to clean up with, and the car was filled with the smell! Puke and nutmeg. Obviously it took a while to be able to eat nutmeg again.

Dane was freaking out, and so was I. It was a very miserable 30 minute drive home. It was cold, so I wanted the heater on. Which only pushed the smell right at us (and you would think it couldn't have smelled any worse!), so Dane had the windows rolled down. We were both so miserable!

Needless to say, it did not turn out to be the romantic night I envisioned, but it does make for one heck of a story! Hopefully my misery has made you laugh, because that's the only thing that makes these kinds of stories worth it!

And, for the sake of everyone, always burp with care!