one year

I know in comparison to being married for a long time, one year doesn't seem like much but I can still say I CAN'T believe we've married for a year now! I can remember this season we were in last year... I was still on orientation at work, Cody JUST got his job as a youth pastor, Cody was still in school at Tech, I was spending all free time planning our own wedding or being a bridesmaid in someone else's. Now, here we are... Both graduates and alumni of Tech, I feel comfortable in my job, Cody being awesome at his job loving on these youth kids and preaching the Gospel. This past year has been the best even all while me driving 35 min to work and working at night and Cody taking seminary on line after his work day. It's been busy but so much fun. We've definitely learned how important our time together is because half of a week we barely see each other. 

Early on into our marriage we talked about how we both wanted to travel and make an effort to do so, so we do! See the chicago post! We've been able to save some money each month to be able to do so. We talked about going to a different state every anniversary and hopefully see all 50 states! We know that'll just get harder when kiddos and financial changes take place, so we started big with a trip to Chicago. I know the traditional wedding gift for 1 year is paper so... plane tickets? Ha, we didn't do personal gifts for eachother. We just enjoyed our trip and intentional time together. 

We left last Wednesday morning for our trip, but the evening before that we took anniversary pictures (more on that later). I love photography... not in the way that I think I'm a photographer, but that I love capturing the moment and documenting life. I've always scrap-booked and made photo albums for as long as I can remember. So, when it came to our anniversary I wanted to have pictures taken to capture this season.. what we looked like, where we lived, etc. While getting ready for pictures, Cody came home with these beautiful flowers and surprised me! 

 Then we went on to have the perfect trip in the big city. 

We got back late Saturday night and then woke up Sunday morning for church. We were so spoiled with texts from our family when we woke up, a card at church signed by all our youth students, a pumpkin painted by one of our youth students, and many congrats! It was so sweet and we did not expect anyone to make a big deal of our first anniversary, but we're so thankful!

That evening we had trunk or treat at church, no better way to spend your anniversary, right? haha. We were mario and Luigi haha! I can't help but laugh when I see these pictures and how the tiny heads of the masks look our bodies! I wish we had a picture of our "trunk".. we used black/white squared (racetrack) table cloth, had blue tulle hanging as the sky, white "clouds" made of paper, made slipping bananas out of yellow paper and hung yellow plates as tokens to resemble the mario kart game ;) We had so much fun, but apparently we were scary and we made two kids cry, oops!

Once we got home we celebrated our anniversary, frozen cake and all. The cake wasn't that bad, but definitely had the taste of being frozen for a year. We had macarons that we brought back from chicago so we ate those as well. At our wedding we had blank cards and envelopes that people could write on and write a year on it to open, so we opened the first year cards, it was so sweet! I can't wait to read letters that people addressed for 37 years and other later years! we watched our wedding video over again and it was such a sweet reminder of the promise we made to each other a year ago!

now onto year two! it can only get better from here!

the windy city

**warning, this post has a TON of pictures.. mostly scenery, selfies, and food

Cody and I discussed early on in our marriage that we wanted to be intentional about going on trips together and would like to go to a different state for every anniversary. We started big for our first anniversary and choose Chicago! Neither of us had ever been there so it was perfect for us to visit for the first time as a couple! We had SO.MUCH.FUN and definitely recommend it for a vacation. 

We wanted to try to save money any way we could since we knew once we were in the actual city, food and tourist activities add up. So, instead of an expensive hotel right in the heart of downtown we found a studio apartment we could rent through airbnb.com. It was tiny and very simple but all that we needed for a short trip! This first picture is the building we stayed in. It was actually perfectly located between Lincoln Park and downtown, and we walked everywhere from our apartment without a problem. 

I've always loved the look of brownstone houses, busy streets and just the "city" neighborhoods and the street we stayed on was JUST THAT. I could not get over how precious it was everytime we stepped outside!

We flew from west texas at 6:50 am on Wednesday, switched planes in Dallas, and arrived in Chicago about noon. We took the subway from the airport to downtown and then pulled it to our apartment, whew! Once we got settled we started walking downtown and made a stop at Portillo's for their famous chicago hot dogs, yum!

we continued walking to Millenium Park to see the bean. We honestly had no idea where we were going but made our way around pretty well!

I could not get over how beautiful the fall colors were there! Red, orange and yellow leaves EVERYWHERE. 

and their sidewalk fall decorations were perfect, they were different on every block but all with fall mums and pumpkins

the next day we woke up early and intended to go to Glazed and Infused donuts for breakfast. But we walked and walked and eventually found one, but it was a walk up window and we were ready to sit so we ended up at Dunkin' Donuts. Oh well. It was alot cooler this day, so we bundled up!

after breakfast we did an architecture boat tour which we LOVED. We road on an open deck boat on the river through downtown and were told about all of the sky scrapers. It was a fun way to see the city and hear about everything without wearing out our feet ;)

Once we finished the boat tour, we walked over to the Willis (formerly Sears) tower to go onto the sky deck. I'm honestly surprised I even did this! I'm such a chicken when it comes to adventure stuff but it was worth it! The picture below is us on the sidewalk looking up at the Willis Tower and you can barellyyyyy see the sky decks hanging off the side!

Here we are standing/sitting on the sky deck on the 103rd floor!

we then caught a taxi over to Navy Pier, ate lunch, walked around and rode the ferris wheel

after this we walked around downtown, and went to Gino's East for deep dish pizza that was so.good.

the next morning we were going to opposite direction towards Lincoln Park and the zoo. The first picture is me standing right outside our apartment on our precious street!

we turned the corner at the end of the street and found the perfect breakfast spot. This little cafe that gave tons of food and was inexpensive (we actually ate here the next day as well when we couldn't find another breakfast place!)

then we headed into the park which was GORGEOUS and had people running with strollers through the whole thing

the park eventually turns into Lincoln Park Zoo which is a free zoo. We saw giraffes, hippos, zebras, lions, tigers, gorillas, etc. It was neat to have a free zoo to visit!

We then crossed the highway and walked over to the beach

we then took a taxi to the Field Museum, Chicago's famous museum featuring Sue the T-Rex. We enjoyed the museum and seeing everything but we disagreed with some views  ;) and our feet were aching big time at this time

we walked from the museum to downtown to eat deep dish pizza, we walked through Millennium park again and past the Buckingham fountain

 we ate this meal at Giordano's, another famous pizza place in Chicago

after this we headed further into downtown and walked into a few shops. We really wanted somewhere to just hang out but went to some fancy french cafe and got tea and tried Macarons, which was delicious. 

The next morning we went to breakfast with my friend Amanda, from Tech. She so graciously drove us to the airport on Saturday afternoon as well. 

also I had to get some Garrett's popcorn ;)

Chicago was so.much.fun and definitely made our first anniversary a great one!

chili fall days

I absolutely love this season! Cold weather, warm colors, football, and plenty of activities for friends. A few friends and I had a little get together at Cody and I's place complete with cornhole, firepit, pumpkin cupcakes, cookies, and chili. 

looking forward to this week because its our ANNIVERSARY! I can't believe one year has passed already!