first weekend of spring.

this weekend was soooo good. it was over 60 degrees both days, which made my heart happy. we took looonnggg walks, sat on our front steps, talked with neighbors & made big plans for our yard and garden. dreams of outdoor dinners seemed possible & soon. these images begin to tell the story:

1. dinner with new friends!

2. late night mcdonald's vanilla cone (remember this mini-date night?). sun roof open, good music, almost forgot we're adults with a mortgage.

3.  the new paint in our family room is a-mazing!! sherwin williams gray clouds is phenomenal -- can't wait to show you the finished room! every time we walk past/in the room we say something about how much we LOVE it. it feels twice as big & like it gets twice the natural light.

4. i tried the cinnamon buns hair from cup of jo & absolutely loved it. what do you think?

5. to ring in spring, i snuck away saturday afternoon for a much needed pedicure. a stack of magazines & bright coral on my toes did my soul good.

6. saturday night, we got home from a really long walk & were excited to cook dinner, but oh so hungry. we put together this little cocktail hour. my grandmother calls this "hot hor d'ouevres" which i always think is so funny (because of course it's just crackers & cheese)

7. because the paint was still drying in the back room, all our books were off the bookshelves & in our living room. i nestled down to read & ryan snapped this photo.

how was your weekend?!

our sunday.

one of the best things about t&f is we almost always have a camera on us. on sunday afternoon, we went to ryan's favorite, lowes, before heading to base to finish a project he's been working on for a few weeks. i just love hanging out with my husband (& lowes is growing on me :).

then, we headed home to hang out with ryan's roommates from the academy. i just love these boys. their training/deployment schedules mean they're hardly ever in the same place. it's absolutely hilarious when they're together. 

monster.

this morning, ryan woke up & said, "i feel like a monster." i said, "please go back to bed until you wake up not a monster." i hope he was going to be a monster as friendly as this one!

everything in its place weekend.

 

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one of those weekends.

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history of love.

as i was thinking what to post on valentine's day, i was going through some old photos. i thought the above set sort of says it all about why the past four years, and all the non-valentine's day acts of love, have been such a blessing. we're definitely taking time to pause today & reflect on how grateful we are for one another, but we try to do that a lot. (ok, ok, we got excited & actually exchanged gifts last night, on valentine's day eve, and then had breakfast for dinner. it was awesome.)

some explanations of the above photos, since most of them were pre-t&f:

the top one is one of my all time favs. it was on our first trip to nyc together. it was POURING the entire time we were there, but we refused to let it damper our plans. for some reason we had in our mind we'd begin by finding the financial bull (neither of us can remember why) -- we got super lost & by the time we got there, we were sopping wet. my "rain jacket" actually didn't repel water, so after this photo we switched jackets & ryan looked pretty ridiculous in mine.

the next two photos are from our epic 13 day, 11 state road trip one summer. this trip confirmed i wanted to spend the rest of my life with this guy. what's funny, is look at ryan's t-shirt in the donut photo (it says game over). this was way pre-engagement, but we stopped at a dollar tree in georgia, saw these shirts and bought matching ones. we showed up at lizzie's house in them, just to see if she'd actually think we eloped. we still have 'em.

the next four are all from our time in p'cola. it was such a blessing to begin our married life there (something i realize more each day). i especially love the photo where ryan is about to pour water on me. when i just showed ryan that one he smiled and said, "you probably deserved it." and i immediately responded, "definitely." 

the next one is fall in c'ville -- being in one of my favorite places, in one of my favorite seasons, with my favorite person. the last one is from this christmas -- i just love doing life with this guy.

we're making dinner here & watching a movie tonight. what are you up to?! xo

answer: get home ritual.

do you and Ryan have a special hello ritual when you get home from work every day?

i can't tell you how much fun it has been to answer your questions! this one instantly had me grinning from ear to ear, because I'd never thought about it, but we totally do. and it's so simple: we live in an old house, so I can always hear when Ryan is unlocking the door. i'm usually upstairs in the office working & as soon as I hear that sound, I jump up and run downstairs. "husband! husband!" (this has grown from "fiance! fiance!") & he drops his flight gear & gives me a huge hug. (it's really bad that every analogy for what this is like involved a puppy or a 4 year old...) i usually have something i've can't wait to tell him (or a run down of my whole day...) so i immediately launch into a story.

i once heard ryan describe this time to my mom like having a little bottle rocket bouncing off the walls (& that he loved it, which is probably why we're married). so the cool thing about this simple question & moment in our day is that it says so much about our marriage. one of the things i learned (the hard way) is that it's really important to know beyond food, shelter & oxygen, what do you need? it's especially important to know before you decide to spend the rest of your life with someone, because those things have to matter to them too. for one of my friends, it's coffee in the morning & a glass of wine at night. for another, it's traveling. for another, it's being super involved wherever she is. these are things that make them who they are & if you took it away from them, it wouldn't work. for me, one of them is being able to talk about my day. growing up, i'd come through the back door after school & immediately need about 20 minutes of solid listening from my mom. it's like my day hasn't happened until i process it aloud. when i got to college, my sweet friend ash took on this role. & now it's ryan -- he is so good at it. the other detail of this moment in our day is ryan comes home in a flightsuit & dog tags, not a suit & tie. when we got married, this hit me pretty hard. & i still cherish it. 

above photo is of our entry way at christmas! thanks for the WONDERFUL question, katie!

early morning date in boise.

 

 

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answer: marriage & travel.

sweet jenna asked if ryan & i could go anywhere in the world, where would we go ... and if we had any plans currently. oh jenna, we have plans! actually we have a running joke: anytime life gets tough, we look at each other & say, "let's run away and start a taco stand somewhere." a simple life in a place we've never been sounds pretty great. 

we talk a lot about trips we'd love to take together. ryan went to croatia a few years ago & has been itching to take me ever since (the dalmation coast sounds incredible...). we would love to spend some solid time in italy together. & we have dear friends who recently moved back to australia, so all of those would be on the list. the thing is a huge moment in us falling in love was an 11 day, 13 state road trip we took about a year after we met. we both just sort of knew after that trip that this little thing we had going was going to work. i love traveling with him.

p.s. check out our honeymoon in st. lucia, trip to new orleans (here & here), a snow day road trip, the outer banks, & seaside. now we need to put our married passports to work!

click on images for links! thanks for the wonderful question jenna! have your own question? leave it in the comments section & i'll be happy to answer it!

d.c. to ring in the new year!

 

 

 

so, now you've seen our time in new york, indiana & our unexpected road trip. to round up our travels, we made a quick trip up to d.c. ryan grew up there. we met there. we got married there. & we just love it.

we saw some dear friends. roamed around alexandria (amazing sandwiches & soup here!). but mostly we were getting sick, so our swanky hotel (which had champagne for us when we arrived!) was such a nice respite (one benefit of traveling for work is you have points for fun trips!). we had to swing by the georgetown dean & deluca (a great place to find fresh fruit when you're traveling ... & incredible sweets). up next, a really fun dinner we had with friends in their new digs (you're not going to believe this apartment!)

p.s. i finally saw this movie & it was just as good as i thought it would be!