And the living is easy ...

This summer has been great. The blogs Adrienne has written below give you a taste of how much fun we’ve been having. This last weekend was the best so far (in my opinion) and that is saying a lot. We’ve been very fortunate. We’ve been able to travel a bit and visit family. I’ve been able to get to know Adrienne’s family better and she’s been able to meet a lot of my family also. It’s meant a lot.

We celebrated our FIRST anniversary last weekend on Sunday, the 24th. So after an Angels game and Disneyland, we headed out to celebrate our anniversary in Palm Desert at the Shadow Ridge Marriott Vacation Club (one of Adrienne’s great ideas). It was awesome. We had a little villa with kitchen, tvs, shower, a bathing pool, and patio right along the 15th hole fairway.

First night:
Adrienne has got mad skills in a lot of areas. Naturally, there are some areas she doesn’t focus on as much as others. She is not always as confident in these areas- I’m sure for various reasons but mostly for lack of time spent on it. Cooking is one of these things. Ade cooked an amazing little meal for our anniversary dinner. I loved it! Chicken, corn, bread, and an amazing summer salad. I’ll let the pictures show you how nice it was. She can definitely be confident after that meal. Afterwards, we watched a movie and just enjoyed relaxing.

Next day:
We had some waffles (made with a sweet waffle-maker we were given for our wedding) for breakfast in bed. So good. Then we lounged and lounged and went to the pool during the day and that evening we went to my cousin’s house for dinner and a family home evening. My cousin Carol Anne is my mother’s brother’s daughter. My mother’s family was mostly older than us and most of them lived in Idaho so we didn’t get to see them as much. It’s been really nice to see many of them this summer and Carol Anne was icing on the cake. She’s always been so fun and so great to talk to. We had dinner with her, her husband Mark, and their kids Christopher and Ali, played darts and answered questions about ourselves, and then watched some of “Best of Christopher Walken – SNL”. It was a fun evening. It was good of Adrienne to take that chance and give up some of her anniversary vacation to meet some family. I appreciated it. We went home late and lounged for a bit before crashing.
Tuesday:
We lounged and lounged (that was the favorite activity) and went to the pool again. Just a real busy schedule we had. In the evening we went into town for dinner at Ruby’s, went back to the pool, and later back to the villa to watch movies. So as you can see we had a fun and relaxing time.
Final day:
Woke up, packed up, checked-out, and well … hit up the pool one last time.

So it was a great anniversary and we had a blast. After one year of marriage we are more in love. Marriage has opened our eyes to a different perspective and has helped us grow. We’ve gotten to know each other quite well and Adrienne has put up with me incredibly. And I’ve learned I have a long way to go to being a great husband. She listens to me whether what I’m saying is important or not, puts up with my impatience, makes me meals, lets me watch too much ESPN and election coverage, puts up with my fault of occasionally criticizing, and continues to look gorgeous doing it all. I love her and am excited to progress through life with her by my side.

I had to share that with friends and family who may read the blog. Adrienne has been too good to me and deserves me being more vocal about it.