Bekah's Bits: Memories...Months 51-60

Morning, friends!! I'm really looking forward to trekking through the memories for this 10 month group, because I'm looking forward to reliving some of those alphabetical dates! :)

Month 51.

With Ryan newly recovered from gallbladder surgery, we launched into month #51 of our marriage! We started out with the date inspired by the letter B (BBQ carryout and Borrowed Board Games).We toured Boone County (which has some amazing donuts, let me tell you), and celebrated Valentine's Day with a rare trip out to eat. (We normally stay in on Valentine's Day.) We did the date inspired by the letter C, which was a Coffee Crawl through Kokomo, and that was what powered us for the month's big event: my Mom's hip replacement. I prepped a bunch of meals for her to freeze (individually portioned) and have during recovery, and Ryan was our go-to guy for understanding everything the doctors and surgeon said!

Month 52.

We continued having Tuesdays at the Table...and our alphabetical dates! The letter E date was an EARLY bird date with EGGS and ESPRESSO. The letter D date was a DOWNTOWN DINNER DOUBLE DATE with our friends Mark and Kari - so much fun! We redid our kitchen - again - by refinishing all the cabinets from oak to espresso. It was labor intensive, but made a FABULOUS difference in the room! Ryan took over Mom's hip rehab, and I attended a bunch of their sessions! (Perks of the stay at home life!) But I think our most fun that moment was the combination of our St. Joseph County date, which included a tour of the South Bend Chocolate Company and the Notre Dame campus...and a surprise date planned by Ryan! He made it the letter G date...a trip to see the GAITHERS in concert! It was the last time I got to see David Phelps in concert with the Vocal Band before he left it (again) and it was the best night!

Month 53.

We kicked off the month with the date inspired by the letter F: FRIDAY night FELLOWSHIP with FRIENDS, FREE coffee, and a FLICK at the theater! We saw our friend Brent in concert, and we went (yes, both of us!) to Indianapolis to be in Ryan's sister's wedding dress shopping entourage. We celebrated Easter with our families and Ryan's birthday, which included some of our favorite memories this month: a pilgrimage to Tucanos with our friends Mike and Angie, and the date inspired by the letter H, which was also part of his birthday: HAPPY birthday with HAMBURGERS for dinner and a trip to HIGHLAND Park!

Month 54.

This was a CRAZY month in the land of speaking. We went to five speaking engagements that month, and four of them were in the same week! I was so grateful to have Ryan with me to share in those! We also attended two weddings that month - which is a lot for us. We're too old to know many people getting married anymore! We hosted Mommapalooza, which fell ON my birthday this particular year - and we were sitting for Phoebe that same day! Our date inspired by the Letter I took us to INDIANA Wesleyan and a trip down memory lane - and strawberry shortcake at IVANHOE'S. (I miss that place. We have to get there this year!) We also went on our birthday trip this month - where we stayed on a boat and breakfast in Saugatuck, Michigan. We got to see a lighthouse, do some shopping, enjoy a pie tasting, and hike in a state park! Typical freezing cold weather for us on a birthday trip, but such fun anyway!

Month 55.

We kicked off this month with a date inspired by the letter J: JAVA, JAMMIES, and JENGA! It was fun! It was a busy month in family stuff, because Ryan's sister got married this month! We had bachelor/bachelorette parties to attend, all the wedding setup to work on (the wedding was in a family barn) and then Ryan was a groomsman and I was a photographer! It was a busy little month! We went on the Elkhart County tour, which took us to the South Side Diner (which has been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) and we toured our first RV, because our appetite to own one was already growing! The date inspired by the letter K was KABOBs and KARAOKE, and the date inspired by the letter L was LOBSTER and LANGOSTINO pizza at Red Lobster - and LEMONADE to drink. Delish! But I think our winning story from this month was getting new kitchen appliances - stainless steel, actually - and calling the store to come pick up the dishwasher because it had a scratch on it. Except...it turned out the scratch was really on a plastic protector on the front of it that we didn't even realize was there. Hello, embarrassing!

Month 56.

Ahhh, July. How we love you! Fireworks over the lake kicked off our month. We went on the date inspired by the letter M: MEXICAN food at MI FAMILIA and MOCHA, of course. We missed our annual date to the fair this year because I went to a conference the same week, and it didn't work out. (And we missed each other like crazy.) We won tickets to a Kokomo Jackrabbits ballgame, and that was fun! But our favorite experience this month was the date inspired by the letter N, because it was all about NEW experiences! We tried a pie shop we'd driven by a million times. We did our first ever escape room (with a whole crowd of strangers) and ate dinner at Bub's Burgers, which was featured on Man vs. Food. (We shared a burger.)

Month 57.

We started the month with the date inspired by the letter P: POLAR POPS and PIZZA KING in the PARK and a game of PUTT PUTT! One of the most fun dates, I think! We went to Ryan's 20th high school reunion - homecoming football and a dinner the next night. The date inspired by the letter O was an OPEN house at an OIL farm, where we got to tour sunflower fields and see how they produced the oil from them! Phoebe came to stay with us for a MONTH starting his this month, too! But I think our most favorite thing from the month was going through small group leader training at our church. This became the beginning of our deep involvement at that church for the remainder of our time in Kokomo, and we really loved it.

Month 58.

This month started with the date inspired by the letter Q: QUESADILLAS and fun QUIZZES during a QUIET night at home! Phoebe was with us for about half this month too, and was SO excited to see her people return! We went on a really fun double date with our friends Jon and Julie that month (which made us wonder why we live so far from them)! Ryan did some yard projects - upgrading our gutter system to run underground and make the yard prettier. Our date inspired by the letter S was a SCAVENGER hunt across Kokomo! We rounded out the month with one of our favorite memories: a weekend trip to northern Indiana in which we knocked out three counties from our tour and just had the BEST time outside! We toured Lake County (Albanese Candy Factory tour, an afternoon at the County Line Orchard, and coffee at a shop called Spill the Beans!) We conquered the 3 Dune Challenge at Indiana Dunes State Park and toured Porter County, which included a stop at Valparaiso University! And of course - LaPorte County took us to a lighthouse and to see some friends who lived in town! It was such a fun weekend!

Month 59.

Our FIFTH engagementversary was also our date inspired by the letter R: a ROMANTIC RENDEZVOUS at a RITZY ROTATING RESTAURNT. One of the most fun places I think we've ever eaten! We had our annual pictures taken that fall - with a new-to-us photographer that we loved so much and we miss now that we've moved! We had to redo the roof of our front porch because parts of it had rotted: what a mess! And one of our favorite dates: the one inspired by the letter T. We went to a food TRUCK day in Fort Wayne, followed by a TINY house road show! And then we ended the day by having dinner with our friends Wayne and Shari! Such a fun day.

Month 60.

And rounding out this recap was our last month in this fifth year of marriage! We squeezed in the date inspired by the letter U, which was UNPLANNED. (My friend Kari gave us three envelopes filled with dates she planned. We opened one at random and did that date!) We decorated for Christmas a little early, and that was fun, but honestly the majority of this month was devoted to my mom's double knee replacement. Not only did she have the surgery, but she spent two weeks at Ryan's rehab hospital, recovering. She was in the hospital over Thanksgiving, so Ryan and I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time ever, and both my sisters came for it too! Right at the end of the month...Mom went home!

And because I want to pay homage to it today, I want to look back at our fifth anniversary, which also is, I think, in our top three favorite trips we've ever taken. OH it was so much fun. We called it the "Friendtastic Fifth," and we loved it. We drove back to Florida to visit our beloved beach where we were married. We stopped in Georgia and spent some time with our new friend Joan and then drove on in to Siesta Key! We celebrated our 5th anniversary in the same spot where we got married and even watched another couple get married on the beach! Our date inspired by the letter V was a VINTAGE VOYAGE where we went on a lunch cruise through Sarasota Bay - a nod to a dinner cruise we took on our honeymoon! We visited my college roommate, Christi, and Ryan's high school wrestling coach, Mr. Sprinkle - both of whom lived in the area. We went on the date inspired b the letter W: a WATER day, which included exploring Venice beach and kayaking in a glass bottomed boat! We left Florida and headed up through South Carolina, where we stopped to visit my former WBCL co-worker Jill (and her husband) and then North Carolina to spend some time with our friends Nate and Jenna. That's where we went to our first Duck Donuts, and now we're hooked! We also visited Mayberry and Ryan got a "haircut" from the real Floyd the Barber's son! We got to tour the Biltmore (decorated for Christmas!) in a snowstorm! It was SO pretty! That was the date inspired by the letter Y - the YULETIDE date. And then we drove through snow-covered mountains to get home!