Travel Thursday: Where the Birthday Trips Began

 

One thing that always amazes my planner-loving heart is that when Ryan and I first married, we didn’t have a bunch of carefully scripted plans for traditions. Nearly all…if not all…of our beloved traditions you know us to hold so dear just…happened.

                Monthiversaries? We were not intentional about them the first couple of months, though we managed to note them in some way. Then we decided to start counting and we never stopped.

                Our family Christmas trees with ornaments collected from our adventures? Happened by accident on our honeymoon when the souvenir we chose happened to be an ornament.

                Those recreated wedding photos we take every year on our anniversary? Completely random idea pulled from Pinterest ON our first anniversary.

                We didn’t plan ahead, but once we started instituting ideas, they stuck. And one of those was our annual birthday trip. We crafted the idea right around this time of year that first year of marriage. If you’re new here, you might not know that we have birthdays three weeks apart. Ryan’s is in late Apil and mine is mid-May. We decided it would be fun to take a weekender trip between our two birthdays every year. Over the years, the timing of those trips – and their length- changed. Sometimes we took this trip later in the summer and made it a long trip. Sometimes it’s been as short as an overnighter. It has all depended on our vacation time, which has waxed and waned with our job changes over the years.

                But that first trip was a long weekend (Friday-Sunday) that fell smack in between our two birthdays. Today I thought I’d share some fun facts and memories from that first birthday trip.

                We started the chalkboard photo tradition with this trip, and you’ll notice it says we went to Cincinnati. We did not, in fact, ever go to Cincinnati on this trip. We went to the Creation Museum, which is relatively near Cincinnati, but we did not go to this city.

                Right before we left, Ryan gave me my birthday present so I could enjoy it on our trip. It was a new, fancy pants, big girl camera! I still have and use this camera, so I think it’s safe to say it was a good investment.

                This photo was all about playing with my new camera, but it, too, became a tradition. Every year in our birthday trip scrapbook, I have a page called “On the Road with My Baby” (as I titled it in the inaugural book) and I take a photo of Ryan driving.

                When we arrived at the Creation Museum, they did a photo shoot where they added backgrounds for us, and it’s one of the few times in life we did buy the photo package. But the funny part was that I did not know this was going to happen, and I wore a green shirt. And then I stood in front of a green screen. I was missing half my body in all the photos! They were kind enough to put me back together.

                I wrote in the scrapbook, “They also had interesting things about the ark – including a walk through of what a section might have looked like, ideas of how Noah fed all the animals, and a depiction of those who didn’t make it onto the ark.” Who knew, on that day in 2013, that eventually the Ark Encounter would exist, and that would be a different birthday trip in a different year!

                We stayed in a hotel and were on the junior high floor. There was some big junior high group out for the weekend, and I quite literally still remember their wildly energetic chaperone. I named her Pink (because she always wore neon pink) and she was just so so happy so so early in the morning. The photo is my reaction...

                This was my one-and-done ziplining adventure. We went to Dagaz Acres in Rising Sun, Indiana, and this establishment (per the internet) is now permanently closed. This was my idea, in my desire to give Ryan a fun adventure. I was terrified, I did not love it, and I was so happy when it was over. However, I am proud of myself for powering through my fears. And I can’t be angry that the most iconic photo of our entire marriage came from this experience.

                (Note: Our two guides were amazing, and the Lord was kind to arrange it so that Ryan and I were the only two on a tour that could have held up to 14 people. My blood pressure was high, but not as high as it might have been.)

                (Note #2: I still own those pants. They don’t fit so well. Maybe it’s time to let them go.)

                It was prom night in Rising Sun, so when we explored the riverfront after ziplining, we encountered many promgoers in ill-fitting heels. I was so happy to be in comfy clothes!

                We ran into a young guy in the hotel (whilst in the elevator) who told us he was in town to cheer on his parents who were running a marathon. He was from Washington state and his dream for the trip was to eat at Cracker Barrel. We got the biggest kick out of that!

                This trip will always be sweet and special to us, because it began a tradition we’ve continued every year without fail!