11th Anniversary Trip...Eleven Actual Years

 

I’m back with a few more stories from our anniversary trip – and this one is from our actual anniversary.

            The day turned out to be lackluster in weather again, but at least it wasn’t pouring. We were happy for that. It was super windy, though, so after we got up and ready, we decided to do our annual photo recreation inside at our loft. We’ve never before taken those pictures inside, but we really liked how they turned out in the end. (I haven’t made the collages yet, so you’ll have to see those later.)

            We also exchanged our gifts in the morning, and that was a lot of fun. The 11^th anniversary theme is steel, which presents some awkward challenges. I gave Ryan a wrench set and meat claws that he had on his list. I tried to make them extra fun by doing a play on words with wrench and claw and how I hoped the last 11 years hadn’t made him want to claw his eyes out and that I hadn’t thrown a wrench in everything. (Something along those lines.) Made him laugh!

    

        He gave me a beautiful necklace and some earrings, but alas, he accidentally purchased the wrong earrings. These were cuff earrings meant to clasp around the earlobe. And of course, my earlobes must be weird, because they wouldn’t work on mine. (Is it a bad day when earrings don’t fit? Ha!) We have since exchanged them for the correct earrings, which look exactly the same, but with a pierced post. I love them!

            We headed out for lunch at this restaurant called Eleven Eleven. Is there any more perfect spot to eat lunch on an eleventh anniversary than Eleven Eleven?

            We’ll never know. They were closed.

            CLOSED!

            Apparently they have different hours on Saturday than the rest of the week and I didn’t catch that. So we got this picture with the building and went on our merry way to try to find something else to eat instead.

            We ended up downtown at Sugarfire BBQ. It was featured on TV and had quite the line. But, much like Chick-fil-A, they kept things moving quickly. We probably only waited in line about a half hour – MAYBE 45 minutes – and they even had tables left.

            I got a salad with brisket on top, and Ryan got this delightful (and tall!) sandwich. We each got a piece of pie for later, and Ryan said that we probably enjoyed the meal even more than the original plan.

            We thought we would go to the Arch after lunch, but unfortunately, they were sold out of tickets to ride to the top. (In fairness, the website did say to buy in advance, but because the weather was so bad, we kept changing the day we were going. Some days we couldn’t even see the top of it because of the clouds.)

            The cool thing about the Arch, though, is that even if you can’t ride to the top, you can go (for free!) into the museum area, so we did that. For once in our lives, it was Ryan that had to go through security multiple times, and I got right through!)

            We sat in the sample tram car to see what it would have been like to be packed in there to ride up. FIVE PEOPLE in this little space. Whew. That’s very close. I actually did ride in one of these when I was little – and I will have to find that picture to share with you sometime. I was much smaller then.

            We also found a sample cross-section of what it’s like to be in the very top of the Arch and look out the windows. That was kind of fun!

            We got coffee and had a little date in the Arch café, and then we called it a day.

            We came home, had our coffee and pie, watched our wedding video, and enjoyed a quiet evening back at the Airbnb!

            It may have been a mishap-filled day, but we loved it anyway. Happy eleven years to us!!!

Sunday Sentiments

 

The week has been full. I’ve explored a park, visited a zoo, driven through Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, attended a work event, participated in Ryan’s Boot Camp class, attended a work event with Ryan, tried to catch up from days out of the office, overhauled a room, volunteered through our church, cooked a meal for someone recovering from surgery, cooked a meal for our small group, hosted said group, and gone to a play.

            I haven’t slept or written nearly as much as I would have liked. Reading has taken a complete back seat. My Christmas cards still aren’t done, And I fell behind on scrapbooking. But it’s okay, because those things will all still be there next week or the next – whenever I have time to accomplish them.

            But as I sit here listening to Ryan clean up the last remnants of hosting dinner, my heart is as full as my week. The chances we’ve had to invest in others, the chances we’ve had to enjoy Christmas joy, the chances we’ve had to spend extra time with our coworkers has been sweet indeed.

            The very nature of this month is busyness. We can’t get around it. But we can appreciate the goodness that comes with full weeks. But the very nature of this month hopefully also drives us to look for moments of slowness. (I’m hoping mine are tucked into next week!) Moments of sitting and savoring. Moments of capturing the wonder and joy.

            So whether your calendar for the week ahead is full or empty, I hope you find moments to treasure and savor. I hope you find beauty and fulfillment in whatever you do!

Saturday Suggestions

 

We are just over two weeks away from Christmas. I’m not ready. Not even close. But I’m determined to get there! This week was all out of sorts…coming home from vacation, turning around and traveling for work, prepping to speak this weekend…whew! But I found a few moments to assemble a Saturday list for you. Hope you find something fun in the mix!

ONE.

I love seeing glimpses of writers’ offices and studios, so this article was such a fun find. It fascinates me to see how some are SO MESSY, some are pretty tidy, and some are very personalized. And there are as many writing habits are there are office styles. We writers are a quirky bunch, aren’t we?

TWO. 

You know I love a good church or one room schoolhouse renovation. (Into a home, of course.) I found this school this week – just over in Ohio. I love the decorating nods to its original life! And that little round window!!! Swooning!

THREE. 

Look at this adorable reading nook/room. The books, the dogs, the cozy…I’m not sure which thing is my favorite! I love it all! Kinda hope when we get our office room resituated, it has this general feel. It won’t look just like this, but I hope it has this feel. Adorable!

FOUR. 

A Christmas farmhouse tour! I thought there were some very inspirational ideas in here (plus it was just CUTE), and I have not given up on the idea of one day having a tree on our porch. We have a tree we aren’t using, so it’s possible…but the big pickle for us is figuring out how to anchor it so the wind doesn’t knock it down. Our front porch can be a bit of a wind tunnel, so in the interest of not looking like a disaster area, we have to be careful how we decorate out there.

FIVE. 

Ryan and I are still sorting through what we want to study in-depth in our Bible study next year. And while this is not an in-depth study, it might be a great supplement to whatever you (or we!) choose to study in 2024. This is a free downloadable/editable PDF to guide you in a whole YEAR of gratitude. E focus on it so heavily in November, but what if you spent some time on gratitude every day for a year? How might your year look different? I encourage you to check it out and consider it!

SIX. 

You know I love a good photo book, and I saw this idea that cracked me up! (The post is old, but I still love the idea.) Your very own book of awkward family photos! Gather up the pictures that didn’t make the cut of being a great photo – and assemble them all in one spot for outtakes and good laughs! Obviously take out anything that could end up being hurtful, but a good laugh is good for the soul!

11th Anniversary...Rain Day!

 

Friday was supposed to be a good weather day. Well, that was a lie! Friday was…rain. Again. And cold. And wind. And gross. (There were periods of reprieve from the rain, but not from the cold and gross.)

            Never fear!! We found an alternate plan.

            One of my favorite things about this trip was that because of all the things that went wrong and had to be canceled, we did get a ton of rest. Our Friday was no exception. We slept in, got ready, and headed out to a coffee shop I’d scouted online.

            To be transparent, I was nervous about it after the sandwich shop debacle. But happily, it was a good experience. Not a cheap experience, but a good experience. (Thank goodness for anniversary gift money, right?)

            It was called the Latte Lounge and HG Eatery, and the building itself was full of character. It was not far from our Airbnb, in the middle of a bunch of loft buildings, and even THIS building had loft-like character. They had a bar for the coffee area, and if you were just ordering coffee to go, you could swing while you waited. The interior had tables upstairs and downstairs and almost had a cruise ship feel in its appearance!

            I ordered a caramel latte that was magnificent, and we each got a brunch platter. Mine was a scramble with eggs, breakfast potatoes, and lots of veggies. Ryan ordered Biscuits and gravy with eggs and breakfast potatoes. It was pretty…and it was delicious.

            We took our time and enjoyed our brunch date. We would absolutely recommend this restaurant!

            After that, we made our way to…IKEA! We met IKEA for the first time on our second anniversary trip and we also visited one on another anniversary trip in another city. This one seemed pretty new, but I don’t think the scenery behind it is new at all!

            The last two times we’ve been to IKEA, we’ve been in an extreme hurry and haven’t been able to truly enjoy a trip through the store. This time we enjoyed. We walked slowly and had fun checking out the room examples and fun finds. (We didn’t buy them all.)

            We did get a couple of things for our upcoming office makeover, and we did more than a little sweating as we tried to figure out how to bring home those purchases with the luggage we’d taken.

            After we finished our window and regular shopping, we decided to stop by Sam’s club to get more coffee, because we don’t know when we’ll be able to get to Fort Wayne for a coffee run. Ryan wanted to get a pizza from the food court to have at the Airbnb for the next couple of days. He waited in line about 20 minutes only to have the guy tell him, “Oh we’re really busy. If you want a whole pizza, you’ll have to wait like 30 minutes.” It didn’t feel worth it to wait for a Sam’s club pizza, so rotisserie chicken won instead!

            We drove home in the rain, changed into jammies, and watched the Golden Bachelor finale. (Do we know how to throw an anniversary celebration or what?)

            Weather? Blah. Brunch? Delicious! IKEA? So fun. Traffic? Terrifying. But the next day was our anniversary, and boy did we have fun plans for our day! (You can probably guess how that went…)