A Milestone

On July 12, 2008 Warren and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. It seems like such a milestone, such a substantial amount of time...and yet it's nothing when you compare it to how long our parents and grandparents have been married. Every year we have always taken a trip to celebrate our anniversary. For our first year we went to Cancun; year two was a cruise to the Carribean; year three was a trip to Kaui; and last year was a trip to Italy. You would think then for the 5 year we would really go all out...sadly no. This year we have a kid so not only are there fewer funds for a fancy vacation but she's still young enough that we can't pawn her off on anyone for more than a few hours. With these factors in mind, we did what many Americans are doing this summer and celebrated with a "staycation". Sophie woke up earlier than usual that morning so Warren grabbed her and brought her into our room. We sat there just playing with her and making her smile- it was fun for all of us to be cuddled up in bed- a wonderfully simple pleasure. Later on that morning Warren's brother watched Sophie while W & I went out to breakfast at Stacks. After a leisurely breakfast, we ran over to Costco to pick up a few things. I was reminded as we were running around that morning what it was like to be without a baby. She brings so much joy to our lives, but it is also fun when it's just the two of us.

Later on that evening, Warren and I went to dinner in San Francisco at Michael Mina's. This is one of those places where eating becomes an experience. The food was amazing- so flavorful and balanced and beautiful in presentation. It's the type of meal where you are closing your eyes and saying "mmmmm" with each bite and eating slowly so the experience lasts longer. It was fancy and we felt fancy being there. The food was so pretty I wanted to take pictures. I was too embarrassed to do so during the first course, but by the second course I realized I could totally get away with it because people would just assume we were silly tourists and wouldn't think anything of it :) So here are pictures from dinner:

Bethany's dinner- a trio of beef prepared in 3 ways

Warren and his trio of duck

Bethany's gourmet rootbeer float and chocolate chip cookies

Warren's dessert- trio of berries

5 years of bliss for Bethy & Warry

Ice cream pops to finish off the palate

During dinner, I looked across the table and I realized just so happy I am and how lucky I am. Life is never perfect, but I know that I wouldn't be nearly as happy if I hadn't married Warren. I had such a sense of joy as I was reminded of the fact that I have the opportunity to be with him forever.

Warren and I decided not to exchange formal gifts but to come up with something more from the heart. Warren found our wedding video and had it transferred to DVD so we could watch it. It was wonderfully thoughtful and so fun to watch that day again. Few lessons learned: if a wedding video is something you think you might want, don't let your little brother be the videographer. Our wedding video shows mostly my family with quick passing scans of Warren's family mostly because my brother didn't know who Warren's family was. Oh and there are lots of nostril shots and not because he doesn't know how to use the camera- they were done on purpose :) Oh well! For Warren, I decided to give him a gift that would show how much I loved him- I watched a baseball game with him. I picked him on a Friday from work and brought him back to our apartment to watch a Yankees game. I decorated the apartment up as Yankee Stadium and had a concession stand complete with cotton candy, corn dogs and Nestle drumsticks.

The 5 year celebration wasn't crazy, but it was meaningful.