8 Years of Marriage

On November 18th, Jon and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary!

Every year we try to go on a mini vacation somewhere. Our original plan was to go visit our friends Bay and Shawn in NV, but when Shawn's grandma had a bad fall earlier this year, the whole family changed Thanksgiving plans and so our mini trip was cancelled. I couldn't let this year go by though as this was an opportunity for us to have our first night without Kate and have a little time to ourselves before baby #2 arrives!

In about a week and a half's time, I planned a surprise trip for me and Jon. I wrote Jon 8 anniversary cards that all told him things I love about being married to him. The final one had his anniversary gift, which was a gift card to Color Me Mine so that we can paint something awesome together. The traditional 8 year anniversary gift is pottery :)

 

I had changed my work schedule and doctor appointments that week so that Jon wouldn't know that I had moved everything around. On the day we were going to leave, he thought I had to close at work. Instead I came home at 4pm and had road trip snacks in the front seat of the car! This was his last day of teaching before the next term, so it was a good chance to celebrate another semester completed.

I gave Jon his first card which said we were going on a surprise date. I had already packed our bags and they were in the trunk. Our neighbors and ward friends were already set to watch Kate overnight and had her bag and pack-n-play. Jon was so surprised. "How long are we going to be gone??" He asked. I didn't tell him where we were going, but just that I wanted him to enjoy it!

We drove up the hill to Nevada City where I had made reservations at a cute Inn. It was adorably cozy and small, super cute and clean! All of the shops in the town were lit up. I was so excited to wander through it all! It reminded me a little bit of Portland and the older shopping district that we loved.

I had even packed sparkling cider for us! Jon was very impressed. We walked a short half mile to an AMAZING restaurant for dinner. Friar Tuck's is definitely in our top 5 of all-time favorite restaurants. After dinner we walked back to the Inn. I just had to get a picture of Jon brushing his teeth with his winter hat on :) It was a bit chilly. Luckily we had a great heater in the room!

The next day we spent our time perusing the shops and had a fantastic lunch at South Pine Deli. Jon found me an awesome pair of wool socks as well as an adorable hat which he bought for me for our anniversary. I've never owned a nice hat before, so it was a lot of fun trying them on!

I would say that Jon's favorite store was the Fur Trader. They had real fox hats with the paws still on and the tail hanging down the back. If they weren't about $300 I'm sure he would have purchased it right on the spot. We loved looking at the coats and blankets! So so so soft. We were also able to pick out our Christmas ornament for this year, which we love to do on our anniversary trips. The winner: a felted fox with a pipe. He is currently chilling in our wreath on the door of our room since we don't have a Christmas tree. We also loved visiting the antique stores. There was some fantastic art deco era jewelry that the antiques lady let me try on. Holy cow, they were beautiful! It was cool to see that some had cuts of diamonds that aren't used anymore in modern jewelry. We could have spent hours in there!

We didn't bring our camera on the trip or the phone charger, so there aren't many pictures. But I kind of liked it that way. We just held hands and talked instead of worrying about social media or capturing every detail. It was such a great chance for us to feel like we were dating again and just talk about our past year and what we hope for this next year.

I'm so thankful for a husband who will do fun spontaneous things with me, even when he has no idea what is going on! I'm glad that he likes to go antiquing with me and stay in cute Inns. I'm so glad that we've made it through year #8 and can't wait to see what we talk about at the next anniversary celebration. We have a new found love for Nevada City and will definitely be going back!!