anniversary celebration

what a lovely anniversary weekend!

we decided to start our celebration by going to the temple. it was great to be able to be at the place of our marriage ceremony - exactly one year later. it is crazy to think it's been one whole year already. it literally flew by. so many things have happened since our wedding day:

austin left on his mission
my first time out of the country
my first plane ride
chad left on his mission
both of us started new jobs
jack was born
president obama was elected
experiencing our first holidays as a family
starting our own traditions
family reunions
granny's funeral
birthdays
getting stitches
dane and jenee got married
kendyll announced another baby on the way
and so many other things.

it seems impossible that so much has happened in only 365 days. some days i feel as if branson and i have been married a lot longer than a year. we've been through so much together at this point, that my mind is momentarily confused when i look at a calendar and see only a year has passed.

but in reality, time is all relative.
and i'm learning to not take time for granted.

while at the temple, we decided to do sealings. it was amazing to hear again the words that declared branson reed larson mine for eternity. to have them fresh in my mind on the day celebrating our first year of marriage complete. it was such a thrillingly spiritual experience for me. it made me all the more grateful for a husband i get to have forever.

we decided it would be nice to get out of town for a few days. thanks to our good friend sarah, we were able to get a steal of a deal on a luxury suite at the newpark hotel up in park city.

it was a beautiful hotel - and the suite was unbelievable!

yes, our own private hot tub on our deck.
like i said... unbelievable. the view was great. the location was fantastic. all around wonderful.

in the spirit of tradition, we decided to eat our wedding cake on our first anniversary. but don't fret - i made an exact replica of the top of our wedding cake on thursday. frozen year-old cake just isn't appealing to me. at all. so i did the tradition my way - fresh, not frozen, but just as delicious as the one we had at our wedding.

and once again, we were tactful in our feeding each other.

mm mm... lemon cake.
my favorite.

but more favorite than lemon cake is this:

what a handsome man i married.

the rest of our trip was spent relaxing, shopping and admiring beautiful art in all of the galleries in park city. oh, and did i mention eating? don't be fooled by branson's skinny frame. we ate like kings.

our anniversary dinner at ruth's chris.
(which was definitely the most expensive meal of my life. also definitely worth it. had i only had the creme brulee, it would have been worth it. we all know how much of a critic i am about said dessert... and let me tell you - it was the best i've ever had. absolute heaven. i couldn't believe my tastebuds. it was better than mine. better than shannon mock's. blasphemy, i know. but i'm telling you - it's true!)

we made omlets saturday morning-
with bacon and hashbrowns.

lunch at redrock
(they have the most delectable bruschetta - sundried tomatoes and whole cloves of garlic. my mouth is watering just thinking about it.)

left-over steak dinner
with creamed spinach and mashed potatoes.

waffles for breakfast sunday morning
with strawberries, bananas and whipped cream
and bacon, of course.

we definitely ate well. that's for sure.

it was nice that we could make some of our meals right in our hotel room. it saved us a ton of money. so i figure, expensive ruth's chris dinner is totally justifiable because we only at out twice in the three days we were there. all of the other food came from our fridge at home. i feel good about it.

truly, it was a great weekend. we had a lovely time - even with the rain and lightning and loudest thunder i have ever heard.

it was comical to me how the weather panned out - i'm reminded me of last year at this time. now, this may be a little bit vain and selfish, but i seriously prayed that it wouldn't rain on my wedding day. i know, it rains on people's wedding day all the time. and everything always turns out fine. but, the date we had picked was in june. june. in utah. a time when it starts to get too warm. all air conditioners and swamp coolers are turned on by then. so i felt confident that the weather would cooperate with me.

as soon as i could access a 10 day weather forecast, i checked almost every hour. the first week of june was decent weather. but the second week of june - the week that mattered - was scheduled to rain. rain, rain go away... please don't rain on my wedding day. 3 days before my wedding, all local forecasts predicted snow on june 11th. snow? snow! i couldn't believe it. i'm not going to disclose the deal i made to guarantee no snow or rain on june 12th, but deal i did.

wednesday night, june 11th, i saw stormy clouds and my heart sunk a little. i started to convince myself a little rain never hurt anyone. and if i had to, i could take wedding pictures with a cute little umbrella.

but thursday morning, the sun was shining, there was no snow. there was no rain. there weren't even many clouds in the sky. it might not mean the same to everyone, but it was just another confirmation to me that it was right.

it turned out to be the most beautiful day. the perfect temperature. not too hot, not too cold. and it had rained just enough leading up to that day that everything was super green and in full bloom. oh, how grateful i am for that day!

back to my point: the weather this week was eerily the same. rain. lots of rain. snow in the mountains. but friday, june 12th, was beautiful. it made me smile, and once again reminded me of how much i am loved.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

i'm interested to see where we are next june 12th; what events will have happened by then, the things we will have endured together, the fun and exciting things we will do between now and then. there's bound to be quite a few.

one year.
365 {well, 368 days now} days.
too many memories to count.

yep. i definitely made the right choice.