Our Family's Birthday Celebration

Can you believe it?! One whole year! One WHOLE YEAR!!!! We are practically that old married couple that bickers back and forth all the time haha. jk. He might be joking but we definitely have the aches and groans to go with it. But seriously. We are going on one year strong! We had some good times and bad, some stressful moments and moments of laughter, and I can't wait to do it all again this next year! and forever ;)

So on Friday we began our anniversary festivities by heading up to SLC. Sharyti insisted we include the image below. It shows my good side she said. It does haha, to be honest it just made me laugh. We goofed around the Gateway Mall for a bit before going to to see the new Star Wars movie Rogue One. It was pretty epic. Disney is carrying on the legacy well. Ya, it was a good movie but I'm very much a happy-go-lucky kind of movie person. . . and that is not what this one was. I cried. . several times. Yes I'll admit it. But I will agree with Jay, they did a really good job of plot and character development. Which is probably why I cried. .

Anyways, we then checked in to our hotel, and afterwards headed out on the town. 

We went to Temple Square and enjoyed all the lights and festivities that were going on, even thought it was like -60 degrees outside. BRRRR. I'm a St. George boy at heart. I have to add in here a blurp about Jay's very sweet surprise. So we're walking around looking at the lights and he pulls me into this little alcove of lights and bushes and says he has a surprise for me. Well if we weren't married I'd have though he had a ring lol. But wait, he did! We couldn't afford to get an engagement ring and a wedding band last year when we got married. So he bought me the wedding band that went with my ring for our anniversary. Such an AMAZING surprise and soo sweet. Also I'm pretty sure everyone around us thought we had just gotten engaged by the way I reacted haha = priceless. 

After a delicious Olive Garden meal, we stopped by the Cheesecake Factory for the real food. . . Cheesecake ;). The oreo cheesecake is to die for!!! Seriously, Jay almost got his hand bitten off trying to eat some of mine.

The next day we did sealing in the SL Temple. It was amazing, and it brought back the memories and feelings of when we were sealed together last year! That was still the best decision I ever made! Me too. After that, we struggled to think of something to do until 5 oclock when the Hoggle Zoo Lights started. After much thought, we decided "hey, lets go to Ikea for the heck of it" cuz you know, thats a great anniversary celebration activity haha.  Also I had never been before. I see now, why people can spend money there so easily. I wanted everything! We wandered the store dreaming of our future home and how we would decorate it, and yes wishing we had money to buy all of the cool stuff there.

The zoo at night during Christmas is awesome! They put up TONS of Christmas lights and it was fun to walk around and enjoy the sites. Only a few of the animals were out. We saw a sea lion, and a bunch of big cats. Jay was like a little kid when we got to the cat area of the zoo. Its a good thing there was a fence and glass between us and the Tiger because he probably would have tried to pet it and claim it as his new fur buddy. Jay "kind of" likes big cats. 

The tiger was the coolest. He was massive, and he kept pacing back and forth and growling haha. Not sure if he was unhappy or what. I'm pretty sure he had indigestion.

We returned home Saturday night, and sadly, I got sick on Sunday, our actual anniversary. We are happy to be done with school and we had a great time celebrating our anniversary. It was a good week all in all. :) And guess what!? Christmas is almost here!!! 
Go to this link to find out more ways to help keep the spirit of the season in mind for the next few days leading up to Christmas. 

Merry Christmas!!
 C Рождествom!!