the Lieutenant and the Lady: Oopsie!

Well as you all can tell I completely disregarded my blog for two weeks! I have so many things to post about but somehow I got so wrapped up into life I forgot, in fact I even forgot how to get to my blog... cue the oopsie. BUT I am here now and have done a lot over the last few weeks!

The biggest few happenings are what I am going to update you all on today...

One Year Anniversary!!
Starting our budget
My dad coming to Arizona
My job interview

First and foremost: our anniversary! It was such a fun experience. We had been looking forward to the day for some time now. Our anniversary was Sunday, August 4th but Sunday is usually our low key day so we decided to do most of our celebrating on Saturday. From the beginning of talking about what we wanted to do for this special day we had thrown out all sorts of ideas like going to San Diego, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Phoenix, or the Ritz Carlton in Tucson. Although we would have LOVED to do any of these things, all of them came with a price tag of AT LEAST $450. At first we said, "Oh well its just a one time thing, it is our anniversary!" but then we realized what was really most important and that was our future goals. As you will hear about in a bit, we started a strict budget on August 1st and we really felt strongly about sticking to it. At one point we actually had a reservation at the Ritz (which really wasn't that expensive) but we decided to cancel it and save the money. So, once those decisions were made we were back to square one. I told David that what was most important to me was that he planned our day and took the lead on that. A lot of the time I am the planner, mainly because I love to plan things, and also I know our schedules a lot better sometimes. But for our anniversary I really wanted him to lead us and make plans, just as he is the leader of our family. It was also a good learning experience for me and a time to show my trust in his abilities.

So come Saturday, August 3rd we had a whole day of anniversary celebrations planned! First, we went hiking at this really pretty area that had trees!! I haven't seen real looking trees in such a long time. Then to my surprise THERE WAS A RIVER!!! A real body of water! (it is pretty pathetic to get this excited about a body of water but we are in the desert for goodness sake) So after the wonderful river hike we went on a drive (kind of one of those drives you see on the movies through long windy roads that don't lead to anywhere. It was such a simple thing but so fun, windows down singing my favorite Christian songs and talking. Then next thing I know we are in this old Wild Wild West town called Tombstone. We walked around the town and saw some of the shops, old western costumes, and art. We plan to go back to Tombstone and maybe see one of the gun fights or go in the gold mine! After Tombstone we drove back home and played some games, and relaxed until our big event of the evening. I wanted to get ready in separate areas so I could make a big reveal of my cute outfit that I traded my sister for. I had no idea where we were going to dinner, all I knew was it was the "nicest restaurant within 45 miles" which in this area you don't have too many choices. Ta-da big reveal, David loved my dress, now let's head to dinner! David drove us to Bisbee, this really neat artsy mountain town about 30 minutes from here, and we ate at a famous restaurant called "Cafe Roka". It was a four course meal with seasonal specials that are changed weekly. I loved it. We had the best food and a really memorable night.

The next day we just had a really great relaxing Sunday filled with church, Yahtzee, watching Scrubs, and some cake eating! When I flew home from Alicia and Clay's wedding I brought our wedding cake with me on the airplane. I really wanted to take some cute anniversary pictures so our friend Rebecca in David's class said she would take them for us. Around sunset we went up to our favorite place, "The Lookout" and had fun take pictures, eating our wedding cake (which actually was really moist and descent), and then chucking our wedding cake off the side of the mountain. You can see all the pictures from the weekend below (because I know you have been dying to):