Happy anniversary to us!!!

Since our anniversary fell on a Monday, we decided to have a two-part celebration (part 1 on the weekend and part 2 on the actual day of).

Part 1

Jake planned part 1 of our anniversary celebration as a surprise. Saturday morning, we woke up at 3:30 am (at the literal butt-crack of dawn) and drove all the way to Perris, California for a…. hot air balloon ride!!! (Cindy had already figured out the surprise though…not because she was snooping..but because she knows Jake too well and caught on to the hints Jake unknowingly dropped) Unfortunately, it was too foggy, so we couldn’t take off. We were a little disappointed, but we weren’t going to let that ruin our day. Waking up super early together and driving on near empty freeways was kinda fun in it of itself. Don’t worry, we rescheduled our hot air balloon ride.

We decided to go eat breakfast after our hot air balloon ride rejection. Jake has a habit of asking Cindy to search for restaurants (or gas stations) while he’s driving on the freeway. And Cindy has a habit of choosing restaurants (or gas stations) several miles out of the way.  And then we both have the habit of arguing with each other about it after. As usual, Cindy chose a restaurant that was 10 miles out of the way and Jake didn’t say a word. That’s true love lol. At breakfast, we exchanged our gifts!

After breakfast, we went on a hike Jake had planned, to see the SS Dominator Shipwreck. It was barely 11:00 am when we started the hike, but we were both already so exhausted by then. We’re glad we didn’t skip the hike though because we had such a fun time together– reminiscing the beginning times and playing in the tide pools.

When we got home, we took a 3 hour nap (Cindy’s favorite thing to do). That evening, we went to eat out at Black Angus (one of Jake’s favorite types of food) and rented the movie Adrift. That movie made Cindy feel so sad after that we had to watch an episode of the Walking Dead to “erase” some of the sadness feelings.

And that was part 1 of our anniversary celebration!!

Part 2

On the day of our actual anniversary, we went out to eat at the restaurant where we had our “Last Chance Date”. In the beginning times, Cindy wasn’t sure if she wanted to date Jake. She somehow agreed to a “Last Chance Date” and obviously it went well because now we’re married. This restaurant is part of our history and it was special to go back after 5 years.

Since we were already in Westwood, we decided to drive around UCLA after dinner. Jake showed Cindy all the places on campus that are new and all the places that haven’t changed. We aren’t normally ones to get nostalgic, but…we got pretty nostalgic for our UCLA days during that drive.

We ended the night with what we’ve been waiting for all year– opening up our 1 Year Anniversary Messages in a Bottle!!! We had such a great time reading everyone’s messages to us. Good thing we didn’t decide to nix that idea from our wedding.

Reflections

Looking back on all the old posts from this year, we’ve realized how much we’ve grown together and how much fun we’ve had together. But amidst all that fun, we have had ugly moments where we were selfish, hurtful, cruel, unloving, and unkind (moments we don’t share on this public blog). But in those ugly moments, we learn how much we need God because we’re just humans who are prone to fail and disappoint. Our prayer, always, is that we continually strive to put God in the center of our marriage and in our own individual lives.

On the day of our wedding, our friend who married us gave a short sermon about biblical marriage. As we enter year 2 of marriage, we want to remember what he shared a biblical marriage is: a covenant with God, a symbol of Christ’s love for us, and a blessing.

We’re excited for year 2!