A (Belated) 1st Anniversary

This past weekend Lauren and I finally found time to celebrate our first anniversary.  (And only 4 months late.)

Friday

It began Friday night when I cooked a surprise dinner for Lauren:

I started with a Caprese salad of sorts.

<– Olive oil straight from Santorini courtesy of Andrew and Sarah Fraser.

<– Fish salt and pepper shakers courtesy of the Bacon family.

 

 

 

Next came the main course, Lemon Fusilli with Arugulla.

 

 

 

 

 

<- Note the bread-bits that were a side item to be dipped in olive oil.

 

 

<– This is the cloth I bought in Mali and on which we had the candle-lit dinner during which I proposed to Lauren.

 

Finally, desert came in the form of some delicious “Affogato,” which is vanilla ice cream with esspresso poured over, then topped with whipped cream and bits of chocolate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was all delicious, and I would like to thank the Frasers for all the supplies they let me borrow and (especially) for their crash course on cooking — it made the meal a huge success.

Saturday

Saturday was much less refined.  After a delicious breakfast with friends and some errands around the house we drove to Little Rock for an afternoon full of one of our favorite things: movies.  We saw 2 in a row: Paper Heart and Julie & Julia.  (See our reviews of these in our posts below.) 

 

 

 

 

<– Lauren.

 

 

 

During these films we went through the entire gambit of human emotion, which can be summed up in the pictures below.

 

Then we had dinner, drove home, and camped in our living room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

<– Thanks to my grandparents for giving us this tent as a wedding gift.  It’s a great one!  Sierra Designs.  We can’t wait to use it a bunch in Africa soon!

 

 

 

Sunday

Lauren and I spent our Sunday reflecting back on our first year of marriage and fashioning a vision for the coming year of our life together.  We set priorities and made goals.  We want to be intentional with our lives, not letting the moments pass by.  It’s too easy for the important things to get lost in the busyness of life.  So we talked about anything and everything, being clear about where we are in our marriage and lives in general, and being clear about where we would like to be in one year, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, etc.  It was a beautiful time, and we already feel better for it.

Following this time together we attacked some lingering errands around the house as the weekend came to a close.

Then I wrote this blog post and felt extremely narcissistic, but enjoyed it nonetheless.