Happy 4th Anniversary!

Two weeks ago, Ben and I celebrated our 4th anniversary!  It's hard to believe it has been 4 years already, especially when I remember our wedding day so well and think about all that we've done in 4 years.  We didn't exchange gifts this year because we decided to buy an entertainment center for our family room...so that was our gift.  Ben brought me roses on our anniversary (he's a keeper!) but it fell on a Thursday and we had our bible study over for a game night so we didn't celebrate until the weekend. 

The following Saturday, Ben took me to paint pottery!  Many people asked me how I got him to do it but I swear, it was all his idea.  He took me and found the place and everything!  Once we got there, we decided on our pieces.  I picked a big bowl.  I think its actually called a cappuccino mug but I like it for soup!  Ben picked a big coffee mug for his coffee.  Then we had to decide what colors to use.  Ben decided to go with a Thor theme while I saw a technique on the wall called Bubble Trouble that I decided to use.  It was really fun!

 

He is so excited, haha!

 

My color scheme.

 

So the Bubble Trouble was really fun!  Basically you mix the paint with bubble solution and use a straw to blow bubbles, like milk bubbles.  You keep making "milk" bubbles until they spill over the cup onto the pottery and pop!  It was quite messy and lots of fun!  

 

My engineer is so precise!  He found a picture he liked, practiced on paper with straight lines and everything.

 

Ben's finished mug before the kiln.  The marker came off in the kiln.

 

My really messy mug!  I loved it.

 

And here are our final pieces!  They came out really great!

 

On Sunday, we tried a new restaurant in Columbia called Maggiano's.  It's a chain Italian restaurant that is known for its humongous portions and we came away STUFFED!  I think one of the best parts was that they take reservations online!  If you are near a Maggiano's, you should definitely try it!  We had a great time celebrating our anniversary and are excited to see what year 5 brings!

 

Red, White, and Blue

Maybe by now you guys just expect that my updates on life will come about a week late every time :)  I tried this time to download all my pics to Google Drive so I could easily get them to my computer and my drive was full or something.  So then I spent a few days trying to get that to work and then just decided to do it the old fashioned way by plugging my phone into my computer.  So here's our Fourth of July weekend, a week late!

I just loved that the 4th was on a Friday this year!  It makes a nice 3 day weekend for me (remember, I'm teaching summer school) and Ben.  Our plans were to head to Ocean City to spend the weekend with my family in our condo.  Ben took off on Thursday and we left right after I was done summer school.  We took Riley with us (one of the perks of owning your own place...dog friendly!) and since she used to get carsick as a puppy, we let her sit up front while I sat in the back.  Co-pilot Riley did a great job of making people laugh as they looked at our car (man's best friend in the front, wife in the back), checking on me, and not upchucking!

 

Ahh, the blue skies, flat land, I love the Eastern Shore!

We got to the condo and settled in.  For the three day weekend, we had 6 people and 3 dogs staying there!  It was a bit of a tight fit but it worked out.  Riley had never been to the beach before so we took her down to see what she thought of the sand and waves.

 

As we got closer to the waves, she plopped herself right down in the sand and stared out into the ocean!

 

Doesn't she look like she belongs at the beach? Loving it!

Friday, July 4th came (Happy Birthday America!) and with it came Hurricane Arthur.  Hurricane Arthur was a category 2 but he was pretty off-shore so we only experienced the rain and high winds.  Luckily, we already had other plans for the 4th and we headed back to my grandparents' house for a 4th of July cookout!  It was blue skies and sunny weather there!

 

Hurricane Arthur made the beach a gray and wet place!

 

Riley decided to check out Arthur for herself.  She loves the cold and wind and rain!

 

It's hard to tell but the waves are gigantic behind us!  I think the news said 8-13 feet high!

 

Big difference in weather!  It was only about 45 minutes away.

 

I got my little cousin to do some gymnastic moves while I played with the burst setting on my iPhone.

 

And when we came back to OC about 6 hours later....blue skies and sun!  Thankfully, Arthur didn't stay long.

 

On Saturday, the girls read on the beach and soaked up the sun while the boys played golf and sat in traffic trying to get back (haha!)  It was the perfect beach day.  85 degrees, sunny, slight breeze, and the ocean was cold enough to cool you off.

Sunday was my mom's birthday so we had crabs for Saturday's dinner!  They were the first crabs of the season for me and they were delicious!  After dinner, we went out on the beach and watched the fireworks.  We could see Ocean City's two shows and Seacrets' show from where we sat on the beach.  We also saw some people set off some fireworks near us on the beach.  It was fun seeing 4 shows from one spot!  And we didn't even have to fight the crowds to get a seat!

 

This is another one of my little cousins, ready for the show!

 

Played with the burst setting on my phone again...I was pretty impressed with it!

 

So that was our 4th of July!  We hope you had a blast celebrating with friends and family!