"What do you mean it's a twin?"

Lets start out by admitting that I am not a camping-type person.  Don't get me wrong; I love the outdoors and all of the beautiful things nature offers.  That said, I can't stand being dirty, being eaten alive by mosquitoes, having moths fly in and out of my face, ants and beetles crawling over my feet . . . you get the picture.  All that being said, I still agreed to go camping with my eagle scout.  If you assumed I've never been camping, then you're wrong.  I used to go all of the time whilst growing up, but we had a camper.  I can wind up the top, pull out the beds, and even put it all away again, but hand me a windbreaker and a few poles, and I'll look at you like you're crazy, which is exactly what happened when we arrived.  I've NEVER slept in a tent.  The closest I've come to sleeping outdoors are the summer nights my siblings and I would spend on the trampoline under the stars.

We drove THREE hours to get to the Cascades at the Newhalem campground sites. It was a much needed weekend getaway and we thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  We got to the campgrounds fairly early, with enough time to set up the tent and get dinner started before it got dark.  The fun really started after Andrew and I drove down to the restrooms to blow up the air mattress (really roughing it, I know).  He walked out of the bathroom with a sly grin on his face and held up the mattress we were promised was a queen.  Promise broken . . . it was a twin.  My first thought was "poor Andrew, he had to drive all day and now he has to sleep on the ground tonight."  Turns out when you're cold enough, it is possible to fit two fatties on a twin mattress!  Sleeping arrangements aside, we had a great time.  The drive was worth it.  Even though we came home even more tired than we were when we left, we had made some pretty fun memories.

Here's some proof I actually enjoyed myself . . .

Muscle man!

Beautiful waterfall we saw

Andrew being a little artsy

That's what I call a stud!

He insisted he needed a fanny pack for our .5 mi hike

Poor Madagascar . . . this is why Andrew hates playing games with me

More than a legal document

It's been 2 years since we tied the knot, so I thought I'd make an account of what comes with being married (from a woman's point of view).

1. Tax benefits
2. Not having to worry about STD's
3. Longer lives
4. 2 cars
5. More money (but coincidentally, more bills too)
6. Responsibility
7. Someone you're not too embarrassed to fart around
8. Movie night, every night
9. More friends
10. Weight gain
11. Your own furniture
12. A junk drawer
13. More laundry
14. An X-box, Playstation, and Wii
15. Someone to take you on a date
16. A BBQ'er
17. Endless laughs
18. A study partner
19. Chicago propaganda that takes the form of hats, shirts, posters, blankets, aprons, grill covers, snuggies, license plate covers, and bobble-heads
20. I'm going to get sentimental on you . . . someone to grow old with

There you have it!  If you ever had doubts about getting married, be stilled.

If I had to choose one word to describe the past two years, it would be "I-wouldn't-change-a-thing-about-it!"  We celebrated with a picnic and a day full of stinky, lazy, camera hogging animals at the Seattle zoo!

If there were ever any doubts about evolution . . .

Moto Moto!

We did see non-primate animals, but these were the best pictures

Golden burfday

I have been waiting for this year since I can remember.  I have dreamt what it might feel like to turn 22 on the 22nd.  In case anyone didn't get the pleasure of experiencing this joy, due to young age, pure ignorance of the special day, or any other despicable reason, let me share how awesome it truly was.

To begin my day, I put on my birthday shirt.  It isn't obviously inappropriate, but if you've seen the movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall," which happens to be one of our favorite movies, you'll understand that for the sake of keeping this blog PG, I'm not going to release the graphic.  After sulking for a few minutes because Andrew had better things to do (school and work) than spend my glorious day with me, I realized I had better things to think about.  Like . . . CHEESECAKE!  I went upstairs to peak at the cheesecake I made for myself the night before.  My mom and my grandma are the only two people alive I would ever allow to make my birthday cheesecake.  When something tastes THAT good, and you only get it once a year, it has to be perfect.  Several people offered, but I refused.  I wasn't going to let anything happen to that delicious cake-o-cheese.  I also couldn't lose sight of that recipe.  Only 3 people on this earth have copies of this piece of heaven.  The world wouldn't know what to do with themselves if something this lethal was released.  So, I stared with hungry eyes as I dreaded the 10 hours I had to wait before cutting into it.  

The day went by fairly slowly . . . did some laundry, made the bed, you know, normal people stuff.  I went to work, made some $$$, and came home to a pretty low key evening.  I opened presents (which consisted of . . . a dark wood jewelry chest (and some jewelry to fill it, of course), a scale from Ray and Marcia (yeah, I got the hint), some cute pj's from mom, and lots of other great stuff.  The highlight of my day was, obviously, the cheesecake.  It was everything I knew it would be!

The real fun started the next day, with a trip up to Pike's Place market.  Andrew bought me the most beautiful bouquet of flowers.  We also meandered around and ate lots of fresh fruit samples (YUM) and had a wonderful dinner at Buca di Beppos.

All in all, it felt great to get another year under my belt.  I missed my family in Wyoming terribly.  It was my first birthday away from home.  For that reason, I wasn't so sure I liked growing up.  But, I suppose I'm wising up . . . hopefully!

The cheesecake, in all its glory

Opening presents!

More presents