May 20th 08, 07, 06

This last Tuesday was our official 2 year anniversary, but the weekend before it Matt surprised me by taking me to my favorite place....the zoo! And better yet, the San Diego Zoo! We left at 7 a.m. and it took us almost three hours to get there. There were 5, yes, 5 different accidents on the freeway all interspersed along the way. I guess if I was like Grandpa Howell, I would have had my camera out and ready to take pictures of all them! We finally made it and saw all the usual sights the zoo had to see, yep you guessed it there were tigers, lions and bears...oh my. Then my so romantical husband (one of his many wonderful traits) took me to Mission Beach in San Diego, which just so happens to be the same place he took me when I drove down with a friend to visit him in 2005.  My friend was visiting her family and I was head over heels for this guy I had just met two weeks prior and had been talking on the phone to nonstop, so I hitched a ride down with her and Matt took two days off of work to play with me. He took me to Disneyland one day, and Mission beach the second day, both times driving over 2 hours in California traffic to come pick me up and drop me off each time. Now if that isn't true love I don't know what is! It was fun going back there and reminiscing about that day and how we were so twitterpated and nervous all at the same time around each other and here we are married two years now and I still get that butterfly feeling when I think about the man I married!  We went for dinner after the beach at a Thai place in the Gas Lamp District and sat outside on the patio. It was such a great day!!  This is the third May 20th we have celebrated together now and many more to come!

May 20th 2007, I planned our 1 year anniversary which was a nights stay at a hotel down in Anaheim and then we went to Disneyland the next day.  What better place to celebrate then the Happiest Place on Earth? I actually planned our first anniversary because I wasn't sure if Matt would remember to do something and I was afraid if he didn't I would be super disappointed so rather then that happen I just decided to take matters into my own hands! Come to find out, he had a clever plan all along to take me to Disneyland and I just hadn't trusted his romantic abilities! We worked out a deal now where we alternate years of being in charge of the anniversaries that way we can both plan surprises for each other. 

May 20th 2006, we spent the day in Calabasas with all our friends and family.   The weather was perfect, the sun had come out after days of rain and we couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.  We got married around noon outside by a waterfall, then had the reception indoors and had a tasty lunch, or so I have been told that is was tasty, we were so excited and visiting with everyone that we forgot to eat! We left around 5, went back to my apartment which from then on was 'our apartment' where we changed and grabbed our suitcases to head off on our honeymoon to Hawaii. But first we were staying in a hotel down by the airport for the night, which was where my brother Ben and his wife Chantal were staying too. They had come down from Arizona and it was also their one year anniversary (they got married May 21 the year before) We drove down to L.A. with them and by the time we got there we were all starving so we had a celebratory dinner altogether at a restaurant by our hotels. Matt and I didn't get in for the night until after 11 and were so exhausted! It had been a crazy, whirlwind, exciting, and also the happiest day of our lives.