Celebrating 5 years . . .

with old traditions,

- soup

- 5 acts of service each

- pumpkin cake

- the traditional gift for 5 years is wood, so I made this for taylor with the words to our wedding song.  
  ben harper says it best:

we've never done traditional gifts. i just felt like i should for 5 years for some reason. 

- temple sealings (a month later. thanks to our fab friends who let us crash their anniversary trip this past weekend and watched B for us)

a family getaway to Utah,

Before and After

- gorgeous fall scenery

- a 10K run in the mud dressed as a bride and groom (i made a tutu and veil for the occasion :)

people were congratulating us yelling, "best honeymoon ever", "aww newlyweds", "race to eternity", etc. it was awesome.

 and new traditions,

 candid thanks to Kathy. Tay saw this picture and said, "aw we really do love each other". indeed.

- a video date night:

this idea was inspired by my dear friend who lost her husband last year. she wrote a blog post months ago about the importance of recording "the little things" about your spouse . . . the sound of their voice, the shape of their hand, their favorite things, etc. 

so we decided to do a video date for our anniversary. we each wrote down 5 questions for each other through out the day and then interviewed each other on camera. it was so much fun. the next thing we knew, we had babbled on for about an hour, re-living the first date, first "i love you", favorite marriage moment, favorite foods, etc. i even broke out into a moving rendition of "total eclipse of the heart". it was that good.

 i think it will be a fun thing to add to our celebration, fun for posterity, and a fun way to document how we change from year to year (as if i don't take enough pictures already). thanks, M, for the great idea, and for inspiring me every day!

so happy to be mrs. benson. i love our simple traditions.

i love any tradition, and would love to hear yours, especially as the holidays approach us. care to share? i'm always looking for new ideas.

Freeways and Wedding Cake

Four years ago yesterday, my new husband and I were on our way from our wedding in Logan to our reception in Salt Lake City.  It was a gorgeous fall day . . . the leaves were golden, the sun was shining, and we were both about to explode with excitement. We were raving about the leaves when all of a sudden the traffic on the freeway came to a standstill.  Workers were trying to clean up a car accident that completely shut down the freeway, and suddenly, I-15 became a parking lot.

We decided to make the most of it.  People opened their windows, turned their music on, and we partied on the freeway.  We were still in our wedding best, and got a lot of strange look and a lot of high fives from our new traffic jam friends. We even made it on some Filipino documentary on Americans. At least that's what they told us they were doing. (You can see the camera man in the back of the picture above).

And then an hour went by, and we realized we weren't going to have time to take family pictures. Traffic still wasn't moving. Half an hour later, we realized we weren't going to have time to eat before the reception started. Another fifteen minutes went by, and we realized there was a good chance we were going to miss the first half of our reception. That's when we decided it was time to use my wedding dress and veil to score some sympathy points with a police man. He eventually cleared a path for us and let us use the on-ramp as an exit ramp so we could find another way to get to Salt Lake.

We made it to our reception only half an hour late and the rest of the celebration went on without a hitch. But some of my favorite moments of that day were on the freeway with Taylor.

And that's how I know I picked the right one. Life isn't always a party, but with him by my side, I know we'll figure out a way to be happy.

We joked about that yesterday as we sat in traffic on our way to dinner.  September 29th is sort of like our new years, where we set new goals and hopefully check some goals off our previous list. Every year we celebrate with soup and pumpkin cake, and we have to do one act of service for someone else for every year that we've been together. Well, we got our soup and pumpkin. Failed miserably on the service.

We decided to give ourselves an extension through the weekend and report back to each other on Sunday.  Next year we'll be more on top of things.

So glad I said yes four years ago. Here's to another happy year!

My Feet Dance Because of You

Count 'em

One, Two, Three

Happy Years Together
One year for every person in our family.

Can't wait to celebrate! 

How to have a . . .

Fall Break/Anniversary get-away.

1.) Take a train to Chicago. Enjoy the scenery (corn) and beautiful fall foliage on the drive. Cheer on husband while he studies. To keep self busy, rotate between pretending you are on Hogwarts Express and singing about snow  a la "White Christmas" in the dining car.  

2.) See the sights. 

Deep dish pizza . . . Check.

Garrett's Popcorn . . . check.

John Hancock building . . . check.

Magnificent mile for some magnificent (and unfortunately only window) shopping . . . check. 

Lake Michigan and the Chicago River . . . Check.

3.) See a fabulous show on Broadway, even if you are the last two people on the planet to see it. Get a little misty-eyed as Elphaba sings about Defying Gravity, and then try to hide it from husband when the lights come back on. 

4.) More deep dish pizza and popcorn. More trains, singing Wicked the whole way home. Wonder why you were not blessed with the talents of a broadway star.

5.) Get home, ready to burn your giant walking boot because you no longer need it. Then change your mind because you are too tired from frolicking around Chicago without said boot. Make plans to be able to run again by Christmas. Listen to more Wicked for inspiration. 

Count blessings. 

Love husband.

More pizza.

Two

Two years ago today we were skipping out of the Logan Temple and so giddy that even being stranded on the I-15 and almost missing our own reception could not wipe the smile off my face. But we made it, only 30 minutes late, and partied the night away with our family and friends.

One year ago today, Tay was taking the LSAT as I nervously puttered around the house wondering what our future held. And that brings us to today.

Here we are in Nebraska of all places, settling in to our new life. Tay as a student and me as a sugar mamma. Taylor is pouring over his books and I am at the first day of my new job. Today we are celebrating two blissful years of marriage. I wonder what the next year will bring. But I can't wait to find out!

We celebrated at the fair and rodeo on Saturday.

Then he surprised me with these:

And I gave him these:

He's a good one, that Taylor Benson! Cheers to two years.

And cheers to the many to come.

Longer Than Always

We made it to our one year anniversary and can now finally understand how people can stay married their whole lives :). Time flies! Tay began his celebrations early by taking the LSAT. He came home happy and relaxed and we headed up to Midway to celebrate at the Zermatt. We had an early snowfall that hampered our mountain biking plans but were happy to relax in the spa and hot tub. This morning we woke up to sunshine and beautiful fall leaves, it was perfect. What a year it has been, I love being Mrs. Benson!