NC State Fair

Carleton and I (well I think he does) love the fair!  I go every year, no matter where I live.  This year we went with the Connells and had a great (although very cold) time!  We were a little tired of the amusement park atmosphere I think, cuz we'd just come back from Disney World the night before.  However, since I'd already paid for the tickets, I wasn't going to waste the money!  I was just starting to feel better (I got sick at Disney) and then I went there and froze, I am now feeling better, FINALLY, after more than a week of being sick, a dr. appointment, and a pack of antibiotics later.  It seems to be just my luck that in two years at a job, I get 5 vacation days...and I'm sick for every one of them, nice.  

Anyway, aside from what is pictured below we saw local arts/crafts/lego creations, etc.  Pig/duck/goat races.  They also had a great firework show at the end of the night and a few other things I'm drawing a blank on.  All in all, a very fun night, but we always have fun with Ben & Kristin, no matter what we're doing, so no surprise there.  One thing I might've changed would be to get hot cocoa or something warm instead of all the frozen things!

This was our first attempt at the Ferris wheel, last year I was so upset that we didn't get to ride one with just the two of us, they stuck a dad and his two kids with us.  So this year I asked, said it was our anniversary, ok so a few days after, and said it was really important to us.  The guy was a HUGE redneck JERK on a power trip, and didn't let us, so I yanked my tickets back (he took 12 instead of the 10) and he was very rude as he pointed me away, I was so ticked off that I ran into the gate with my knee and didn't entirely notice until later...when I had a massive dark purple bruise that covered a third of my knee...seriously it was HUGE.  I'd take a picture now and show you, but it's been going on two weeks so it's not nearly as impressive, although still very much there!

We took this picture because our niece, Vera, had just been born, and she was 10.2 lbs, so when we spotted that 10.2 spud in the middle we thought of her:)

Cute little cow:)

...who was purchased by Harris Teeter for $20,000 :(

poor little fella

even though it was freezing, we still had NC State ice cream, and a frozen banana

The Ferris Wheel!

He's so buff:)

And finally the picture I've wanted my whole life: kissing the love of my life at the top of a Ferris Wheel:)  ...although it's a little fuzzy since it focused on the background instead so we might need a retake next year;)

Could not ask for more.

I have an incredible husband.  He does a lot for me.  He always surprises me, even though I should expect it.  For example every time there is a birthday, anniversary, if he misses me, anything special, and sometimes just for no reason, I'll get flowers at work.  He always does things a day early (last year I got flowers, breakfast in bed, etc. the day before my birthday)  so I think that's our day of celebration...but then the day of the occasion he always does a "bigger and better" day where I get prettier flowers, a nice dinner, we can do whatever I want to do, etc.  Our anniversary this year was no exception.  Carleton had mentioned he didn't want to spend a lot of money on our anniversary, but he wanted it to be nice because he realized we only have one "first anniversary" he then said, I also realizes we only have one second anniversary, one third, you get the idea.  I immediately retorted with, "if you want to have a second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. anniversary, we have to have a nice FIRST one".  I was mostly kidding:)  So on our anniversary I did this:

That's right, I shot a wedding, fortunately I love this couple, it was a beautiful affair and I got to spend a little time with Carleton on our anniversary (while he watched the BYU game at my parents house) we then spent the night at their house, I know, how romantic, right?  Anyway, Monday was his first day of Fall Break and I don't work Mondays anymore so we went for a BEAUTIFUL walk on the tobacco trail near our house, we'd never been there but our good friend, Allison, was telling us how great it was, so we thought we'd give it a shot.  We definitely will be returning!  For my main present, Carleton agreed to a quick photo shoot.  With the threat of rain late in the afternoon we rushed home to shower so we could try to squeeze some in, early in the afternoon.  This may not seem like a big deal, but I'd been asking him for months if he would do this for my anniversary present since he HATES having his picture taken, and I, obviously, love pictures!  Plus Amy said she would do pictures for us if we ever wanted to!  So in order to make the process as quick and painless (for him...and because of the approaching rain) as possible I gathered up some ideas, we were able to pose quick and amy was able to shoot quick so we just cranked them out!  It's amazing how quickly you can get pictures done when the person being photographed knows exactly what they want and how to pose to get it and the photographer is totally on the same page.  Plus when both people are aware of lighting and which way to face, etc. it helps a lot...often times Amy and I will have to physically grab people and say ok just let me turn you because they won't turn enough or they'll turn too much or something, so it was nice!  At least on my end, maybe you should ask her, her opinion:)

So the flowers on the right are the ones I got at work, along with the Twilight card.  It says "Trick or Treat" on the outside and "Treat, definitely a treat" on the inside.  Carleton wrote, "happy birthday...or is it anniversary? whichever, this sweet card is still going to win me major points! Love you forever, Carleton"  and it did:)  I was going to do a different card, but after I got his I tweaked it so his said "trick or treat" on the front too:)

He was VERY proud of himself for being able to find these flowers since they're our wedding color.

I got/made him a few things, but the biggest one was the trip to Utah and the tickets to the BYU game (let's not talk about the outcome, please).  We stayed with one of his best friends in the whole world (THANK YOU, KOLSTE'S for everything) and got to see a couple of my very best friends that I hadn't seen in a long time.  More to come on that trip.  All in all it was a fantastic anniversary (I mean it was like a 3-day celebration, of course it was awesome).  For dinner, we were thinking of really nice places to go, but then when it came down to it we just went to Bandidos and got some delicious nachos, one of our all time favorites.  

And now for the pictures!  Shot by Amy, edited by me.

which do you like better?

We ate some of our wedding cake, the one pictured is our disaster cake that fell over before it even got to our reception.  It wasn't that good, but the slice we saved from our reception in Tennessee where his mom made the cake was AMAZING.  It was so moist, and just delicious, a year later, and only being a slice, that's really impressive.  I ended up getting REALLY sick that night, and was up for a good portion of it, perhaps I ate too much year old cake, I'm not sure, but besides that it was  great day and I look forward to the next one!  I love you, husband and I'm so glad you're mine:) ...FOR-EV-ER!

ps I might post more pictures later.  I've been busy with the weddings we've had every weekend and family vacations, stay tuned for Disney World and Utah!

We got WAXED...

Ok, so not really...we just washed and waxed our cars.  But I can't turn down a photo-op especially when a good reflection is involved.  I saw the reflection of the tree on my hood, so I ran inside and grabbed my camera quick.

I don't typically dress this way...but we had just been running 

Our twin cars

And here is Carleton using some of my scrapbooking string to tie his light up, we're still paying for that stupid deer running into his car the week before we got hitched!

Do I win for most random/pointless post of the day?  week?