Have A Little Faith in We

Before our weird week we had two weekends earmarked for complete fun and celebrating Danny’s birthday!

The first weekend was prior to the big day – and one that we had all to ourselves. I tried to start off extra festive by using Danny’s fire pit my parents had gifted to him to host a s’mores party! Dan came home from hockey practice pretty exhausted and we opted for our party to be indoors…. not as festive, but certianly just as tasty!

Saturday was footloose and fancy free – completely up to Danny to plan. It started off pretty wonderful – sleeping in…and I mean EVERYONE catching some ZZZsss.

After finally rising and getting a little breakfast and coffee, we hunkered down in the basement to enjoy some Netflix! During our first year of marriage we spent a lot of Saturday mornings curled up on our couch in our little Old Town apartment watching the DVR shows from the week. Now that we have gotten older, it feels like Saturday is such a valuable time to get things done those lazy mornings have gone by the wayside. But this Saturday they made a triumphant return followed by some early afternoon naps that were just lovely!

From there we set out to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather with a hike through the woods with pup. That adventure was to be followed by a jaunt to a local museum and the movies.

The walk was good and we enjoyed the amazing beauty that Virginia presents in the fall season!  But after an hour+ of being outdoors in the sunshine Dan was feeling pretty exhausted and we decided to return home for some more Netflix and junkfood junking. Of course Danny was a little disappointed for such a quiet a day, but this girl was pretty darn excited by the choice of activities!!! Even if I did have to opt for the veggieburger to attempt to stay close to healthy!!

After a lazy afternoon we started to ponder what dinner would hold and heard from my sister who had spent the day working on college apps and taking care of my parents’ dog.  The check-in turned into her coming over for the evening to keep working on college applications (by of course taking advantage of  our college graduate wisdom) and hang out with us.

No earth shattering party plans or getting too crazy…. But I just loved that we enjoyed life at our home! We have waited so long to have a place all our own…. And for it also to be a place that my family feels comfortable coming over and spending the whole night- I am a very happy girl!

Sunday wrapped up our lazy homey weekend with church and work…. But Tuesday we celebrated BIG with dinner at Founding Farms ( soooo tasty), accompanied by Danny’s parents and our friends that had just gotten engaged a few days before- Megan and Ryan.  A chance to toast my guy surrounded by loved ones was the perfect way to ring in the 31st year!

All that quietness that weekend paid off BIG for our next weekend, a road trip to my college roommate reunion! As undergraduates we attended JMU (some of us had to graduate at another school :)… But all attended JMU), but for our reunions we meet up at VA Tech.

My college roommates – Tara, Randi and Megan: “the1746 Girls” (our house number) grew up in Southern VA – cheering for Tech and Tara and her husband live in Blacksburg…. So we always meet up there to enjoy the college scene and reminisce. Once you get to a certain age the crowd is always the same at these events – we were just happy to be out and about in the college football scene.

The trip was AWESOME! Not only were the surroundings gorgeous….

Or the company a blast…

Or the game so much fun…

But remembering what it was like to be in college was a ball!  Danny and I met in high school but started dating in college. After our first summer in Northern VA, he came up pretty much EVERY weekend to hang with all of us.

That weekend I was transported back in time to when the biggest topics of disicssion where the drinks and party plans, finding the perfect outfit, and having the most fun – all to be documented by pictures.  Laughing, toasting, stuffing our faces, and catching up on people we knew, lives now…..provided the best trip! Having Danny roll his eyes at how long it took me to do my hair or picking up beer at the packed college grocery store together- I was full of so many memories…. Especially how totally smitten I was with this guy and his dimples! How each Wednesday in 2005 I held my breath as he decided whether or not he would come that weekend… And how intense my butterflies would be once Friday night arrived!

Young love is really one of kind and I loved the chance to relive it…. But what may have made this weekend that much more fantastic? I mixed those feelings with our car ride down chatting about everything, or coordinating our pup and locking up the house….. That boy who had stolen my attention at 20…. Was the man I was sharing my life with…. If only that young girl knew this guy would choose her forever…. How incredible is life! I feel at awe when you think of all the little moments that lead to the now.

Needless to say we got up Sunday to try and hurry back for a family dinner and to visit Dan’s aunt Monica <<LINK>> who was in town…. But by the time we hit Northern VA and grabbed our pup…. Danny was done. He had done awesome all weekend- really enjoying… Helping coordinate the tailgate stuff and running the errands. He had gotten our car packed up and pup dropped off… He had done it all- just to make this weekend as much fun as possible. This translated to Danny on empty by Sunday at 2.

Which I was sad for his family and feeling a little guilt for trying to “go for broke” with such a full weekend…. But we both agreed it was well worth it!

So there we have it…. Just as Danny would prefer nothing over-the-top to celebrate the birthday, a lot of little moments that reminded us from where we came to where we are now ended up being the big things….and I think the most wonderful way to start a new 31st year!! Cheers Danny!

Thank you for reading and remember to make it a great day!
Jackie