Happy Anniversary to US!

Well, yes, I'm two days early but I probably won't be spending time blogging this weekend since I'm going to be celebrating a wonderful first year of marriage this weekend (once my husband gets home tomorrow)!

I can't believe it's been a year.  Is some ways it feels like yesterday was our wedding day but then again, it feels like Christian and I have been married forever.  I must say, I am so ridiculously in love with this man.  He's so amazing and I'm so lucky.  Not only is he a hottie with a body (haha), he's my absolute best friend.  He knows everything about me and we talk about everything together.  I love our life together and really couldn't be happier with our relationship.  Here's to celebrating every year for the rest of our lives (please hold your wine glasses up with me).

I'd like to dedicate this blog post to the most amazing first year of marriage possible by reminding myself of some great memories Christian and I have made over the last twelve months.


Our beautiful wedding day- 2/20/10:  this was obviously one of the best days of my life.  Just over two years since we started "dating", we got to call each other husband and wife.  If I had a checklist of everything I could ever want or need from a man, all my items would be checked because of this stud muffin here.

The Big Move:  Less than a month after we got married, Christian and I left my home town of Pensacola, Florida to head towards the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Christian and I moved to a suburban community about 25 miles north of Philly in March of 2010.  Initially, there was a small bit of culture shock on my part but we settled in pretty well!  After about 10 months, we ended up moving to Moorestown, NJ.  The base Christian was initially station at will be closing soon and he will be moving to McGuire AFB in New Jersey.  So, we moved and we LOVE our new house and new town!!!  Here are a few pictures of our last days in Pensacola & our first house in Philly and our new house in NJ.

Us at the McGuire's St. Patty's 5k the weekend before we moved

Our farewell dinner @ McGuire's

This was at my Granny & PawPaw's for our going-away get together

Our first house up here.... lived there for about 10 months

The living room of our new house in Jersey.
Sorry I don't have any pics of the outside yet!

Our new life began:  As we began to settle into the Northeast, Christian's work trips began to pick up and we figured out that he was gone about 50% of the time in 2010.  It was definitely something to get used to, especially since I was in a town where I didn't know a single soul, had no friends, and had to use my GPS to find the grocery store.  But, we found our own pace for life and everything fell into place really well.  I made friends, Christian enjoys flying his new aircraft (C-130) and we LOVE it up here!!!  Here are a few pictures of us living life in Philly and the surrounding areas:

The famous LOVE sign at Love Park in Center City

Great pic we took of Philly from the steps
of the Art Museum.  I absolutely love this city.

Here we are in Times Square w/ Christian's friend
Eric and one of his lady friends

Out on the boat in Baltimore

Here's Christian w/ the Philadelphia Eagle's Head coach, Andy Reid,
on a military appreciation day the Eagles had during their training camp.
 So neat!  He even met Hank, Kendra Wilkinson's husband (haha, sadly,
 this is what I was most excited about)!

Our travels:  Christian did quite a bit more traveling that I did simply because of his job.  He was able to fly to countries he had never been to before and he really enjoys that.  I did a little traveling of my own.  I visited a great friend in Virginia, went home a couple times to Florida and even snuck in a trip to my favorite place on earth, New Orleans.  But, we did quite a bit of traveling together too!  We went to Jacksonville for a friend's wedding, New Hampshire for a friend's going away party, the Pocono Mountains for my 25th birthday and countless trips to Western Maryland to visit Christian's dad's side of the family.  Also, thanks to Christian's job and "detachments" (a nice word for a short deployment), I was able to visit him in Sicily and then he took leave so we could travel through Austria & Germany and see his mom's side of the family.  We had such an amazing time!!!  I'm soooo glad I married a man who has the travel bug like I do!  We LOVE seeing the world and learning about new cultures!  Here are some pictures of our travels in no particular order...

On the island of Vulcano in
the Aioli Islands off of Sicily

At a bar/restaurant on top of the Austrian
Alps about 30 minutes outside Salzburg, Austria
with Christian's grandparents

Here we are kayaking down the Deleware River
in the Pocono Mountains for my 25th birthday

Alison, Laura & me in New Orleans in August

At a bar at the tip-top of Taormina, Italy (in Sicily)...
absolutely gorgeous!

Me & my Philly girls in Atlantic City,
otherwise known as "AC"

In Salzburg, Austria

This is at the New Germany State Park
near Christian's dad's house.  

At Steve's wedding reception in Jacksonville

Christian and I after a hike in the Alps in Austria

Us on the front porch of the B&B we
stayed in for my b-day

At a Jacksonville Jaguars pre-season
game in Jacksonville

At a NASCAR race at the Pocono Speedway (for the record, I
will NEVER go to another Nascar Race again... ewww)

In State College, PA (Penn State University) for July 4th

In VA Beach w/ Christina for a girls' night!

Our Love:  For those of you who really know Christian and me, you know that we have a very fun relationship.  We're both very happy people and we try to make the most out of every situation we're faced with.  We have so much fun together.  We also have our own little riffs every now and then.  No couple is immune from a little arguing.  I think arguing is healthy.   We each have our own little personality traits that annoy the shit out of each other.  He's just about the least emotional person I've ever met and I'm the girl who refuses to lower expectations or standards for anything in life.... but we make it work.   I'm definitely the communicator in our marriage.  Sometimes, I have to PRY things out of Christian but in the end, everything is out on the table and we never go to bed mad.  Communication is absolutely KEY!

I must commend him.  He's probably the only man in my life who has really, truly been able to handle my personality (other than my dad).  I'm not the easiest person in the world to get along with.  I'm stubborn, kind of selfish and I'm somewhat of a ball-buster.  But we make it work and we have a blast.  We laugh every day.  And, I must say, this first year of marriage blows our dating years out of the water.  Marriage has been extremely good to us.  

So, here's to a fabulous first year of marriage and even better years to come!  

xoxo, 

Chrissi