OUR 5TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

We still can't believe that we have been married for five years. Time really has flown by. So much has happened during that time that it makes your head spin just thinking about it. We decided to spend our day out exploring with Macintosh as thats what we love to do best. 

The town of Kernville, on the Kern river, was our destination and it was amazing. We spent barely any time hiking but rather just spent the whole time at the river playing about with Macintosh. See yesterday's post about it here. 

It was sort of amazing in itself to see so much water in a river. California is in a major drought and lots of the water sources are lower than they should be. This river is still lower than it should be but it was enough for us to cope. 

We went to the Kern River Brewing Company for lunch. It was amazing. Americans do burgers and chips better than anyone else. We loved these waffle chips too. Cue the bad picture of Andrew eating....

Amazingly we didn't take many other pictures of the day, except a few of Macintosh swimming. We were too busy enjoying ourselves on the river, and taking a camera onto it without waterproofing would have been disastrous. We did manage a group selfie shot and I took a sweet one of Andrew and Macintosh. 

I love the hair parting Andrew has going on! 

For the evening celebration we decided to head to a restaurant we'd never been too called Fresco II. The food was soooooooo good! We ate so much I actually felt sick the next day! Andrew obviously had the most meaty meal he could find and I had an amazing chicken feta dish. The restaurant is a Mediterranean based place so we felt rather at home as it was much more European that some of the other restaurants near us. They had a guy playing guitar there too which added some nice atmosphere. It was a great way to end our celebration.

And the only thing to do now is to show you our most ridiculous joint gift...

Yes that is a giant 7 foot replica Sopwith Camel propeller. It is made out of wood after all!
H

ONE YEAR "IN THE USA" ANNIVERSARY

As of today we have been living in the USA for a whole year! We can't believe how fast the time has gone. Here is a quick run down of our past year, complete with twelve pictures....

MAY

 First time to San Francisco: Got our house and cars: Tour of California: Macintosh arrived!

JUNE

 Andrew's birthday: Our stuff arrived from England: First baseball match: Saw Fyfe Dangerfield: Went to Hollywood: Took Macintosh to his first dog beach 

JULY

Andrew went to Florida (again): Celebrated our first 4th July: Enjoyed the heat!

AUGUST

Keble's visit: San Francisco again: Lots of touristy things: Andrew came home from Florida

SEPTEMBER

Elisha was born: Saw AFI, 30 Seconds to Mars and Linking Park: Went to Sacramento 

OCTOBER

Went home to surprise family: Hannah's birthday: Said goodbye to our neighbour: Did some local exploring 

NOVEMBER 

Went to San Diego: Saw Switchfoot: Our friends got a beagle: Stayed at Big Bear Lake: Andrew grew a moustache: Celebrated our first Thanksgiving 

DECEMBER 

Got our first American Christmas tree: Watched Christmas parades: Saw Handel's Messiah in LA: Visited Santa Barbara: Celebrated our first American Christmas: Visited the Getty Centre

JANUARY 

Rang in 2015: Went snow tubing: Explored the Pacific Crest Trail

FEBRUARY

Watched our first Super Bowl: Saw Ben Howard: Explored more of the PCT

MARCH 

Woodruff visit: Did some touristy things: Travelled the entire West Coast by train: Saw Seattle: Watched the LA air show: 

APRIL

Visited Filmore: Dog sat a few times: Celebrated our first American Easter: Hiked to the Devil's Chair: Made it to a whole year in the US of A!

We genuinely can't believe how insane this past year has been. Writing this post and looking back at all the photos showed us just how much of this amazing country we have seen, whilst Andrew has been working full time too. We have many exciting things planned for the next three months so we know year two will be just as exciting. 

I think though we are just amazed at how God has blessed us in sending us over here for this period of our lives, providing us with such brilliant friends (both American and British) and sustaining us when we are homesick or just feel like we are missing out on life in the UK. We are excited to see what He has in store for us in the next year, so bring it on!

A&H 

HAPPY 4TH ANNIVERSARY

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. Hurray! Unfortunately we will be spending it apart due to Andrew's commitments in Florida. However it is the first one we have ever spent apart and considering Andrew is in the RAF that's pretty good going. 

It's crazy looking back at pictures from our wedding day and thinking back on how in love we were. We were so young and naive; full of idealistic ideas about what marriage would be like. The idea of spending all day, every day with Andrew and sharing everything seemed positively blissful (for the most part!) We both felt like our wedding day was the happiest day of our lives and in many ways we couldn't have imagined it being any better.  

Well four years later and we've had our fair share of good days that match the ideas we had pre-marriage, but we have also had our bad days and some downright ugly days. However I can say without any hesitation that I love him more today than I did on our wedding day. 

You see the good days are great and they help to provide such fabulous memories. But its on the bad days and the ugly days, when our lives don't match what they should be, that our love for each other grows and develops. In fact the Bible talks about love and what it should look like and we have found that through those bad days we are learning to have a love that matches that. It says:

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does no insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

1 Corinthians 13 v4-7

Now I'm not saying we have a love that matches that, in fact we are still far from it, but we are aiming towards that. By God's amazing grace and with His help we are learning to become those kind of loving people. There's still a long way to go, but I'm looking forward to it. The journey of marriage may not always be easy, but I sure am glad its Andrew by my side!

H

PS. I don't apologise for the mushy nature of this post at all, after all it only occurs once a year!