5 years together!

Our 5 year anniversary was actually August 26, which we celebrated by going to a family wedding. Clearly this couple is cute together and their wedding was absolutely beautiful. Ty’s entire family (which is gigantic) is such a joy and getting to celebrate this day with his cousin was so much fun.

So, the weekend after the fun family wedding is when we decided to take advantage of the long weekend and enjoy a short trip together. Before I go any further though, can I just take a moment to express how wonderful the last five years of my life have been as Ty’s wife? I am one seriously lucky girl. As I look back on our almost 9 years together, I am so confident of God’s sovereignty and timing. It is evident to both Ty and I that God brought us together, and we try everyday to make sure He is the very foundation of everything we share together. It is through the grace, forgiveness, mercy, kindness and steadfast love of Christ that we are married. Happily and healthily married. Spending life with a man as kind, patient, funny and handsome as Ty doesn’t hurt either. 🙂

But back to our trip. We decided it would be fun to explore some “local” places we haven’t spent much time in, so I drafted up a plan to start out driving north to La Conner and then work our way over and through Whidbey island. I loved La Conner for its quaint small town charm and the abundance of funky shops that I could have taken all day to explore. Ty is patient, but not that patient. He was great about letting me stop in to a few without too much complaining and I think he even secretly liked a few of them. The first gem we saw was in the entry of our first shop. Who wouldn’t want a gum ball from this machine?!

This shop, which I forget the name of, also had some great reading material like this one that Ty was clearly excited about.

And this one, that had some great tips, recipes and charts for table settings. Thanks to this book, I finally know what all the forks are for when I eat a fancy meal!

My favorite shop of the day was Nasty Jacks, which I kept calling Crusty Jacks…but this place had some serious treasure inside.

I’m not sure if this guy was for sale, but he was sure fun to ride!

Nasty Jack’s also had swords…

and hats…

and airplanes…And this guy just happens to be the very same one Ty works hard on everyday to make sure it doesn’t fall out of the sky!

And so many other treasures too! All that shopping really worked up our appetites. La Conner being a new place to us, we wanted to take our time and look into every restaurant in town to make sure we were making the best decision on our meal. I however, nearly went in to some sort of diabetic episode and needed food immediately. The new mission was to find the closest restaurant around, regardless of food, price or quality. After filling our bellies and getting my blood sugar to stabilize, we continued our walk through town, only to stumble upon the Calico Cupboard cafe and bakery just a few doors down from the mediocre lunch spot we ended up eating at. The place was packed, and for good reason. Aside from having a menu full of food that looked delicious and fresh, they had a glass case full of the most delectable looking pies, desserts and baked goods. I mean look at this cream puff. It had to be the size of a dinner plate!

I couldn’t resist their lemon bar, which I instagrammed it was so good…

It. was. delicious.

Ty got something equally as delicious, but we unfortunately did not get a picture of the treat or of him enjoying it. He ate it so fast there was no time for a picture 🙂

After La Conner, our next stop was Deception Pass, along with everyone else in the PNW enjoying the sunny holiday weekend. It was c-r-a-z-y there, so we didn’t stay long. Just long enough to snap a few photos.

Here’s a panoramic shot from our sweet new camera

From Deception Pass we drove to Oak Harbor. Some of our closest friends grew up there, so we thought there would be something fun to explore there. Something interesting. Something great. No such luck. Not a lot of exploring to do in town, so we headed to the beach instead. Ty took probably 100 photos of the sky, the sand, the grass and the ocean. Here’s one of some sky, grass and ocean all in one.

By this time, even after all the food we ate in La Conner, we were getting hungry again. We took to our iPhones to search for a place to eat in Oak Harbor, but neither one of us could agree on something that sounded good or looked appealing. We asked the front desk at the hotel we booked and they recommended Front Street Grill in Coupville. The lady at the front desk was very convincing and sold the restaurant well, so we called ahead for a reservation. The lady at the hotel was right. Their food was quite tasty and the view of the water was beautiful too. After dinner, we were both pretty pooped, and as much as I liked the sound of dessert, I liked the sound of bed so much more. So that was the end of day one.

Day two, we woke up and strolled over to the hotel lobby for their continental breakfast. Disappointing. After staying at places like the Enzian in Leavenworth and the Chrysalis in Bellingham, no other continental breakfasts compare. Regardless, we were fueled and excited to spend the day strolling through Port Townsend, another place neither one of us had been before. The ferry ride over was a bit chilly…

…but it was an absolutely beautiful day.

We were pretty bad about taking photos here, so forgive us for that. The area really is worth exploring. We spent it walking through more (yes more) shops, walking through the Maritime Museum, walking the beach, and walking, walking, walking! On one of the street corners was this funky little band that actually sounded quite good. That girl on the right is plucking a string tied to a stick and a bucket!

My favorite part of the day though was probably lunch. There’s a restaurant in Port Townsend called the Banana Leaf Asian Bistro with a $7.95 lunch special everyday of the week. That speaks to our frugal hearts. I’m not sure if it is just because I’m pregnant and I was really hungry by the time we sat down to eat, but that was probably some of the best thai food I have tasted. ever.

I recommend it. I also introduced Ty to Thai iced tea there. I can’t believe in the 9 years we’ve been together he’s never had it before. His eyes have been opened. His life changed forever.

That’s pretty much it for our anniversary/holiday weekend. After lunch and a bit more exploring we took the ferry back to Whidbey, drove to Clinton and then took another ferry back home. I hope you enjoyed your long weekend as well. Oh and Ty, thank you for being the absolute best I could have asked for. I look forward to the next five years with you and the fifty after that!