Three Year Anniversary

The big 0-3. On January 10th, Ian and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. And considering we had a three week old, we had a very special time!

I had a Downtown Gift Card from work, a rather generous one my boss gave me before I left for all the interviewing and work I did on hiring my replacement (thought that was part of my job, so I was pretty excited about the gift card!), so Ian and I decided to blow the whole thing on our anniversary. We got a night at the Hotel Maya, a waterfront hotel next to the Queen Mary in Downtown Long Beach. I used one of my work contacts to get a really good deal on the room, so we had plenty left on the card to go out for appetizers in the afternoon, dinner that night and room service for breakfast!

We arrived at 3 - of course, since that's when check in was. We sat out on the patio overlooking the water and had appetizers and cocktails (well, Ian had a cocktail, I had a coke). It was great.

Then later that night, Mary came down to our hotel room so Ian and I could go to dinner at the restaurant at the hotel. It was GLORIOUS to have an hour and a half to ourselves, to not worry about the noise she might be making or if she was about to wake up. And Ruthie did great with Aunt Mary!

Here we are at dinner. Yes, I had a little wine. We save a cork from each of our anniversaries as part of our tradition. Some day, we'll have a whole huge vase full of corks, each labeled with a year.
When we got back to the room, Mary took a photo of us on the balcony. You can sort of see Downtown in the background. We so appreciated her willingness to come to our hotel so we could go out.

And here is the whole family, enjoying the hotel. Well, sort of. Ruthie is screaming. But Ian and I enjoyed the hotel. We love hotels. =)

As per our traditions, we read our ceremony and vows, answered our anniversary questions, looked through our wedding photos and prayed together. We also exchanged gifts - the traditional gift for year three is leather. I got Ian a belt and he got me a journal. We were pretty proud of ourselves that we actually had gifts wrapped and ready to go.

Of course, I cried all through our re-reading of the ceremony. It is so special - I can totally hear my dad's voice as we read through it, and I'm continually thankful for the man Ian is and the marriage we have.

Anyway, I could go on and on but I'll spare you mushy details. Happy Anniversary to us!