Aloha, eh?

Here's a (not so fun) fact about me and my guy. We have never taken a vacation together. Now that isn't to say we haven't traveled. We have happily boarded planes to celebrate every single wedding/shower/bachelorette/baptism/etc we have attended either together or separately. But a stretch of days to ourselves? It hasn't happened in 54 long months. 

So we were over the moon excited about planning our honeymoon. We have both traveled pretty extensively all over the world but to be able to take a trip together?!? It was overwhelming. At first we wanted to go to Europe; specifically Italy. Then maybe Hawaii. We couldn't justify the price and the travel time so we started to look at the Caribbean. And before I knew it Costa Rica was our honeymoon destination. And before we hit the confirm button on our 7-day stay at the Four Seasons we looked at each other and asked "are we sure?" and Pat was the first to say "I don't want to sit on a beach for 7 days."

We live in the sunshine state and we aren't tan. We never go to the beach. We love the water but cities are what make our feet dance. We love the restaurants and the shows and city blocks. We love exploring the different pockets that cities have to offer. A concrete jungle over a white sand beach? Yes please. 

We said in unison that the Pacific Northwest was our destination of choice.
And so we are going to

Vancouver! 

And as luck has it, our beloved Blackhawks are playing the Canucks when we plan to be there. 

And John Legend will be in town.
And there are many, many restaurants I am already drooling over.

It will be rainy and it will be cold (45 degrees) but we fell in love in a tundra place....

Snuggled up. Down coats. Boots. Scarves. 

I think we'll be just fine on our very first vacation as mr. and mrs. 

the booze

i've tried to cross my t's and dot my i's over the last year, and now that we are getting down to the nitty gritty i am stuck on a few things that MAYBE we should have figured out already.

like what beer to serve. 

we've got three beers down...but need help with a fourth. do we go with something that is an old favorite of ours (rolling rock for me, miller high life for him) or something generic like a bud light (we both hate it). or maybe something that is brewed here in the sunshine state and we've both taken a liking to. 

help us out! 

ps - yes beer is actually brewed in other places besides chicago, the 5% of me that is a hipster/beer loving snob was as surprised as the next gal. 

it's on.

364 days ago pat asked me a very important question.

and in exactly 61 days i get to say yes all over again.

"love one another, but make not a bond of love. let it be a moving sea between the shores of your souls."

the sweetest spot.

chicago has a lot of sweet spots. 

but my absolute favorite is buckingham fountain. 

to one side you're face to face with the skyscrapers that make up the chicago skyline.

and you feel outrageously small.

taking up such a small bit of space in the midwest's largest city.

and to the other side you see lake michigan as it stretches all the way to indiana. 

and that's it. 

there's no slow break. 

it's like the city comes to an abrupt stop. 

and the fountain is it's last little hurrah. 

one very hot summer evening, when "anna and pat" was about 4 months young, we were wandering around downtown and like everyone who comes across buckingham fountain, we stopped dead in our tracks to stare in awe.

i remember saying, "i want engagement pictures here." 

and four years later, almost to the day, the universe made that little wish come true. 

so much has happened in those years. but maybe the most important thing, the thing i want to hold onto, the thing that i hope is always true, is the fact that with each passing day i like pat more and more. i love him from the ends of my curls to the tips of my toes. he's my partner for life. and while my heart will forever beat to his, we don't have a story that begins with, "we always knew..."

we have a story that started in like. and crawled towards love.

but oh, did i enjoy the time we took moving from like to love.

enjoy our photos!

pat asked me out on our very first date just steps away.

pat's favorite

the same necklace i wore the day we got engaged.

the last one of the evening. 

all photos are due to our lovely and talented photographer, katelyn james. 

lovable.

a long ol' post with our favorite engagement pictures coming soon...