The Best Two Years of my Life

I can't believe it's been 2 years since Mike and I tied the knot in Laguna Beach, California!   These past 730 days have been the best 2 years of my life, and the happiest I have ever been, and it's hard to believe how quickly time has flown.  As I mentioned last year, Mike and I have adopted the tradition of alternating years in planning anniversary celebrations.  Mike was in charge for our 1st anniversary, and we had a beautiful spring dinner and exchanged unique and thoughtful gifts of paper, the traditional gift for the first anniversary. 

Because I'm competitive in nature, I have been mentally preparing for my year to plan since May 1st, 2012...and my plans did an about face and I started from scratch this past Sunday!  While I wont divulge the details of my original plan (gotta keep that stored up for our 4th anniversary!), I changed my mind completely while running along the East River over the weekend.  On a beautiful spring afternoon, while the sun was shining, and the breeze was blowing through the city, I saw a sailboat...on the water...and that is where my idea was hatched.

For our 2nd anniversary, I surprised Mike with a sailboat cruise on the Hudson River around Manhattan at sunset.  The boat company had complimentary champagne, wine & beer on board, and I left work early to leave enough time to pick up a lobster roll picnic box from the Lobster Place in Chelsea Market to bring on board for our anniversary meal.  I even had time to pick up special cupcakes & macaroons for our dessert. 

Yesterday morning started out with some rain showers and a few low clouds...which was not optimal for a 2 hour tour on a boat.  But by noon, all of the clouds parted, the sun came out, and the weather was perfect just in time for our 6p departure from Pier 62 on the west side.  We boarded with about 6 other people on an 80 foot schooner and brought our hand-packed picnic boxes. Within five minutes of boarding, we were ssnuggled up and sailing across the Hudson river!  

 We sailed past Battery Park, we sailed past Ellis Island, and we spent the majority of our time cruising past the beautiful Statue of Liberty, in all her glory.  In 3 years of living in New York, and in Mike's 10 years of being a New York resident, neither one of us had ever done anything like this before.  Neither one of us had ever seen New York in this way.  When you're out on the Hudson River, you don't here the sirens, you don't here the horns honking, you don't hear the cab drivers yelling at each other.  It's just a peaceful view from the water & all you can hear is the water splashing and the wind ripping into the sails.  We were so blessed to get to enjoy a beautiful sunset as well.  When the sun went down, and the light hit the buildings just right, the whole island of Manhattan looked like it was made of gold!!!

Every day that we are married has been an adventure, and I wanted our anniversary celebration to be another testament to that.  Being married to Mike Mobley has ensured not only that life is full of surprises, but that life is full of reasons to be festive.  Similar to last year, we also exchanged the traditional gifts for 2nd anniversary - and we bought each other gifts of cotton! And because it was part of our vows & wedding ceremony, I of course got red roses. 

I'm thankful for each day that Mike brews and makes me the perfect cup of coffee, and for each time he cleans the bathroom, because it's just too gross for a girl to scrub. I'm so lucky to have a husband who takes care of dinner for us both when I'm working ridiculously late and is patient with my erratic work schedule.  I'm happy that I'm married to a man who starts each morning with a song and who is the only person that can cheer Winston up enough to eat breakfast in the morning. I'm grateful that my husband will do whatever it takes to make sure I'm happy, even if that means letting me do a little bit more shopping...yikes!  I believe I have the best travel partner in the entire world & I'm so appreciative of everything that we've experienced so far in our marriage together.  We have quite a year ahead of us for the rest of 2013 & I can't wait to celebrate 3 years together in 2014, and every year after that!