Anniversary Adventures

Well, folks, we had a great anniversary.  Since we'll be in Florida in January for a Young Life thing, we decided to stay in town and save some cash.  We made a list of fun things we've been wanting to do in the area and added them to our weekend agenda.

Friday - We took the day off.  I slept in and Mark made me breakfast in bed.  See below for the "anniversary edition" of our peanut butter toast.

Mark: I made an "M" and "L" for Mark and Liza in our toast!
Liza: Oh, look at you!  That's so nice....
Mark: beaming proudly
Liza: finally putting two-and-two together...  Did you use your finger to write in my peanut butter?
Mark: Yep!

We also went to a newer local winery called Calico Skies near Canton, SD.  It was beautiful and wonderful and fantastic.  You should visit there.  Later, we went to the Backroom Bistro where our friend Giovanni cooks A.Maze.Ing. Italian food.  We had our rehearsal supper at the Bistro, so it was fun to relive some memories.  We also stopped at Butler's, the coffee shop where we had our first one-on-one chat, for late night coffee.

View from the Winery 

Saturday, we had lunch at Kaladi's, another coffee shop, (which we do not recommend for a variety of reasons), and went to an apple orchard to get fresh, drizzely caramel apples.  I also talked Mark into buying me a two dollar pumpkin.  It was so cute and tiny, I just had to take it home.

After THAT...(here comes Mark's favorite part)...  We went pheasant hunting.  Yes.  We did.  On our anniversary.  We went "spot hunting" (that's what Mark calls it, anyway), which meant we drove around on gravel roads and looked for pheasants in the ditches.  If we saw one, Mark would get out of the car, grab his shot gun, rustle them up and shoot them.

Mark LOVED it because he got to hunt.  I LOVED it because I got to drive around on gravel roads and look at the countryside in the fall and read my bible and soak in the warmth of my seat warmer.  It.  Was.  Glorious.  Seriously.  Gravel roads are one of THE best forms of therapy.

In the evening, we brought the pheasants out to our little deck, and, like any good wife would do on her anniversary, I held the pheasant upside down while Mark ripped it apart and got the meat out.

Cue the dramatic music.  (At this time, I would like to thank my Aunt Trudy for the times when her and I went down to the creek, found dead frogs and dissected them to "see if we can figure out why they died".  I would also like to thank my late Papa for encouraging me watch him cut the heads off of chickens and clean fish.  You both have made me who I am today...)  End dramatic music.

After ripping the pheasants apart, we primped a little and went to Minerva's - a really classy restaurant in town.  Don't you love the contrast?

SUNDAY (don't worry, I'm almost done), we had a picnic at Palasaides park (where Mark proposed), hunted pheasants a little bit more, ate frozen pizzas and cheesecake, watched a movie and played my all-time favorite game, Monopoly.  It was just awesome.

I'm not kidding.  It was one of the most awesome weekends we've ever spent together.  There is something about being HOME, enjoying the simple things, and spending time with the people you love the most without any distractions.  Fantastic.