One year down, the rest of eternity to go!

A few weeks ago Rich and I celebrated our very first anniversary!  Leading up to our anniversary on Saturday, we were in Bear Lake with Rich's ENTIRE family.  I've been married to the guy for a year and just BARELY met the rest of the fam.  It was an eventful weekend and we all ended up having a lot of fun!  On Saturday afternoon, we took off to Salt Lake to celebrate our anniversary.  For those of you who know me at all, you know I like to be in control and always know exactly what's going on.. well we decided Rich gets to plan our first anniversary since I planned the honeymoon.  I had no idea what we were doing and I left it all in Rich's hands (it was a big step for me, alright?) ;) We decided to go check in to our hotel so we could get dressed and ready for dinner.  We were trying to find the place (he wouldn't tell me what it was called) and he "accidently made a wrong turn" so he pulled into a parking lot to flip around and I saw I sign that read,

Wohoo!  I've always wanted to stay a night there but it's a little on the expensive side for newly-weds (thank goodness for AWESOME military discounts).  We checked in and when we got to our room, this is what it looked like:

Pretty fun stuff!  He didn't tell me where we were going for dinner either till we got to the hotel.  We ended up going to the Roof (is that what it's called?) above the Joseph Smith memorial building:

In the morning we got breakfast at our door made right to order!  

This last year has been a lot of work, but it has been the best year of my life.  I couldn't have asked for a better husband.  Rich is so perfect for me.  I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with him!  We had a great opportunity around our anniversary to live it up together knowing that Rich was leaving for a year.  He left just over a week ago and we got to do a lot, thanks to two amazing families, before he left.  Here are some pictures of the last family events we did before he took off:

Boating with some of my family (the ones who could make it that is)

Race and Bekah

Puttin' our feet in the water

Rich on the tube

Rich and Ashley

These next pictures have a short little story to go with them:  After blowing up the tube, it got tossed in the water in preparation to pull someone.  Bekah, being the fearless little girl she is just hopped off the edge of the boat onto the tube!  None of us were watching her like we should have been... it's a good thing she had a life jacket on :) I don't think she understood that it wasn't like a pool and the water was deeper than 6"

Rich being the good uncle he is hopped on with her so we could give her a short ride, they were sitting a little too far toward the front so when we started going...

They both got dumped.  Rich was fine, but as you can see, Bekah wasn't too happy.  My mom obviously thought it was pretty funny though (as did the rest of us, ha ha).

Once Race got used to the life jacket, he was in heaven on the boat.  He almost fell asleep a few times in Heidi's lap.

Eliza and Heather came a little later in the day and Eliza LOVED everything about boating.  When we went fast, Heather would try to block her face from the wind and Eliza would move her hand out of the way cause she wanted to see everything!  

Heather and I tried to take Bekah on another ride later in the day, but she was still traumatized from her experience earlier that day.. she was obviously not having as much fun as we were.

These last few pictures are from the Brandt family get together at Bear Lake.  During the short weekend we were there we played (a lot of) games, watched movies, rode 4-wheelers, went to a cave, rode "Big papa's" Harley, got famous raspberry shakes and went swimming with all of the kids.  We didn't get our camera out till the last day, so here are just a few pictures of us hanging out around the cabin we stayed at.

Chuck and Lauren.  It was either this picture with Chuck giving the stare-down, or the one with Lauren showing her chewed up food... figured this one was a little better, ha ha ;)

Jake and Rob. 

Joe and Lindsay making lunch for everyone with assistance from Jen and Ren

Rich showing off his new haircut.  I was so depressed..

Ashlee and Kez sharing lunch

Before Rich took off for the year we also went on a trip together to Kauai, spent a day at 7 peaks, attended my brother's wedding, and took family pictures with both of our entire families (I'll post them when I get them).  We had a lot of fun, and we're both hoping this year flies by as fast as the first year did!  

Rich is still in the states, so he still has his phone on him if anyone feels like sending him a text or giving him a call, chances are he can't answer, but I know he'd love to come back from his day to a voicemail from a family member or friend!  Also if anyone wants his address to send out letters let me know, and if you're feeling super patriotic/supportive you can even send a package :D Happy Independence day!

-Ashley