Two Years! Yay!!!

Whew! Holy whirlwind weekend, Batman! :)

What? A decent picture of both of us? Is that possible??

I'm not really all about dating "anniversaries," but today marks 2 years since Erik and I started dating!! We decided we've been best friends for something like 4 1/2 years, and dating for 2 years today. I'll tell you more about this in a moment. But here's the weekend update:

Erik asked me to be his date to a wedding in Spokane this weekend (it was a CRAZY weekend!!), and I was going to come back last night, but I was persuaded to stay in the Tri-Cities for one more night so we could see each other at least for a few minutes today. If you've read my other posts, you know that he moved last weekend for about 5 weeks, so we're playing the long distance game right now, meaning it was GREAT to see him and spend the weekend together. Now 2 more weeks before we see each other for his sister's wedding. :) And I'm wicked busy these next two weeks, so it should go really fast!

The wedding was beautiful--both bride and groom went to Gonzaga and I know both of them, but Erik has gone to school with the bride since 5th grade. I've gotten to know her family a little bit through visits to Erik's hometown, so it was really fun to see them. We also went to a funeral that morning (Erik's uncle's father--his uncle who is married to his mom's sister, if that makes sense--anyway, his uncle's father died on Tuesday, so we went to the funeral), then we went to the funeral reception, which basically included his mom's entire extended family (thankfully I already know all of them and get along with all of them really, really well). It was nice to see them all. Then we went to the wedding, which was held at the church on Gonzaga's campus (yay to be back at GU!), and the president of the university did their wedding (he's awesome!!). The afternoon was a whirlwind of trying to beat the stifling heat, dropping our stuff off at the house we were staying at, hanging out at Gonzaga, and then heading over to the reception. The reception was held at the Davenport Hotel, which is, hands down, the nicest, fanciest hotel in Spokane. It was GORGEOUS. They had a catered, 3-course fancy schmancy meal, a 16-piece Jazz orchestra playing--it was awesome!! And even though it was a crazy night, since our friend was singing with her band downstairs in the hotel and we were trying to split our time between supporting her and being at the reception, we had a blast. The orchestra was awesome (big band/jazz-ish), and even though we only got to dance once, Erik asked me to dance!! Yay for awesomeness! :) (He's a great dancer and he knows I love to dance, so he's great about asking me when we're in situations like that--but hello! Yay!)

So quick random story: I SUCK AT DRIVING STICK-SHIFTS!!! But I swear I don't suck THAT bad...I just have no confidence. To make a long story short, we had to drive my friend Davey's car, and Erik doesn't drive a stick, period, and I haven't driven one for three years, but I was doing soooooo good...until we were driving it in downtown Spokane on Saturday night in pretty major traffic, managed to kill the car twice at one intersection, then the car started smoking. I'm not kidding. Like, BIG smoke. With bad smells. When the guy next to us yelled, "Hey! Your car's on fire!" we both started to panic a bit. Don't worry, it wasn't REALLY on fire. But just in case, we managed to enlist a nearby JAG lawyer passing by and we pushed the car off to the side of the road and called Davey, who walked to where we were and drove the car to a parking spot. We think it's fine, but sheesh!

Anyway, the weekend also included some strawberry picking with our friends, Nicole and Cort, and sleeping all the way back to the Tri-Cities in the backseat of the car while his dad drove.

So, we've been dating for two years, I have no idea where this is going or what will happen, and I'm not in any big hurry to get married (just so we're all clear). We've definitely had our ups and downs (like any relationship, right?), but you guys! He's awesome and I love him a lot. And he's definitely got his sweet, romantic side, which I've been blessed to see on a number of different occasions. So here's the latest:

He LOVES baseball, right? And he collects baseball caps, and there's very specific conditions to his collection, which we won't go into here, but I knew there was a particular hat he's been eying for about six months, so I decided to give it to him for our little two year anniversary. I didn't really expect anything from him (like I said, we're not really all about the silly "anniversaries"), so I wrapped it up, wrote him a sappy lil' love card, and put it on his bed last night. I knew he had seen it, but he didn't say anything. Then he went in his room and shut the door. About 20 minutes later, he came into the computer room where I was checking my e-mail, and said, "Thanks for the present on my bed! I didn't open it." I was like, "Well, you should open it, silly!!" (I gave it to him last night because I didn't want to do it when we were all tired this morning since I had to leave at the crack of dawn.) He said, "Okay, come on!!" So he drug me into the room where I was staying, shut the door, and on the bed was the gift I gave him with his card, and another gift wrapped up on the bed for me!! :) Yay!! So he gave me the sweetest card, and then told me to open mine first. Now, when I decided what to give him, I thought I could either go creative and sentimental, or I could just get him something I knew he really wanted. Obviously I went with the latter. He, however, totally went with the former, and it was PERFECT!! For about the last 4 years, but especially since we started dating, whenever we say good night to each other, whether in person, on the phone, e-mail, etc., we always say, "Sweet Dreams." (There's a reason, but it's not important.) So he got me this adorable (and totally girly--I love it!) sign (about 2 feet wide and a foot tall) that says, "Sweet Dreams." I LOVE IT!! It's totally perfect. And when I said that, he said, "You can hang this by your bed, and even when we can't be together, when you see it you can remember that I love you and I'm wishing you sweet dreams." How cute is that?!? :)