One Year!

It's crazy to say, but last Monday was our one year anniversary! This past year has flown by. We were talking the other night thinking about all the things we've done in this year and we've stayed BUSY! From getting married, going on a honeymoon, moving to KY, Utah for my sister Jess's wedding, Louisiana for Christmas, and going on a trip to the Dominican Republic (I'll be posting about that soon), and normal life between all of that, we've had quite a year! I absolutely love being married and am so excited to spend forever with Billy! 

To celebrate our anniversary we decided to take a little trip up to Cincinnati. It's only about a two hour drive, so it's the perfect overnight getaway! Billy and I both took Friday off of work and headed out...

We made our first stop for some lunch at Cane's! I LOVE Cane's and it reminds me of home. It's funny because Billy was thinking of stopping for lunch and at first I said I wasn't hungry yet. But once he mentioned Cane's, I had to have some :) 

We made our drive and did some shopping at the Gap Clearance store. It is wonderful! I think I mentioned this store in a previous post, but it is where all the Old Navy/Gap/Banana Republic returns and damaged items get sent and are sold for CHEAP. We were probably in there for 3 hours, and could've stayed longer. You have to search and there are so many clothes, but we both found some great deals! I also got a few things for my sister Liza's baby. I probably had more fun shopping for her than I did for myself!

That night we ate at this place called Buckhead. It was right by our hotel and the large windows overlooked the river and the bright city. It was a cool view and the food was delicious!

The next day we went to the zoo. We've been wanting to go for a little while now and we loved it! We woke up that morning to some cold and wet weather. Luckily, I bought two jackets from the Gap Store the day before and they saved me!  

This picture is a shout out to my dad. He loves plants and thought he would enjoy these beauties :)

Giraffes are probably one of my favorites. I don't know why, but I love seeing them and we showed up just in time to feed them!

In the zoo there is also a 4D movie theater. The movies are only about 10 minutes, but we thought it was pretty cool. We saw Planet Earth and it was the arctic segment, so there was cold wind blowing around our feet and a little squirt of water at one point. It kept you on edge and entertained the whole time! 

We also LOVED the cougars! They would come right up to the glass and looked like they just wanted to play. Billy was giving it some lovin...

We ended to day by getting some Cincinnati chili on the way home. Cincinnati is known for this chili that has cinnamon in it and they serve it over noodles with lots of cheese. It was kind of like spaghetti. It was tasty and was a perfect warm comfort food after being outside in the cold weather all day.

#BBN

So, BBN really stands for Big Blue Nation in which the UK Wildcats just won the National Championship game, but in the Besther household it stands for Billy's Birthday Night!!! Yesterday was Billy's 26th birthday and we tried to make it somewhat a birthday weekend by opening gifts starting on Saturday. My wonderful parents sent him a fun package including "Slap Ya Momma" cooking spices, a cool New Orleans paper weight for his desk, a sweet card, and a variety of Hubig's Pies. It was so thoughtful and we loved trying all the flavors of the pies.

Then on Sunday I let him open the presents I got him. Neither one of us are good with surprises, but I'm especially bad so it didn't take long for Billy to convince me to let him open them. One of the presents was this fun indoor putting mat. Billy's been saying he really wants to get in to golfing, so I thought this would make it easier for him to practice anytime he wants! He's such a natural...

Then Monday was his actual birthday. He requested Jambalaya for his birthday dinner...one of the many reasons I love Billy :) It makes me so happy that he loves spicy cajun food! It came out great and we had a yummy salad on the side and some french bread.

For dessert we were planning on doing pazzookies, but we got distracted with this yummy chocolate cream cheese! It is seriously SO good! I got it a while back to fill strawberries with, but never made them. Then yesterday when we were cutting up the strawberries and apples for the salad, we got it out to taste test. Needless to say, after dinner we couldn't wait to have more! We planned to wait a little while and then make pazzookies later, but we were both still too full and never made them. But we decided to make this into his birthday month, so I'm sure we'll have them sometime soon. :)

We ended the night by relaxing and opening cards from some family and friends. I think overall it was a fun birthday. I couldn't ask for a better husband than Billy! I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays together! Love you Billy!