Masters Celebration

Sorry I fell off the edge of the earth. Between starting comps studying in earnest, traveling, and packing up our apartment, it has been go-go-go. I honestly am surprised I'm able to blog right now but I have a headache that's preventing me from reading comps material so I'm playing catch up! 

I wanted to do a quick recap of the ways we celebrated Matt finishing his Masters degree. He finished his last exam Thursday morning and then had to go to work (poor dude). Once he got home, though, it was party time! I surprised him with one of his favorite meals-- chicken enchiladas (from Cooking Light of all places; seriously these are amazing- make them!) along with chips & queso that I made in his new Little Dipper. For dessert, I made a slow cooker apple bread pudding dish, served with Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. So good! 

Matt's loot

Yay! He's done!

Have to stir the queso

Chicken enchiladas

A little bit of back story: as opposed to getting him one big gift, I decided to go for a series of small things he has wanted but were hard to randomly purchase at the store. So yes, I got him a Little Dipper. While my waist line may regret our easy access to queso, it is totally worth it. Some of the other things I got him included Maple syrup (yes, we're silly) and an Amazon gift card so he can start ordering the books he has wanted to read. 

But anyway, we had a fun time eating good food and relaxing that night. We were a bit more adventurous on Friday. After I finished studying for the day, we headed out to one of the local Studio Movie Grills to watch the Captain America sequel. It was a fun movie but we had ordered chips and dip (can you tell we like this dish?) and might have spoiled our dinner a little. The movie was a lot more suspenseful than anticipated and that resulted in mindless eating. Oh well, it was delicious! 

Benefit to middle afternoon showings on
weekdays- theater to ourselves!

For dinner we headed to the appropriately-named Celebration Restaurant in Dallas. As soon as I saw the menu, I knew it would be the perfect place for Matt as it featured home-cooked recipes such as chicken fried steak. It had a nice laid back environment and we both enjoyed our food a lot, despite not being that hungry.

Have to have a bread basket!

My entree, a pecan-crusted chicken salad. So good!!

Matt's chicken fried sirloin steak with sides. You could get
seconds on these items by the way. Unfortunately we couldn't take
advantage of that as we simply didn't have room!

The graduate :)

Since Matt wasn't wanting to have a party or anything and since he didn't walk across the stage, that about sums up our formal celebration of his graduation. It was fun and relaxing though, both perfect qualities after all the time studying! 

Epic Date Part A

As I've discussed in a few posts, Matt decided to plan the Epic Date of 2013 to celebrate the end of summer school. We had a feeling this summer was going to be difficult (it was) and we would want a weekend to recuperate (we did). The original plan was for us to go out to dinner and then spend the night somewhere, no geographic restrictions other than the DFW area. So once a month, he would email me hints of 2 locations- one for dinner and another of a hotel. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Epic Date ended up getting split into Parts A and B, but I think we preferred it that way. Plus, everyone likes to spread out celebrations, right?

So part A was a couple of weekends ago. On Friday, after a very sweaty spin class, we got ready, packed up, and headed to the Fort Worth Omni. It is pretty new and so nicely decorated. It has a Texas theme but not in a cheesy, over-done way. The package Matt reserved for us included a premier room, valet parking, and breakfast the next day-- none of these disappointed. Our room was on one of the upper floors of the hotel and had a corner view so we could see part of downtown as well as the Fort Worth Water Gardens. 

During our time in downtown, we explored a lot downtown, ate a lot of delicious food, and just relaxed. It was an amazing time, from when we started celebrating happy hour with some delicious chips & dip to sadly checking out the next day. Matt planned it all so well and we could tell we really needed that time just to get away from our normal life, even if it was just 30 minutes away for 24 hours. Still so good and so fun! But enough words, here are some pictures!

Our view

  

Our room with the huge king size bed

Rooftop pool/bar area

Ready to go explore before dinner!

One of the fountains at the Fort Worth Water Gardens

Dinner at Uno's Pizza-- we shared an individual size...

So we could order our own desserts. Oh,
these are mini desserts, by the way.
White chocolate macademia nut deep dish cookie (yum!)

Matt's (mini) apple-based dessert

A beautiful church we discovered downtown

Exploring the water gardens around sunset-- so pretty!

View of the same thing a few minutes later

We may have uh... 'borrowed' some strawberry shortcakes from
the convention center earlier... they were very good late-night snacks!

Our complementary morning coffee the next day

Sunrise!

Some breakfast

More breakfast...

And more breakfast. Take a guess as to who's plate is whose.
Should be a fun game.

Matt outside his UTA-Ft Worth campus

There is a cool little museum inside
this old fire house on the history of the city

Inside the museum, some of Matt's favorite things

Tarrant County Courthouse

While Part A was awesome and it was hard to go home, I'm looking forward to Part B. It should involve some delicious food and we all know how much I love to eat! I'm so thankful for my amazing husband to take the time and effort to plan this. We had a great time and I can't wait to see what Part B has in store!

25 years

I wanted to write a post today just for my parents-- today marks their 25th wedding anniversary! They will be going on a cruise down the Rhine River to celebrate and I know they will have an amazing time! My parents are so special to me and I am so impressed by their amazing marriage, especially now that I am married myself. On several occasions I have had others mention to me how much in love my parents are and it is so true-- they are so good together and it is evident that after 25 years, they are still going strong.

My parents on their wedding day, plus my brother

I love you, Mom & Dad, and I hope you have a joyous anniversary! May the next 25 years be just as amazing! :)

1 year

A year ago today we got all dressed up

Spent time with our dearest friends and family

Walked into a church

Said our vows

Were pronounced husband and wife

Took some pictures

Celebrated with friends and family

And left for our amazing honeymoon

1 year went by so quickly and I have never felt so blessed, loved, or happy. Marriage isn't always easy, but it is worth it. So to Matt, my best friend and who always loves me, I love you . Thank you for the past year and here's to many more to come!

All pictures by Kasey Lynn Photography