Well it’s Friday (finally!) and today’s theme for the Friday 5 link-up is “ways to celebrate”. Plus, today is our 5 year wedding anniversary! So I thought it would be appropriate to look back on the past 5 years and share some highlights.
1. Year 1: We waited a few months after our wedding to go on our Honeymoon, so in January 2013 we went to Hawaii. On our way there we stopped in Houston to run a marathon. This was Rob’s first full marathon! The weather was pretty awful but it made our time in Hawaii that much better. We celebrated our one year anniversary by going wine tasting in Mt. Airy. I had started blogging that year so I wrote about it here! We also started our annual tradition of going to the Marriott where our wedding was held for a drink. And of course we ate one year old wedding cake.
2. Year 2: We did another marathon together, this time in Raleigh in April. The best way to describe this race is “hot and hilly”. When our two year anniversary came around, we went to Annapolis for the day. I also shared a post with lots of wedding pics, since I didn’t have a blog back when we got married! We were also gearing up to run the Philly Marathon a few weeks later.
3. Year 3: During year 3 we bought a house! We moved in April, 2015. That was pretty much all I remember from that year. We celebrated our anniversary a few weeks early because it was a busy month in November. I was away for a conference the weekend before our actual anniversary and then we were getting ready to run the Route 66 marathon two weeks later. So in October, we went to DC for the weekend. We spent Saturday morning running 20 miles on one of the DC trails! I posted all about that trip here. For our actual anniversary weekend we went out to dinner downtown and then to the Marriott for our annual drink.
4. Year 4: There were no marathons in year 4, as this was the beginning of my injury. We did some shorter races in the spring, but nothing in the fall. Our big trip that year was going to Hawaii with Rob’s family. For our anniversary we kept things simple. We just went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant, Flemings, and went to the Marriott for an anniversary drink.
5. Year 5: This year! Once again I didnt’ run any marathons, but Rob did! And he let me coach him. This took our marriage to a while new level:) We don’t have any big travel plans for this year, but at least we got to go away to Charleston in August! With my sister’s wedding last weekend we knew this would be a busy month. We will probably go to dinner downtown and try to make it to the Marriott for a drink (if we can stay up late enough!) This was definitely the fastest year yet. I feel like we literally just celebrate 4 years and now it’s already 5. Pretty crazy how fast those years have gone.
While we do try to make our anniversary celebrations special, sometimes it’s nice to just keep things low-key. I probably thought we would do something big for 5 years but it really snuck up on us! Maybe we should start planning for what we will do when we hit 10 years, since I’m sure that will go by just as fast.
Do you have any annual traditions?
For those who are married, how do you celebrate your anniversary?
Does your significant other run? Do you run together?
I’m linking up with Lacey, Meranda, and Rachel for the Friday Five 2.0!
Happy Anniversary you two! I love your wedding pic! We also started our blog in 2013 and I know I have been following back then because I remember you writing about all your races then. Man, time really does fly. Start planning your ten year……haha!
Its crazy to think about how we have been blogging for all these years! Thank you!
awww, happy anniversary! I got married in November too – it’s such a nice time of year for weddings!
Thank you! Its really a great month for weddings.
Happy Anniversary – wow, so I have been following you for over 4 years now?!?! Time flies, remember your first anniversary! Thanks for sharing your love and joys (and occasional ups/downs, smoothed over as we all do) through the years! I hope that it just keeps on growing … I wish for all the happiness in the world for you.
Our key through the years is that our anniversary was about *US*. So even though we’ve never had a strong family support system, meaning that ou kids often came along for anniversary dinners, we always found a way to make it about our relationship.
A key thought is that any time spent on your marriage is never wasted. Between jobs, careers, hobbies, pets and kids … that actually becomes increasingly important.
We just celebrated our 25th anniversary … and did it with a vow renewal and an amazing two week second honeymoon trip to Europe. So much of the last 20 years have been focused on the boys, including having two private college bills making the saving for a trip more stressful… that the ability to focus on just being a couple fully for two weeks. Well, it was better than I can possibly describe.
Congratulations!
Thank you! I also cant believe Ive been blogging for 4 years. Where has the time gone?? Its awesome that you got to renew your vows and take a trip like that this year. We used to always plan trips for just the two of us when we were dating (we were together for 7 years before getting married) but then it was all about saving for the wedding and then saving money to buy and furnish our house. This year we realized we need to prioritize making time to do stuff like that again. Otherwise life gets so busy and the time just passes by!
I love that you go back to the Marriott to have a drink every year <3 Before we moved out of the country, we used to do day trips on Columbus Day (since I usually had the day off work) and that's the weekend we were married. There might have been a few race-weekends in there too 😉
It works out well that the hotel where we had our wedding is right across the street from one of our favorite restaurants! Its nice to have traditions to celebrate each year.
Happy Anniversary – that’s so cool that you ran marathons the first 3 years. And what a big step for Rob letting you coach him!
Haha yes it was definitely a big step! He has admitted that he needs that level of accountability to actually follow through with his training:)
Congrats!!!! I remember eating our cake on our 1st anniversary and it was nasty LOL We celebrated 27 years in August (YIKES). We don’t do anything major for our anniversary anymore…having kids kind of shifted a lot of our attention towards them (and no regrets in doing so).
I actually thought our cake tasted ok! I could see how it could be easy to stop doing anything special as the years go on, especially after having kids. Even over the past 5 years our celebrations have become much more low key!
That’s so fun that you ran a marathon on your honeymoon. We also went to Hawaii for ours. Happy Anniversary and many more!
Thank you! Hawaii is such a great place for a honeymoon.
Happy Anniversary!!! 5 years is wood, right? I’m impressed that you remember all the ways you celebrated your anniversary! Off the top of my head, I can think of what we did twice. I know we went on an overnight beach trip the one time and the other time we went out for a very fancy dinner because I won a gift card by calling into a radio show! I’d have to look back at my blog to see what we did in these most recent years. But we do pretty much what you do- sometimes something special, sometimes just low key.
This August will be 10 years for us! I do want to do something special, whether it’s plan our summer vacation over our anniversary (probably Cape Cod) or do something special local.
Honestly, it helps to have a blog with remembering how we celebrated! Wow, 10 years for you! You should definitely plan a trip or something!
Happy anniversary! That’s so fun that you go out for drinks where you had your wedding! We didn’t wait until our first anniversary to have our cake, since we moved cross country after 8 months of marriage. It probably tasted better since we had it sooner!
I was actually surprised that the cake tasted decent a year later. We are lucky that we live not to far from where the reception was held- its fun to go back there!
Happy happy anniversary! We never ate our cake on our first anniversary because we moved right after the wedding, and so did my parents! So, sadly, we never got round 2 of it. Here’s to many more!
Thank you! You probably weren’t missing too much with the cake! Ours tasted ok but I hear usually its not very good. You should buy (or bake) a new cake instead!
Congrats!! I guess we really don’t have any traditions other than looking at our wedding album, because after 25 years we have changed a bit!! We still have not done any destination races other than Boston Marathon. I think we need to get some on our calendar soon!!
After 5 years we still haven’t made our wedding album! Its always been something we planned to do but put off. All our pics on electronic so I guess thats easier anyway.
Happy Anniversary! Congratulations! Super fun to look back on things! We will celebrate 19 years in May–I can’t believe how time flies. We try to go away for our day and next May we will head to Mexico. Rick is not a runner (or cyclist or swimmer or yogi or weightlifter) he’s a skiier and golfer and does T-25 for his workout. But he is 100% always supportive of me in my sports … through the ups and the downs!
Thank you! Thats nice that you guys still plan trips for your anniversary Its nice that you each have your own interests but are still supportive of one another!
Happy Anniversary! Next year is #30 for us, which makes me feel so old! We’ve never celebrated the big milestones, but I think we should do something!
You should definitely do something to celebrate 30 years! Thats an incredible milestone!
Happy Anniversary! What fun memories! Our wedding anniversary is in 4 days. While I don’t remember what we did on all 19 of them, I do remember we were the first people to enter the Coliseum in Rome on our 1st anniversary. On our 3rd anniversary, the Caveman got fired and had to come home and share that news. Ha!
Another November anniversary! Hope you can do something special to celebrate!
Awwe I love this post and Happy Anniversary!
Thank you!
Congrats! These are beautiful memories!
Thank you!
Love your wedding pictures! For our 10th we renewed our vows in Vegas. For our 29th we did a Century. We’ve never done a marathon, though!
Those sound like great ways to celebrate! Thank you!
Happy anniversary. I love that you ran a marathon on your honeymoon. My husband doesn’t run, I wish he’d share the love for running with me.
Thank you! My husband didnt always run, but I guess somehow it rubbed off on him!