anniversary number thirteen

this year we ended up with a snow day anniversary, so after a chill day at home jack and archie accompanied us to an almost empty pizza ranch for all the fried chicken we could collectively eat. 

the next night we enjoyed a fancy bucket list night out after donald snagged an elusive reservation at 1587 prime, the new mahomes kelce steakhouse at the loews hotel. it was indeed a dining experience, complete with white coated waitstaff and a delightful lounge singer who knew how to work the room. just before dessert we got an extra surprise when biscuit the babysitter sent us a text letting us know that jack had lost his first tooth!

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anniversary number twelve

we definitely cut it close this time, but still managed to have a little celebration.

on the weekend of our anniversary, the kc master piecers returned to st. paul for the second year, this time with a full four person team, but we left our cheering section in kc. so while donald was home entertaining jack and archie i was in the thick of the individual and pairs competitions. once those wrapped up julie and i headed to the airport to watch a very stressful afc championship game in two different airports and one airplane, landing back in kc with just enough time for me to race home and sneak in the door right before midnight to enjoy a late night version of our anniversary fried chicken.

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anniversary number eleven

i'm certain neither of us saw this coming, but we celebrated our eleventh anniversary up north in minnesota. 

last year my friend julie and i stumbled upon competitive puzzling and we were both excited about the idea of competing at the largest jigsaw puzzle competition in the county at the st. paul winter carnival. it happened to coincide with our anniversary weekend, so we decided to make it a family road trip adventure.

the highlight of the weekend was obviously puzzles. i enjoyed the many celebrity puzzler sightings, and with our two husbands and four boys in tow we had a great cheering section and came in 26th out of 160 teams in the pairs event. with the rest of our time we also found some delicious fried chicken, took a lovely drive along the river to minnehaha falls, strolled the mall of america, found our way through a mirror maze, watched ice scultptors in the park, navigated a snow maze, and enjoyed a chiefs afc championship win at diamond jo's casino on the drive home.

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anniversary number ten

as our friend michelle was taking photos on our wedding day, she spotted a claw machine in the corner of the lodge and handed donald some quarters. these games are not exactly known for their high success rates, so i was shocked when he took one turn and pulled out a stuffed pink heart with the words "i love you" embroidered across. we snapped a quick photo with our prize and went on with the day, but it gave me the idea to start a little tradition of taking a photo with the heart every year. 

we've also been trying to make it back to pere marquette every five years, but since one of our little tagalongs was just two months old an overnight stay felt a bit daunting. so we decided to just make a day of it. we listened to our wedding playlists on the drive, took a chilly ferry ride, played some chess, and of course enjoyed the lodge's famous fried chicken [and scored some free desserts!]

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anniversary number nine

in an unusual turn of events we ended up with two downtown date nights in the same week. the weekend before our anniversary our little third wheel tagged along with us to dinner for jack stack with jack jack. then he headed off for a few hours with gaga bisc and pep pep while we went to see nate bargatze at the midland. the show was just as hilarious as i had hoped, and i even talked donald into an after show streetcar ride before we headed home.

the night before our actual anniversary donald had to work, and he therefore slept most of the day, so i treated him to a fried chicken breakfast in bed from krispy krunchy chicken around 4pm. later that evening we got to enjoy our second date night when we ventured back downtown for dinner at garozzo's. we picked up a chocolate bag from mccormick & schmick's on the way home and enjoyed it, along with some seinfeld, from the comfort of our couch.

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anniversary number eight

while it often feels like we've been enduring a pandemic for years, this marked our first official coronaversary. as with most celebrations these days our options were somewhat limited, and it didn't help that donald was scheduled to work that night. in true pandemic fashion we ordered carryout and dined on our traditional fried chicken courtesy of niecie's restaraunt. our after dinner entertainment was a game of gin, and we spit a box of heart shaped junior mints for dessert.

it wasn't a flashy celebration, but we're thankful to have each other and we do our best to enjoy every day we have together.

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anniversary number seven

on anniversary eve jack spent a few hours with grandma while we used donald's beloved amc film fanatic card to see just mercy and indulge in some sweet treats from hurts donuts.

on our actual anniversary we were heading to st. louis, so to keep with tradition we scouted a location for some road trippin' fried chicken. we ended up at lee's famous recipe chicken in columbia and were pleasantly surprised to find that their recipe is famous for good reason. we made it to my mom's house and after putting jack to bed we settled in for an evening of fighting the villains in harry potter hogwarts battle.

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anniversary number six

from the beginning of this pregnancy we knew we were in no particular hurry to find out our baby's gender, but i was also pretty sure we wouldn't wait to be surprised in the delivery room. when the day of the revealing ultrasound came we had the tech seal a photo in an envelope, and donald was in charge of hiding it when we got home. i didn't think much more about it, but there was a close call one evening when i was home alone and accidentally discovered donald's hiding place. i was confused by the blank, sealed envelope i found stuck in a random book, and was seconds away from opening it when i suddenly realized what i was holding. [and no, i did not peek.]

since our anniversary happened to fall about a month before the due date we figured it was as good a time as any to pull that envelope back out. we grabbed fun treats from the store and some sharx fried chicken and had a little indoor picnic. after dinner we opened the envelope together and were both a little shocked to see 'it's-a-boy!' typed across the ultrasound photo, but happy to know we're having a son.

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anniversary number five

five years ago donald and i were introduced to ned and marjorie. the day we got married they were celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of their own lodge wedding. it's their tradition to come back to the lodge each year, which we thought was a lovely idea. logistically a yearly visit would be tricky for us, but we decided that a return engagement sounded like the perfect way to celebrate five years.

after a little shuffling around we settled into one of the original lodge rooms, and the whole place was just as charming as i remembered. this was the first time we had visited without some sort of wedding agenda and we enjoyed every minute. we took a walk, went swimming, played games, reminisced over wedding photos and video, and of course ate the traditional fried chicken. the one thing we didn't expect was a surprise visit from the broomies! they had decided to drive over on a whim, thinking we had been there the weekend before. it was hilarious and a fun treat to enjoy a little part of the day with some of the same people who helped us celebrate five years ago!

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anniversary number four

i have to admit...this one kind of snuck up on me. with all the birthday hoopla immediately following christmas i've been at bit lost in the calendar. a whole week seemed to disappear without my realizing it and when missy asked about our anniversary plans on tuesday i muttered something about figuring it out next week. to which she replied, "it's in two days". whoopsie!

thankfully our fried chicken tradition takes some of the pressure out of the planning process. we started the night at gus's world famous fried chicken and then hung out at the up-down with all the youngins. donald was like a kid in a candy story reliving his arcade days. his favorites were ms. pac-man, x-men and taking turns on crazy taxi; i basically stuck to skee ball and serving drinks to the patrons on tapper. we wrapped up the night with fudge stuffed peanut butter cookies at tannin, because that's what donald's dreams are made of.

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anniversary number three

our anniversary fell on a tuesday this year which meant school and work made celebrating tricky. but it just so happened that both donald's christmas and birthday gifts were tickets to star wars related shows and both shows just so happened to fall in the same week as our anniversary. so our third year was celebrated with a night at the symphony featuring the music of john williams and the one man star wars trilogy at starlight. the force must be strong with us.

of course no anniversary is complete without the traditional fried chicken, so we also managed to squeeze in a quick lunch date between donald's classes and enjoyed the fine dining of go chicken go.

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anniversary number two

for the second birthday of our marriage we kept with tradition and opted for one of the fancier establishments on our 'fried chicken of kansas city' list. i wanted to figure out a way to make it feel like date night as opposed to just a dinner out so i pulled up a list of fun date questions i had recently come across and we started in. we predicted each others answers to some of the questions, but we both learned some new things too. we were only two thirds of the way through the list when we finished our chicken, so we scouted out a swanky coffee shop to hang out in while we finished up the list. it was a really fun date with my very favorite husband!

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sealed with a kiss

i love getting the mail. it's one of life's little pleasures. and we've just had a very exciting week in mail getting. the first to arrive was a big blue box with our wedding album in it and i must say...it was worth the wait. i love it. it was exactly want i wanted.

then a brown box came. and this one has a back story.  

we've already had two garage sales since i've moved to 78th street, resulting in a number of unneeded items leaving the premises. this makes me exceedingly happy, but tends to bring donald a twinge of sadness. he loves all of the treasures. which brings us to the fateful saturday last summer where donald, being the loving husband that he is, was gathering a few last minute things he thought he could part with to add to our sale. one such item was a cookie jar. but not just any cookie jar...a cowboy cookie monster cookie jar.  

long story short...he sold it for $1. 

and then he was sad. so very sad.

i've heard a lot of lamenting about the loss of this beloved family heirloom so i decided i would plan a little surprise. enter...the brown box. it took a couple days for him to open it [i was trying to play it casual so i stuck it in a corner of our room until he noticed] but it definitely made his day. and now all is right with the world because this guy is back on 78th street.

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anniversary number one

it's funny how time can move so fast and so slow all at the same time. i've had lots of friends say they can't believe it's been a year since our wedding. and i hear that. but then at the exact same time my life before marriage seems like a long, long time ago. life is strange like that. but either way you look at it, we're celebrating the big number one!

so far we give marriage a hearty thumbs up. and in observation of this year of wedded bliss we cashed in a wedding gift for a weekend at the lake. we splurged on fancy cheese, played games, had dinner at baxter's, sampled our one year old cupcakes [which were disgusting], faced off in a fierce skee ball competition [which i won], watched the box set of studio sixty [if you know donald, you know how much he loved this] and capped off the weekend with our newest tradition...anniversary fried chicken.

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ten four good buddy

time is a funny thing. sometimes i notice how long it's been since i've written a blog post and wonder why it's taken so long for something 'blog-worthy' to happen. or i look around our house and i'm puzzled (or more accurately...frustrated) at how long it's taking for me to get organized and feel at home. and i've written before about how quickly i seem to forget the good things that happen.

but then i noticed that today is october 4th...exactly one year since the day donald sent me on a scavenger hunt that ended in a proposal. and when i think about it that way, there's a lot to be thankful for.  it has indeed been a 'blog-worthy' year. and though the progress sometimes seems painfully slow, our house is becoming our home. good things are happening here. so happy engagement-iversay to my favorite husband. i'm really glad the wonderful things are happening with you!

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half year honeymoon

last week donald and i celebrated six whole months of marriage, which seemed to be good cause for celebration. so we took a little half year honeymoon and spent a day in downtown kansas city pretending to be fancy. we stayed a night at the sheraton crown center in a gigantic, fluffy white bed...which just so happens to be my favorite kind.

heading up to the rooftop pool

our view of downtown [which donald secretly requested]

late night cheesecake in the lobby...always fancy

playing cards at the park
(a compromise of our favorite things)

we had a great little adventure...i'm sure glad we got married!

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that's true love

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the fun facts

as part of the wedding decor we had donald & shelly fun facts scattered around the lodge. not only did they provide some (hopefully) interesting tidbits about the two of us, they also aided those guests who were anxious to complete their very own donald loves shelly crossword puzzle, which came complete with a matching pen.  

and just in case you missed them, here are all twenty four...

#1 : donald proposed to shelly on the front steps of the nelson-atkins art museum in kansas city.

#2 : shelly’s all time favorite tv show is the cosby show. she just loves those huxtables.

#3 : donald has a large, loveable australian lab named dag. yes, shelly is going to live with a dog.

#4 : donald and shelly are going to live in raytown, affectionately known as raytona beach, where donald owns the house he grew up in.

#5 : shelly occasionally writes a blog titled ‘the many adventures’. visit it at www.themanyadventures.blogspot.com.

#6 : donald loves the dew. mountain dew is his beverage of choice, code red if you get specific.

#7 : donald and shelly will be honeymooning in warm and sunny palm springs, california.

#8 : shelly has a lot of school spirit and still loves to cheer on her francis howell vikings.

#9 : while at sbu, donald was known as ‘the movie guy’ due to his impressive collection of over 1300 vhs movies.

#10 : donald and shelly met in college at southwest baptist university. bearcats, bearcats, go, fight, win!

#11 : shelly firmly believes that the haygoods have the best show in branson. she is a big fan.

#12 : donald has many fond memories of his years as a warrior at blue ridge christian school.

#13 : no in state rivalry here, donald and shelly are both big fans of the stl cardinals.

#14 : shelly plays the accordion exactly one day a year. it is her instrument of choice during the annual sing-a-long on christmas night.

#15 : along with playing on noteworthy intramural teams in college, donald also had a job as the student intramural director.

#16 : for her last birthday, donald hid thirty three pennies for shelly to find. one from each year she’s been alive.

#17 : shelly’s favorite food is corn.  popped, frozen, canned, cobbed. it doesn’t matter.  she loves it.

#18 : donald graduated from sbu with a degree in psychology. shelly’s degree is in art.

#19 : after getting engaged, donald and shelly dined on the plaza at buca di beppo.

#20 : they have e-mail. shelly: knowandrely@yahoo.com  donald: sbubigsmooth@hotmail.com

#21 : shelly danced in high school. she won the ‘most spirited pommer’ award both years she was a golden girl.

#22 : donald’s high school sport of choice was basketball, where he earned the first and only 'mr. dependable’ award.

#23 : donald is an accomplished fantasy football owner and regularly dominates in a number of leagues.

#24 : last summer donald and shelly camped out in a chick-fil-a parking lot for twenty four hours to be two of the first 100 customers and get free chicken for a year!

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the d[r]yers

some days i have to stop and remind myself that our wedding already happened. as much as i tried to take time that weekend to look around and soak everything in, i couldn't stop time from racing by. we thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent with family and friends, but just one short month later i can already feel the memories fading.

before we left on our honeymoon donald and i jotted down a few memories we didn't want to forget in the hustle and bustle of newlywed life. here are some of our favorite wedding moments...

• donald running up to hug me in the reception room as soon as he arrived at the lodge on thursday
• watching my bridesmaids open their gifts at the rehearsal dinner and hearing their laughs and excitement

• gathering in our room with all the girls as they went around and said what they loved and/or appreciated about me before they prayed for me
• playing a big, hilarious group game of catch phrase/charades in the lobby with so many of our favorite friends
• watching my friends have fun together and become friends themselves
• getting to greet our guests as they arrived and the laid back feeling of the day
• seeing my whole life gathered in one room as i walked down the aisle
• mark praying about donald 'loving his body' and how he didn't know why we didn't get married ten years ago

• danny and david's 'awesome family' high five
• being introduced into the reception as "mr. and mrs. dryer"
• wedding toasts that were personal, heartwarming and hilarious
• dancing...just all of it, from the first to the last
• seeing so many friends at brunch on sunday and getting to spend just a bit more time with the people we love
• riding the ferry back home and spending the day with matt and tara

our wedding was wonderful. it wasn't free from imperfections, but nothing is. in the end, donald and i got married. we gathered the people we love. we threw a pretty awesome party. and we were certainly filled with joy.

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a honeymoon sleepover

most newlyweds probably don’t plan to have a friends and family slumber party on the first night of their honeymoon…but i guess that’s what we get for getting married in january! we were scheduled to fly out of st. louis on sunday evening, but due to some winter weather in chicago, that didn’t go down. so instead of leaving on a jet plane, we headed back home for a sleepover at mom’s house...just the five of us! then we were back to the airport bright and early monday morning for a little more quality time before matt and tara headed home to cali. i mean really…if we HAD to choose people to spend our honeymoon with, we’d probably pick them anyway.

the dyers and the ardens

when we finally did arrive in palm springs we did what any logical midwesterners would do…we picked up our rental car and drove straight to the nearest in-n-out. then we set out to do some serious relaxing and general 'not planning a wedding' type activities. we ate good food, went to a movie, hiked in joshua tree national park, sat in the hot tub, napped in a hammock, went dancing at a local senior hot spot and played a lot of monopoly deal (not to brag, but by the end of the week i was creaming the hubs with an overall match record of 4-0).

on our way into joshua tree national park

and one of my personal favorites...donald’s honeymoon lingerie

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