anniversary

This year on November 11, my husband and I will celebrate 10 years as a couple. Although we have only been married for two years, we have been together forever and know each other very well. We have a decade down and forever to go. In this post, I will share memories and pictures of the past 10 years starting with the year we met, 2005.

Our First Date

2005 Memories:

We met through Greek life at Kennesaw State.
Our first date was my sorority dance with friends and then we went camping afterwards.
We started dating and went out to parties and restaurants.
We went to his fraternity Christmas party and celebrated the holidays together.
We rung in the New Year together.

Our 9 Month Anniversary Date

2006 Memories:

We both celebrated our 21st birthdays.
We started officially dating on St. Patrick’s Day.
We went to Ryan’s great uncle’s lake house for the first time together over July 4th weekend.
We went to a lot of concerts together.
Ryan met my family from California during a visit for my brother’s college graduation.
We had our first time apart when I went to Israel.
In August, Ryan gave me his Greek letters to wear, a lavaliere. I had a candle pass ceremony with my sorority.
We had a very nice anniversary date to celebrate 9 months.

Ryan’s Fraternity Formal

2007 Memories:

I landed an internship at the TowneLaker Magazine and Ryan landed his at Childspring International.
We went to my sorority formal together, the Purple Iris Ball in Atlanta.
We went to the lake house in Tennessee again. This time for a long weekend.
We also went to Ryan’s Roseball fraternity formal in October.

San Francisco and our California Coast Road Trip

2008 Memories

We both graduated college this year. I graduated in May, and Ryan graduated in December.
Upon graduation, I was hired for my first job out of college at the same magazine I interned at.
We attended our last fraternity and sorority formals. Ryan’s Roseball was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
We went on our first big vacation together. We flew into LA, spent time with my family, and then drove up the coast to San Francisco and back.
We went to our friends’ weddings.

Bahamas Cruise

2009 Memories:

In January, we went on a cruise to the Bahamas.
In February, I unfortunately was laid off from the magazine due to the economy.
In March, I started working at Life University.
In April, we went to New York City for the first time for a long weekend.
I moved out of my parent’s house and into an apartment with roommates.
Ryan started prosthetics school at Northwestern University in Chicago and took online classes.

My 25th Birthday

2010 Memories:

Ryan moved to Chicago for three months to finish up prosthetics school at Northwestern for the hands-on portion of his program.
We had a long distance relationship during that time and we got through it.
April started the Staff Newsletter at Life University.
Ryan graduated from Northwestern and started his prosthetics residency.
We celebrated our five year anniversary with dinner at Shout and stayed at the W hotel.
April got a second job writing freelance for Patch.com.

Trip to Hilton Head

2011 Memories:

We got snowed in for a week at my apartment during the big storm.
We went to Hilton Head over July 4th weekend.
We moved in together in July to the Vinings area.
We went to a friend’s wedding at Villa Christina and loved it so much we ended up getting married there two years later.
We got our first Christmas tree for our apartment and decorated for Chanukkah and X-mas.

Engagement Photo Shoot

2012 Memories:

We fostered a very cute kitty for a week. Wish we could have kept her!
We found a new hobby- archery! We shot bows and arrows at an archery learning center.
Ryan became a Certified and Licensed Prosthetist.
April started her personal blog here on WordPress.
We got engaged on September 12th! We started planning our wedding and set a date.
My parents found out they had to move to Texas the next year for my dad’s job.
We spent the Christmas holidays with my in-laws in Florida and went to the Florida Keys.

Our Wedding

2013 Memories:

We continued to plan our wedding and registered for gifts.
My brother and sister-in-law got engaged! We attended their engagement party in Baltimore, Maryland.
We had our engagement photo session.
My parents moved to Texas and we moved into their house here.
I had two bridal showers and a bachelorette party.
We got married! **September 29, 2013**
We went to Kauai, Hawaii for our honeymoon.
I totaled my Camry in an accident and then we bought a Volvo station wagon for me to drive.
Ryan got into photography and videography.

At my brother’s wedding in Cancun

2014 Memories

My brother and sister-in-law got married in Cancun, Mexico. What a fun destination wedding!
We survived Snow Jam 2014. Ryan got stranded overnight in his car.
We attended and were in a lot of family and friends’ weddings.
We went to San Francisco for my cousin’s Bar Mitzvah and then went on our anniversary road trip to Vancouver and back. We stopped in Napa, the Redwoods, Portland and Seattle.
We celebrated our first wedding anniversary!
Ryan started his photography and videography business.
April was hired as a freelance writer for the Atlanta Jewish Times.

The Baslers do the Grand Canyon

2015 Memories:

We both turned the big 3-0 this year!
April wrote a cover story for the Atlanta Jewish Times.
Ryan published his website and his photography and videography business grew.
We went to Las Vegas in April for the first time. We also went on a Grand Canyon tour.
Ryan made a short film and entered it into a contest.
We bought a new car and swapped vehicles with family, so we’re both driving different cars now.
We celebrated our second wedding anniversary at a museum and had dinner where we got married.
We have travel plans to go to Texas soon and visit my parents. We are going to Florida for Thanksgiving with Ryan’s family.
And much more to come!

I’m looking forward to many more decades of happy memories with my husband, Ryan. Happy 10 years babe!

My 29th Birthday, 2014

My 23rd Birthday, 2008

My 17th Birthday, 2002

My 26th Birthday, 2011

My 22nd Birthday, 2007

My 27th Birthday, 2012

My 21st Birthday, 2006

Ah, September. It’s my favorite month! A lot is happening for me during the month of September. First of all, it’s my birthday month. I was born on the 17^th and sometimes my birthday falls on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, but usually not. As a child, I always looked forward to September to celebrate my birthday. I would look forward to it months in advance. So far in advance that my parents would tell me that I’m not allowed to talk about my birthday until a few months before it! I started school young, so I’m always the youngest in my grade. Everybody reached their milestones before I did. But, to my advantage, I am the last of my friends to reach the Big 3-0 birthday! I’m looking forward to my birthday, but not so much the turning 30 part. If being the youngest wasn’t enough, I also look really young for my age. I still get carded for rated R movies, and always at the liquor store. Once, in college, an airport security worker asked if I was in middle school when I was with my mom. Crazy. I’m not THAT young looking!

Secondly, September is the month I got engaged. People who know my husband and I know that I waited a LONG time for that proposal! 7 years to be exact. My husband (then boyfriend) and I moved in together in the summer of 2011. We had been dating since junior year of college and were twenty when we met and first got together. Then, after graduation, my husband did the prosthetics program at Northwestern University in Chicago and had to go on site for 3 months in addition to a 6 month prior online program. He moved back home after he graduated from the program and began his residency. He went on to take boards and become certified and licensed in prosthetics. I lived with roommates for a while and then eventually we moved in together.

We’re Engaged! 2012

Our Family Engagement Celebration, 2012

My ring! 2012

Engagement Photos, 2013

Marietta Square Engagement Session, 2013

Save the Date Session, 2012

I knew the engagement was coming, but I didn’t know he was proposing that day. He picked up my ring on September 11, 2012 but decided 9/11 was not a good day to propose. So, he proposed on September 12 in our apartment after I had gotten home from work. I was so happy and my ring was gorgeous! We started planning our wedding, and set the date a couple weeks later. I set the date around my Rabbi’s schedule. We probably would have gotten married in the beginning of October if Rabbi had been available then. He wasn’t, so we decided on September 29, 2013. When we chose our venue, we made sure they had that date available and booked it during the tour. We had already been to the venue before at a friend’s wedding and knew it was going to be perfect. We got married at Villa Christina in Perimeter area in Atlanta, Georgia. I highly recommend that venue. Everything was perfect and I loved our event coordinator, Julie!

Perfect Wedding, 2013

Husband and Wife, 2013

Cutting the Cake, 2013

Our Wedding Party, 2013

Our First Dance, 2013

True Love, 2013

Wedding planning was so much fun! Read more about my wedding plans here and here. Read my advice for newlyweds here. We went on the perfect honeymoon to Kauai, Hawaii and it was amazing.

First Anniversary Road Trip, Napa Valley, 2014

First Anniversary Road Trip, Redwood Forrest, 2014

For our first anniversary, my husband and I went on a road trip from San Francisco to Vancouver, Canada and back. It was very rushed, as we did it all in 6 days. But, we still had a great time and saw very cool sights. We wine tasted in Napa, Drove through a redwood tree in the redwood forest, went to a rose garden and Powell’s City of Books in Portland, went to Pike Place Market and Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, and spent time in Stanley Park in Vancouver. You can read about our first anniversary trip here.

On the day of our first anniversary, we went to dinner at a nice seafood restaurant called Chequers. The next day, we picked up our anniversary wedding top of the cake from our cake lady Eileen Carter. She tells the brides and grooms to go ahead and eat the top of their cake after the honeymoon and then makes a replica of the top of the cake for all her client’s first anniversaries! It’s such a nice thing to do. The cake usually doesn’t taste so good after being in a freezer for a year, so that’s why she does this.

This year, we are not going on a lavish anniversary vacation. We had a nice vacation in the spring where we spent a week in Las Vegas. So, this year, we decided to take the day off work and spend time together doing something fun in Atlanta. We decided to go to Fernbank, an interactive science museum. I used to go there on field trips in elementary school, but I think it will be nice to go back as an adult. We plan on going to see one of the IMAX movies there and enjoy the exhibits. Then, for dinner, we will dine at Villa Christina’s restaurant. We have never gone there for dinner before and can’t wait! From what we tasted at our wedding tasting and the food they made for our wedding, it will be a gourmet treat!

My husband and I have been keeping up with the tradition of giving the customary anniversary gifts to each other in addition to something each of us had wanted. The first anniversary gift is paper and the second anniversary gift is cotton. We use Amazon.com with lists so that we know we are getting each other what we want. It works out really well for us.

There’s a lot to look forward to this month. I will be having several birthday celebrations with friends, family and my husband. My mom is coming in town for my big birthday and I’m really excited to see her!

Here’s to many more years of birthdays and anniversaries in September!