365 Days

It's been 365 days (plus a few) since Arron Delay decided I would make a good life partner. And boy am I ever glad he did.

He  makes me smile.
He makes me laugh.
He buys me flowers all.the.time
He consistently leaves his dirty laundry BESIDE the hamper and his cut nails on the coffee table.
He gives me all the cuddles I want, whenever I want them.
He loves all my food.
He does almost all our dishes.
He walks beside me in our happy moments, and in our dark moments. 

To Arron,
Thank you. For all of everything that we did, and happened, and was, during our first year. Here are some of my favourite memories from our first 365 days. 

When you kissed me the first time as your wife. Sharing that day (even taking all the pictures that drove you bonkers), was so special to me. Thank you for letting me plan my dream day and for participating in it happily. 

Our Honeymoon to the Dominican Republic. The swimming, the zip-lining, the shows, the relaxing. It was great to get away somewhere special. Thank you for travelling with me. Seeing the world and experiencing life in different places is so important to me and I am so thankful to have a partner who will go with me. 

Thank you for loving Barkerville. And loving me enough to get dressed up with me once a year to take a photo. I love this place, this photo studio, and you.  

Thank you for trying new things with me. For playing. For being silly. For trying my new recipes. For laughing with me.  

Thank you for Christmas and for taking me out on my first tree-hunting expedition. Thank you for buying me flowers all the time, and presents for no reason, and for my Sinterklaas surprise present on that terrible grumpy day. That was a wonderful love-filled surprise. 

Thank you for helping me knock one off my bucket list. Our trip to the Grand Canyon was a life highlight and I will always remember biking around the rim with you, 

Thank you for being wonderful all through my pregnancy, and especially during the miscarriage. Thank you for going out at night to get me Kraft Dinner, and for letting me nap and not cook. Thank you for being with me at that terribly heartbreaking ultrasound and for holding me those dark, dark days. Thank you for doing all the phone calls, for being with me at the hospital, for taking time off work, for watching Footloose with me, for buying me popsicles. Thank you for your love and support and kindness and gentleness during those hard weeks, and continuing now as I still hurt some days. 

Thank you for sharing a hobby with me. For buying us kayaks and for taking me out once in a while. Thank you for being stronger than me and for doing all the heavy lifting when we do go kayaking. Thank you for humoring me with selfies so that we can remember all the things we do together 

 Happy Anniversary Arron,
365 days done, we got this.

xoxoxo and cuddles forever.
Nikki

Happy Anniversary Trip #1

A year ago this happened:

The year really did fly by and to celebrate 379 days of being together, Arron encouraged me to plan a trip for the two of us anywhere I wanted that we could easily go to, and return from, in 4 days or less.

Stop One: Double date in Quesnel with my Barkerville Bestie Hayley, and her significant other Chris where we enjoyed one of our favourite Cariboo-Redneck events. The Quesnel Crash-to-Pass. The rules are simple. If you want to pas another car, you have to hit it first. Last car still alive wins. It was a great time. Especially when 'my' car - Blue Horny as Hayley and I called him - went crazily off the track and into a stand of cottonwood trees, which he knocked down ontop of himself. With is giant moose horns on the top of his car he was stuck. For about five minutes. Then he made his way back onto the track carrying no less than 5 25 foot cottonwood trees on his roof, slowly littering them around the track as he continued to dominate the event. He got second place over all. But first place for perseverance .

 Stop Two: A shifty hotel in Vanderhoof with a surprisingly beautiful room, and an equally surprising train two feet away that loved honking his horn constantly.

Stop Three: Gas, groceries, Tim Hortons, nothing picture worthy.

Stop Four: Sawechea Provincial Park on the shores of the beautiful Stuart Lake in Fort St. James. It was gorgeous.

Camping isn't camping unless you eat brown beans straight from the can. 

I was super proud that "my" chicken won the chicken race. I even won a button. 

 Stop Five: Fort St. James National Historic Site.
I kid you not, I have been wanting to go here for almost ten years! I love historical villages and I read about this one when I taught about the Fur Trade when I first moved to BC. It was a pretty good historic site as far as they go. Original buildings, excellent and knowledgeable interpreters, sunshine, chicken races, you know... all the good things a historical site should have.  We even learned something new! Fun fact: There were no moose in BC until the early 1900's. In fact the first moose sighting in the Cariboo region wasn't until 1914. This seemed incredibly strange to us, especially considering how popular moose is in our area. We learned that prior to the Canadian Pacific Railway being built, moose were simply too large to get through the dense forest and underbrush of the Rocky Mountains. When the railroad was built it opened a path from Alberta for moose and large animals like white tailed deer and elk. And following their prey, came the cougars.

After visiting the Fort, we got some ice cream, and then sat by the lake and relaxed. We did some kayaking, swimming, walking along the beach, reading, eating, napping, talking, and a lot of silence just enjoying the quietness and the view.