Our First

Well, as most of you know, Cody and I had the opportunity to celebrate our 1st anniversary this past weekend. And we were talking about all that was happening just one year before. We just can't avoid, when think back on that particular time, that we are reminded of the protesting and the uproar that was going on at that time. Particularly in front of the very temple in which we were sealed for time and all eternity. I remember the protesters being outside the grounds when we were coming out from my endowment, and how we were praying, wishing and hoping that it would all settle down in the 3 days remaining. There was an anthrax scare the night before, and they weren't sure they would open the temple on the morning of Friday, November 14th, and we had been waiting for the call to make other arrangements. There was actually a protest scheduled (yes, they schedule these types of things) for our wedding day, but miraculously, no one decided to show up that day, and they decided late Thursday night that all was well, and they would be able to move forward the next day. So we are very aware of the Lord's hand in our lives and working to bring us together, and making it possible for us to be married in the temple. I thank him very much for helping me begrudgingly move to Utah after a lot of prayer (I mean ALOT, I really didn't want to), so that I would be able to meet the wonderful man I was blessed enough to marry. We also think its pretty cool that we have an event in the history of our country to reference what was going on when we got married so we can tell our children and grandchildren. Not only that, but kind of stand up for we believe in, and were married as man & wife in the face of the debate. (I just think thats cool, because my grandparents met right after WW2, and I always thought that was interesting).
For our anniversary we decided to go back to where it all began and spend a couple hours doing sealings in the temple. Although we weren't being sealed to eachother, it was awesome to spend that day kneeling across from my husband again. It brought back alot of the memories, and we were able to be reminded of all the promises we had made and that were made to us based on our worthiness. Very cool to hear those very words again as we knelt together.
Tangent, I know, but we had decided we had wanted to start some sort of tradition for our anniversary. We had initially decided we would take a "honeymoon" every year and go on a cruise every year. However, a friend decided to do the same thing, and we wanted to do something that was our very own. So we decided to wait until summer to go on another cruise, and find something better to do for our anniversaries (not that cruises aren't great). So we decided we wanted to do sealings every year in the temple, and try to visit a different temple every year. :) Sounds like fun to us, so that is just what we are doing, wish us luck!
Back on track, we had originally decided to go to the Manti temple to kick off our new tradition, because neither one of us had been there, and we thought it would be cool. But it decided to snow when we were making our final plans. So instead of possibly getting stuck in the snow, we decided to maybe try that in fairer weather.
So considering everything with us started in North Salt Lake, and we went to the Bountiful temple almost every Saturday to do baptisms when we were dating, we thought that would be a good place for us to go this year. We met a really cute ward that had come down from Kaysville, and they thanked us for spending our special day with them, and congratulated us on our "feat" over and over. It was really cute.
After all of that, it was quite late, and we were starving!!!! So we decided to visit the scene of the crime (our first date) and we went to Applebees, and coincidentally, we were seated right across from the very booth we sat at that first night. :) We thought it was pretty cool. And a lot of fun, remembering that awkward night, when we were thinking "I'm not sure this is going to go to a second date...", little did we know.
We had made dinner plans, but by the time it rolled around, we still weren't hungry. So we are doing an IOU, and we will probably go this weekend instead.
We exchanged our gifts, being that the theme for one year is "time", we both stepped out of the box and didn't get eachother a watch, or a clock or anything like that...we got creative. Cody remembered what sealers always talk about in the ceremony before the couple exchanges rings "the ring is one eternal round, just like temple marriage is eternal", so Cody bought me a beautiful ring. I got him a cute camcorder, so he will be able to document our time, and hopefully we will be able to look back at the good times we spent together, and one day as a family! :) So I would say we did a pretty good job this year, we both went an unexpected direction. Can't wait to see what we come up with next year!
Hope all is well with you all, and that you may have or find traditions of your own to share. What temple should we visit next year???