Anniversary ~ Birthday ~ Wedding Weekend Extravaganza

July is always a busy month for the Fannings. That means a full calendar with weekends full of fun and celebrations! Nothing I love more than a calendar with weekends filled! This weekend took us to OKC for an oh so relaxing getaway. About three weeks ago I had the sudden urge to plan a birthday/anniversary surprise for my hubby dearest. I usually stink at coming up with something new, fun and creative. I wanted so badly to think of something that would actually surprise him. All I can usually come up with is a new outfit or a pair of running shoes or something that he has specifically requested. Well that's no fun! So I thought and thought and thought....and I thought some more. BINGO! What does my husband like to collect? Why tattoos of course! I guess I use the term collect loosely. He has been wanting to cover his right upper arm for awhile now and has mentioned it several times. The difference between him and I is that I'm a "get something done now" kinda person and he's more of a "let's sit around and wait" kinda fella. I guess we balance eachother out in that sense. :) So anyways I got a good reccommendation from my cousin's wife and called the tattoo shop to make an appointment for this past Saturday. I told him it was a surprise and that we would stop by on the Friday before so that he could show him what he wanted and he could get the sketch ready. Well it didn't turn out quite like I'd planned....the very next day Riley had found a picture of a tattoo he wanted and was asking me if I liked it. I kept thinking "what a coincidence! How weird is it that he came up with a picture randomly the day after I called and made an appointment?!" So I called Chad, the tattoo artist, back the next day to tell him that Riley had a picture and he told me to email it to him. Great!, I thought. This plan was coming together very nicely....until the next day. Riley told me about his trip to the tattoo shop here in Woodward after he got off work that evening. He had looked at some pictures and was thinking about making an appointment. Sheesh! This guy is on fire! So he had another sketch after that trip when his tattoo fever rose even more. At that point I decided I had to let him in on the surprise. To say that he was excited would be a gross understatement. He got busy drawing his "real" sketch and making his final changes to it. Most of you probably don't know this but Riley loves to draw. Not a lot, but when he gets going he's pretty serious about it. His tongue must be a tool he needs to draw because it's stuck out of the side of his mouth all the while drawing. My Rembrandt doesn't enjoy talking while he's drawing....in fact he usually doesn't even hear me...that's how serious he is. Lol! So he was in on the secret. Now if I could just keep my other secret a real secret I'd be in good shape. The same day I'd called about the tattoo, I also made reservations at The Skirvin downtown for the weekend. I'd been there before for a bachelorette party and absolutely loved it, so I was wanting to surprise Riley with it. I ended up keeping this one a secret until the night before we left. I'm sure you can guess why. Riley was asking me "hey, are we staying at the Mustang house or should we get a hotel?" and "babe, let's just get a hotel for the weekend." So the other secret was no longer a secret. But it lasted longer than the first so I was okay with that. The boy couldn't wipe the smile off of his face everytime he thought about his tattoo. :)

We were both so ready and so excited when Friday morning rolled around. I made the executive decision to leave at noon. We both promised eachother we'd be off work and ready to go. I fully expected to have to drag Riley away from his desk come 11:30 but it was in fact the opposite. Darn my ever-changing work schedule! I finally showed up at the house at 1:00 to find a husband with a smirk on his face saying "so what happened to your rule about being here at noon?" Lol! We headed out of town around 1:30 and were almost to Seiling when I mentioned something about my friend's wedding. Riley got this serious look on his face all of a sudden. "What's wrong?" And then it donned on me....."did you forget to bring clothes for the wedding?" Back to Woodward we went all the while he plotted about different things it his bag that he could combine together to wear to the wedding. No babe, you cannot wear a polo and your flip flops. I'm sorry. ;) Oh yeah, I guess I forget to mention that Friday was our actual anniversary so we didn't mind at all the backtracking as long as we were together and laughing...that was all that mattered. We pulled into Mustang around 5:00 and we were going to do a lil housekeeping (aka, cleaning the dead flies up off the floor) and then be on our way. We were so pleased (sarcasm) to find that one of the realtors had locked the door into the house from the garage. Greeeeeaaaaat. We didn't have our key....just a garage door opener. Didn't do us much good. Oh well, cleaning up dead flies really wouldn't have been a romantic anniversary activity anyways.

We finally found ourselves downtown and checking in to the hotel. Or were we? "I'm sorry Mrs. Fanning, could your reservation be under another name by chance?" Nope, I've just got this one name. Just when I was about to throw a mini tantrum inside my brain I recalled that the man I spoke to on the phone to make the reservation kept calling me Mrs. Sanning. I corrected him a couple times and thought he had the correct spelling. I asked her to look up Sanning and sure enough there was our reservation! Woohoo!!!!! Weekend of relaxation begins NOW.........

Mr. Sanning

And if you are wondering if the hotel is haunted........the answer is YES! Here's my proof. Three of the drawers were open when we entered the room. Kinda creepy huh?

We didn't let the ghost bother us though. He must've been a friendly one.

Birthday boy!

Just makin' a quick phone call

Callin' his BFF for a chat

After I pried Riley away from the room we walked over for some Mexican food. We just so happened to run into my cousin Justin and his wife and kiddos. After enjoying more than one pineapple margarita and too many salty chips to count we headed off on foot to walk off some calories. The Reggae festival was in full swing across the street so we thought we'd check it out aka "people watch." If you ever feel the need to people watch then a Reggae festival would be your best bet. Enough dreadlocks to stretch around the moon and back and the scent of a certain illegal substance floating in the air. Needless to say, we didn't stay long and made our way down beside the canal for a stroll. After the heat had gotten to us we make the trek back up to our hotel. We had a couple hours until our reservation at Redpin would be ready. We settled in for a movie and kicked back. Soon we had our walking shoes (er, sandals) on and we were at Redpin for some drinks and bowling......

Perfecting his form

Whoever said  bowling isn't a sport is dead wrong. Well maybe it's just a sport when it's 100 + degrees outside and the indoors feels the same. I've gotta say that Riley either had one too many beers or my bowling skills have improved quite a bit because I kicked his booty. Riley and the gutter were really good friends that night. But he didn't seem to care because we were having a blast.....

Lookin' kinda tired by the end of the night

Saturday morning. Riley's 28th birthday. The sun had actually risen before we rolled out of bed the next morning. Yay for an 8:30 wake up! I think we could've slept until noon if we didn't have yummy breakfast on it's way up. I figured the birthday boy ought to have a nice big breakfast to start out his big day! Nothin' better than ROOOOOOOOOOOM SERVICE!!!!

He scarfed down breakfast and settled back in bed while I headed out to get my hair done by my long lost hair stylist/friend Ms. Becky. It was so nice to catch up with her! Meanwhile, back at the hotel Riley had big plans to work out and swim while I was gone. I called him when I was on my way to pick him up and asked him about what he'd done that morning. He said he got the best workout of his life just lying in bed watching his Saturday morning tv lineup. Good for you birthday boy! Who works out on their birthday anyways?! I picked him up and we ended up here........

He was like a kid in a candy store looking through the tattoo books and checking out the shop. He didn't need books because he knew exactly what he wanted......

He had emailed Chad a picture of his sketch earlier in the week but they still had a lot of tweaking to do to it so that it would work well with his existing tattoo. His plans were to hide the tribal band tattoo that he got when he was 18, but Chad had another plan in mind which Riley liked quite a bit. While they kept on with their tattoo talk and drawing I gave the birthday boy a kiss goodbye and was on my way to my anniversary gift. A spa day! I nearly fell asleep during an hour long pedicure...best EVER! Just when I thought I couldn't relax anymore it was time for a massage. Ahhhhhh. I lazily drifted through the mall into each store I'd been missing so much. Of course it was Miss Hallie who benefited most from my shopping withdrawal and she scored some precious stuff from Baby Gap. I picked up another gift for the birthday boy while I was there and then realized that time had flown by and I needed to hurry if I was going to pick him up on time. He was anxiously waiting for me to show up so that he could show me his new arm art. It looked quite good and he had gotten a lot completed in just an hour. I was gone over two hours but a lot of his time there was spent perfecting the drawing. He still has a lot to complete so we will go back in three weeks to complete it. I've sworn not to post a picture of it until it is complete. ;) We were both beyond content at that point after both getting the best gifts we could have asked for....except that our stomachs were feeling famished because we'd skipped lunch after our big breakfast. What to do when you can't decide what you want for dinner????

Why, ROOOOOOOOOM SERVICE of course!

Cake for the birthday boy!

Pillow for a table? Check. Smile? Check.

A movie and room service later we were wishing we could just live at a hotel year round and have people at our beck and call.....we joked about calling guest services and asking for them to bring up more diapers and extra binkies. Or how about bring us some homemade baby food made fresh from the kitchen. We also thought it would be nice to have an in-room diaper changing and baby feeding service. Ok, we kid, we kid. We were feeling very thankful for Nanny and Papa watching the babe for us right around this time as we lay there without a worry in the world. The only thing on our agenda was to get fancied up for my friend Amanda's wedding that night......

Ready to go!

It was about an hour drive out to Luther, OK at Tres Suenos Winery. Thank goodness the GPS was friendly because it was out in the boonies. We pulled up to find a beautful setup and lots of guest inside already getting the party started. We met my friend Julia after we parked and went inside to grab a fan and then found out seats outdoors. It was a beautiful ceremony and not too awful hot outside although the fans did come in handy. After the bride and groom had said their "I dos" everyone eagerly gathered inside for some dinner and drinks. I'm a sucker for weddings....ESPECIALLY weddings where the groom gets a lil teary-eyed. :)

Mrs. Polk!

We had a mini-PT school reunion and caught up on everyone's lives. I'm not the only one who thinks we go way too long in between seeing eachother. We were missing our class clown and my best friend Laura at the wedding so we made sure to send her a pic to show her what she was missing out on.....

Julia and I felt it appropriate to edit Amanda and Robert's coozies they had made. We refer to Amanda as "Von" as in VonRaesfeld, her last name. She had mentioned something about keeping the "von" and becoming a VonPolk. We were all for this idea so we did a little tweaking to our coozies. Just a little FYI, coozies weren't made for cups of water apparently.....

Much better!

I love any opportunity to dress up and go out for the night my hubs.....

It was time to dance so everyone made their way outside when the band started up. The bride was smashing on the dance floor and of course, as she should've expected, I was lurking around the corner acting like the paparrazi.....

Gotcha!

Julia & Carolyn

After a little dancing and a lot of sweating we found ourselves back inside where we watched the bride and groom cut into the most delicious cheesecake we'd ever eaten.

Amanda, my friend, you looked simply fabulous and radiant!

A day of pedicures, massages, tattoos, shopping, movies, room service, a beautiful wedding, quality time with Riley, wineritas, good friends, cheesecake and a comfy bed.....we had died and gone to heaven. We made a late night run to Walmart to grab some Aquaphor for Riley's arm (which was pretty sore by this point, and it didn't help that I'd slugged him in the arm accidentally about six times throughout the night). I wanted to milk the night for all it was worth and stay up late but I fell asleep in the middle of our movie. Our plan was to get up, order breakfast and go for a run downtown.....instead we slept in until 10:00!!!!! Stellar move on our part! Soon we were loaded up and ready to get home to our babe. The only thing standing in our way was a 2.5 hour drive and this.......

That's not lookin' good man

We waited a good thirty minutes in the parking garage while Riley helped guide this poor guy and his girlfriend down the ramp. I couldn't bare watching because those dang parking garages scare the heck out of me because it always looks like the top of your car is going to get smashed as you exit. He worked awhile letting a lot of air out of each jacked up tire but this didn't seem to do the trick. He ended up finally having to back up all the while making this horrible scraping and screeching noise. Lesson learned: don't take your jacked up truck with monster tires into a parking garage. Ever.

We received a not so warm welcome from our girl whom we had missed so much. She was sleeping in her crib when we showed up at Nanny and Papa's to pick her up. We chatted while we waited for her to wake up and then finally couldn't take it anymore and had to go see if she was awake. She was stirring and burrowing her head into the matress when I walked in. She must've seen a ghost of something because she started bawling when she saw me. Ah, I love you too girl. :( Daddy didn't get a lot of love either. Payback for leaving her all weekend? Hmmm. It took her quite awhile to warm up to us and upon getting her back home she was handing out kissed left and right. She also made it a point to climb in my suitcase after I emptied it. Think she's making a statement here or what????

"Please don't forget me next time..."

What a way to spend the weekend! Although we missed our favorite girl a lot, it was more than nice to getaway just the two of us. Riley has convinced himself that he has entered the end of life stage at only 28 years old. I'm trying to convince him that his best years are yet to come and he still in fact looks young!!! So if you happen to see my hubs, let him know how youthful he is looking because I think he's already looking into retirement villages. In my eyes, we will always be those young naive 20 year olds we were when we met. Happy anniversary and happy 28th to my man!!!

I Do: 5 Years Later

Five years???? Really???? Father time, are you sure it hasn't been twenty-five years? Only five years since the day my handsome Marine "dipped" me in my wedding dress?

Of course our journey didn't start that day. Nope, it began on the fateful day of June 2, 2004. Mr. Riley J Fanning pulled in with his ol' blue wheat truck at W.B. Johnston Grain as I was finishing up a quick nap on the steps outside....

And so it began.....and I fell head over heals in love with that twenty year old wearing the worn out Wranglers and his green military-issued t-shirt.

Oddly enough it was that less than smart Golden Retreiver, Miss Lucy, who won me over just as much as Riley did......

Riley and his cute bate

We spent a very fast and fun summer dating and having the time of our lives. Looking back I can honestly say that I knew for sure that I was going to marry this man five days after meeting him. Riley left for a three week stay in California for his summer Marine training. After only two weeks of dating it seemed like he would never return. Three weeks felt like a lifetime.....

Young, crazy and in love

We both started our semesters that fall. Me in Weatherford and him in Stillwater. I'd never had a long-distance relationship but didn't even think twice about one with Riley. We had a blast that school year with many trips back and forth....most weekends were spent in Stillwater having picnics at the park, going for long runs around campus and lots of movies and eating out...unless he had decided to surprise me with a home-cooked meal. I quickly came to discover that I had found the funniest man in the world.....

See what I mean?

To say we had fun everywhere we went would be an understatement....

 
Not only did he keep me laughing, he also showed off his thoughtful side each week by making home-made cards for me sitting by a bouquet of flowers waiting for me when I arrived in Stillwater every Friday afternoon. Ya see, he was usually in class when I drove into town so I would always be giddy about walking into his house because I never knew what would be waiting for me. We usually didn't even have to leave the house...we spent most of our time being complete goofballs and loving every minute of it. Now I can't talk about our weekends in Stillwater without addressing the obvious....bedlam was the only day we didn't get along. This picture was taken pre-game of our very first bedlam spent together....this is why he still has a smile on his face.....

Our "friendly" rivalry was born in Stillwater and it continues to this day...just not so "friendly" anymore. :) I do have a confession to make though.....I actually tagged along with him to a few Cowboy games. Of course I was dressed so that I wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb...but just in black though. Not a speck of orange. :)

Before we knew it we were celebrating one amazing year of dating. We were spending another summer like our previous one....me in Shattuck living with my Grandma and Aunt Sharon while working at the grain elevator and him working on the farm for his Uncle Tom. Thinking back I have no idea how we functioned at work on a daily basis....for some reason we found it appropriate to stay out until 4 a.m. most nights....usually out at the lake or just sitting on the tailgate watching the stars. As June 2nd approached I quickly realized that I'd caught the engagement bug....I didn't hide my disappointment when our anniversary rolled around and no proposal happened. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't begging for a proposal....but more wanting that magic moment to happen pretty soon. Two short summer months later and I got just what I'd been hoping for.

The proposal spot

We were in San Antonio on a mini-vacation which was a last minute change of plans after our trip to Destin fell through two weeks before we were to leave. Apparently twenty-one year olds cannot check into a hotel on the beach so we were out of luck. San Antonio turned out to be the perfect place for a romantic trip. And now it's a trip I'll never forget. He popped the question outside at a quiet little spot overlooking the river...he had a slideshow with pictures throughout our lives leading up to when we met and our relationship through the past year....as sweet words were rolling across the screen after the pictures were done flashing, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him....

Wedding planning began as we headed off to our last year of undergrad. He had begged me over and over to transfer back to Stillwater but it worked out well in the end because I was able to hole up in my apartment being the study nerd I was....I found out that spring semester that I'd been accepted to physical therapy school. All of that studying had finally paid off!! We finished out the school year with lots going one: packing, moving, planning for school, wedding planning, finding an apartment in Edmond....we were worn out by the time we took our last finals. I have to take a second to brag on my husband who took 43 hours during his final year at OSU...oh my!!!! He credits me for motivating him but I give all the credit back to him because I never did anything that crazy! He always impressed me with his determination when the task seemed literally impossible. We celebrated his graduation May of 2006...he was a lucky dog for graduating the year that President Bush flew in on Marine One to give the commencement speech. Quite a day!

 
After graduation Riley began his final assignment to finish up schoolwork....an internship at the health department in Woodward. I stayed behind in Enid being a caretaker for the mother of a family friend. Lots of hard work but some wedding planning snuck in here and there. My world revolved around my calendar....cake, dress fitting, hair, nails, honeymoon reservations, wedding planner meeting, photographer, wedding favors, flowers and the list goes on and on. I'm pretty certain that Riley was glad that he was in Woodward and not smack dab in the middle of my planning frenzy. The wedding day finally came and went in a blur as most weddings do. Pictures remind me of that day but my memory hasn't served me so well. I do remember that it was a day I will never forget, but yet can hardly remember. If that makes sense at all. :)

After a honeymoon to our favorite place, Las Vegas, we made our home at The Links in Edmond. We were ecstatic about moving into our first place together...just not excited about the moving process. Our parents helped us move caravan style....we had six vehicles moving all of our "junk." After we emptied all the cars and everything was inside my parents left. I will never forget that moment because Riley still reminds me of it to this day. I cried like a baby. I wasn't prepared for that feeling. He also likes to remind me of how I stood in line at Walmart and broke into tears as I held the basket full of Hamburger Helper and realized that we were flat broke. Thank God for student loans...or that's what I thought at the time.

The day we moved into our first "home"

Riley kept us both laughing through our first year of marraige. I needed some form of comic relief because PT school had proven to be as stressful as it appeared. I learned to always expect the unexpected around him....I have no idea where he came up with most of his tricks....

Cleaning with the military issued gas mask

Shortly after celebrating our first Christmas as a married couple we received some very shocking news that Riley's reserve unit was being deployed to Iraq. You can imagine our reaction to this news when we had never imagined that it would happen. I transitioned into the role of military wife and began going to deployment meetings and getting geared up for a year without my husband here in the U.S.A. He spent four months at training in various places in Oklahoma and California. I kept myself busy by studying like crazy and spending time with friends and family. To say that this transition didn't put a stresser on a new marraige would be a bold-faced lie so I will just say it was definitely a character builder. Riley deployed with Fox Battery 214 to Iraq that July.....

We were able to communicate more often that we had expected...mostly through email. We were able to talk on the phone a handful of times and surprisingly enough it usually worked out well because he was on a schedule that allowed him to call the US during waking hours. A phone call was exactly the thing I needed to keep chugging along. The good thing about living in an apartment when your husband is gone is that there is no maintenance or yard work to be done. God bless those wives who have homes and children...I can't even imagine. Riley got to live his dream and be an active member of the U.S. Armed Forces during his seven month stay in the dessert.

He spent his time there doing things that us civilians are not privvy to (lol), working out, dieting and returned looking super HOTTTTTT! "Ow ow" was all I had to say the day he returned and came marching in with Fox Battery 2-14.....

After year #2 of our marraige was spent apart, year #3 proved to be a bit challenging. I was finishing up my last year of school, Riley started his new job at Opeco and Grammy had begun what turned out to be a six month hospital stay at Integris in OKC. We survived a very stressful period of time and lived to tell about it (more like forget about it). Life got back on track quickly and before we knew it we were purchasing our first home and I was about to graduate from PT school. Busy, busy time but a very, very blessed time. After three years cramped in our apartment studying my life away I was ready to celebrate. And celebrate we did with lots of classmates and my husband who just happened to be the life of the party......

Grad banquet night

The day before graduation we moved into our home in Mustang. See, I told you things were busy.

SOLD!

Home Sweet Home

We found that a home is exactly what we'd been longing for. Space to keep our things and space to have hobbies. Riley became very good friends with the three-car garage and his yard. He took on random projects to spruce things up and loved doing anything that involved hard work. I spent my time playing in our yard with our new addition to the Fanning family.....

Our first "baby": Emmi Lane Fanning

Our new BFF

After one month of "vacation" after graduation, I took my PT board exam and passed! I began my first big girl job at a skilled nursing facility in OKC while Riley continued to work at Opeco. He worked his way up the ladder and was soon an outside salesman who served the Northeastern part of the state. Long hours but a very good job....and even better coworkers. We had finally settled into our home when we realized that we would need to set aside a room for a certain someone who would be arriving in ten months.....

That's a positive!!!!

We were beyond happy and so proud as we watched our little bean grow and grow.....

Our little miracle

Riley and I were busy bees prepared the nursery for our sweet girl and tried to take advantage of our last few months as "just the two of us"....

Still goofy

Christmas rolled around and I didn't hold back when it came to decorating. By gosh, I had a house now and I was going to do it up big! Oh Christmas, the Fannings love you!!

In July of 2010 Hallie Grace Fanning made her arrival into our lives and things would never be the same.....

The first day of our "new" life

And I think that catches us up to the beginning of our blogging adventures.....that right there is and always will be my favorite story of all time. I love my husband. The last five years have both flown by yet moved slowly at the same time. I'm a sucker for a good love story and although Carrie and Big's romance is one that gets me everytime, I am quite a big fan of our love story.

Thank you husband of mine for keeping me laughing. Here's to our next five years together.