:: return of light: commemorate yourself.

Last week was our second wedding anniversary. Like last year, we both took the day off to celebrate together. We almost never have a day off together, so it's, like, super-special for real. After sleeping in and reading in bed and ovulating (just me on that one. Not him...that I know of) and such, we went out for lunch at my our favorite downtown deli, Sottini's. They know my order by heart there, and it's the freaking bomb.

We blocked the sign, my hair looks like caca, and J.J. looks high. #nailedit

After that, we met some of my summer campers at Washtenaw Dairy for the best ice cream in Ann Arbor.

We didn't get a picture of the Dairy, the ice cream, or my fave co-workers. SCORE.

The original plan called for us to pick out our anniversary present after lunch, but following my eight-inch veggie sub and eleventy gallons of Milky Way ice cream, girl needed a nap. (Don't worry, I didn't memorialize the nap with a picture-fail like I did the first two events of the day. SCORE.) Upon waking, my neck and back were stiff and sore, AS ALWAYS, which confirmed that it was definitely time to bite the bullet and purchase our present to each other: a new mattress.

Dude, it is so past time for us to get a new mattress. The one we have is J.J.'s from, like, 12 years ago (ish?), and it was pretty okay until moving day. Um, as in, the day we moved to our HOUSE. THREE YEARS AGO. J.J.'s younger brother took the initiative to ~~break the damn thing, along with our backs~~ literally throw it over our apartment balcony, instead of lowering it gently into the waiting arms of three capable adults. The corner of the mattress that took the brunt of the fall is now bent at an awkward angle, making the whole shebang a wonky adventure. So, in summary, it's old, it's warped, and so are we - whether as a result of the mattress or just the general aging/stress process, who knows. What we did know was that J.J. can't sleep through the night to save his life (maybe a handy skill for fatherhood?), and I toss and turn constantly, never really falling deeply asleep.

We decided on a Sleep Number bed, for a few reasons:

J.J. is a really, really, REALLY picky sleeper. He's been known to rotate among all our sleeping surfaces (bed, futon, couch) in one night in order to find his desired firmness. (That's what she said?)
He likes it hard, I like it soft. (THAT'S what she said.)
Our mattress needs may fluctuate when I'm pregnant someday/when we have kids.
They have a 20-year warranty, and we've heard good reviews from some friends.

The biggest knock against a Sleep Number mattress was, of course, the price. We splurged anyway. I can't tell you exactly why (anniversary? Desperation? Twenty-year warranty? Hadn't balanced my checkbook in a while and was in blissful denial?), but it's supposed to be delivered tomorrow (DELAYED GRATIFICATION IS DELAYYYED), and I'm hella psyched. (Do people still say "hella"?) (Excessive parenthetical statements much?)

So, after modeling our sleeping positions for strange men at the Sleep Number store and making our splurgy purchase (ew), we went on our real anniversary adventure: kayaking down the Huron River. They (who? River fairies, probably) recently built a "cascades" section of the river where you can go tubing/boating down a series of small drop-offs. We wanted to check that out, not to mention relive our courtship days, wherein J.J. and I rowed down the river while he ~~accidentally~~ suggestively hummed "Kiss the Girl." We walked down the aisle to that tune a short seven (!) years afterwards, but we had spent shamefully little time on the water together since then.

It was...bliss.

These two pics above are of Island Park, where we had our engagement photo
session (and where we used to live [THE APARTMENTS, NOT THE PARK], and
where we used to have camp cookouts when we were both counselors).

I can't tell you the last time I felt so relaxed. The Summer of Hellish Doom was winding down (THERE'S A REASON I HAVEN'T POSTED ALL GODDAMN SUMMER), I was with the love of my life, and we were on my favorite river in my favorite town.

It took almost two hours to kayak from Argo to Gallup, at which point it was six o'clock, and we. Were. FAMISHED. We stopped at home for a quick wardrobe change (cascades = river water cascading into our shorts) and got dinner at Kosmo - a delish Korean restaurant in Kerrytown. We dined al fresco, in the deserted courtyard adjacent to the Kerrytown shops.

Okay, not completely deserted. One over-enthusiastic lady came through and
graciously snapped about 20 pictures of us, with only partial consent on our part.

Then it was off to Cobblestone Farm, our wedding site, for our now-annual tradition of Pictures on the Farm! ...Which totally needs to be italicized and have an exclamation point, IKNOWRIGHT?

Picture from our wedding day - August 22, 2010: