10th anniversary!

As of February 20, 2015, it has been 10 years since we said "I do, I do... I will, I will!" Just like the old cliche, time truly has flown! Daniel and I both find it hard to believe that we have been married for 10 amazing years! And I'm not just saying this because it's the expected thing to say, but every year truly has brought us closer together and has made our relationship better. Sometimes I wish for the naiveness and unabashed optimism we embraced in the first few years of married life, but overall, the depth of our current relationship is far better than the carefree days of yore. I wonder what I will say in 10 more years on our 20th?!

That said, let me give you the details of the past weekend! At first, as this momentous date was fast approaching, we entertained ideas such as, "We should go back to Helen again!" "What about a cabin in south Georgia? We love Georgia." "Umm, let's not drive so far..." "Any state parks closer to home?" "I want to go somewhere we haven't been before, like maybe New Orleans?" "NO, definitely NOT New Orleans!" "Destin?" "Pensacola??!" "Now we're talkin'!" "Check out Topsail and Gulf State Park's cabins." "No, they are too ugly and too expensive!" "Let's go to Orange Beach, back to the Perdido Beach Resort! We know what to expect there, and we know we like it!" "Ummm...that's boring! We've been there twice..." And then finally after many hours of perusing the web, calling state parks and being on hold for 40+ minutes, we irrevocably reserved two nights at our old haunt, the PBR! Since we had been in the "cabin and cooking in mode" from the get-go to avoid purchasing all our meals, Daniel had the bright idea that we should take our toaster oven to the hotel! I latched on to this light bulb moment and bought some grub accordingly, to the extent that Danl was even a bit dubious, and asked, "Are you sure this is OK?" I replied, "Of course it is! It was your idea!" So I packed our little Black & Decker securely in a suitcase with food stuffed all in and around it for the ride. We headed out around 4:30 Friday afternoon and checked into our 493 square foot Gulf front room featuring our choice of king bed providing a panoramic view of the beach with a private, furnished step-out balcony {quote PBR's website lol!} just as the sun was setting. Awwwww.....now this is my style of "camping!" 

We knew we had to have  Lillian's pizza, so a shrimp scampi and a veggie patch pie were soon delivered and devoured. Superb as always! Then it was time to break out the toaster oven for freshly-baked, white chip macadamia nut cookies! Saturday dawned quite grey, but the wild winds provided perfect waves for the undaunted surfers! Some were quite amazing! Watching them really gives one an appetite! Toaster oven time again! Hot pigs in flaky crescent roll blankets... Lunch was sliced, chilled, peppered salmon on crackers, along with diet Coke, sparkling apple cider, and hostess cupcakes! {Thanks, Rhonda! You  know what kind of gift we like!} As evening fell, we felt to give our wee oven a much-deserved rest, and ordered room service. Danl got a philly cheesesteak, and I had fish tacos, which were really more like fish nachos. Very tasty! Then some feta cheese-stuffed, colby jack-covered mushrooms sounded good, so out with the B& D again! We were totally cracking ourselves up by this time and chortling over the fact that we are such foodies! The balcony door stayed open to air the room of food fumes! By and by it was brownie time! I hadn't even known you could buy a tiny snack size brownie mix perfect for a toaster oven, but yes, you can! I felt like I was 10 years old playing with an EasyBake! :) 

Sunday was sunny, contrary to the predictions, and it was so hard to pack up and get ready to go home! 

But after our breakfast of fresh Pillsbury Orange Rolls and Hormel pre-cooked bacon, we soaked up some sun on the balcony, and then tucked away the toaster oven along with newly-made memories of a perfectly relaxing weekend of no expectations, no obligations, and no reasons for getting up or dressing up! Quality time in quantity for once! Just us. 

{and our toaster oven.}