two years and counting

Remember when Dusty and I celebrated our first anniversary?

That was a YEAR AGO.
What-what?

Sometimes, it's hard to see the changes in your life until enough distance has occurred between the past and present.
Looking back, I see how different our lives and our relationship has become. Most of it for the good, praise the Lord!
We're halfway through our time in Virginia, and we have settled in here. A year ago, I was still dreaming of the unknown...wondering what friends I would have, wondering if I would become a great cook, wondering where I would spend most of my time.
Now I have all the answers! I have amazing friends, I'm too lazy to cook, and I spend most of my time looking for stray kittens or making a mess. :)
This blog has served as a kind of diary for me, jumping from one grand idea to the next and following me as I figure out all this wife stuff. I'm still working on it, but Dusty and I are better than ever.
I'm really lucky to have him. Little things he does every day remind me that there is no one in the world that I could be more completely myself with.

In fact, the other day, we made up a fictional man named Gavin who I might have married instead of Dustin.
And anytime we do something weird or we're having a particularly fun time, he says, "See, Gavin would never have done this. Gavin's too fancy, he and his expensive sweaters and fluffy show dogs."

Second anniversary etiquette says the gift should be "cotton".
Dusty got me this incredibly luxurious cashmere (close enough, right?) cardigan from Banana Republic. I'm obsessed with it.
And I got him this AWESOME cotton sweatshirt.

Name that TV-show reference !

I also got him that vintage Guess Who game (that I gave him before we went to Arizona) and a custom photobook of our trip to Ireland together. I love anniversary gifts!

Our actual anniversary was spent with family and friends. We spent the day saying bye to Britany and Bryce, and Danny and Erin (Dusty's brother and sister-in-law). We went to the Cheesecake Factory with them for lunch, and then spent the rest of the evening at my brother and sister-in-law's playing games, hanging out and enjoying the smiles of our sweet nieces.

The next night, we took some time to ourselves to enjoy a date night.
The Capital Grille is one of our favorite restaurants, after we were introduced to it by our friends Jon and Emilie on a summer trip to Charlotte, NC.

They treated us like royalty, with rose petals on the table and flawless service.
We were even treated to an on-the-house dessert!
The most delectable coconut cream pie dessert. It was custard-y and whipped creamy and all the things that make you wish butter was a key ingredient to healthy living.

I just want someone to notice that I'm sporting a cat dress.
The best, classiest cat dress out there.
Because it's from Loft. 

Also, just so you know, under NO circumstances should you ever go to The Capital Grille and NOT get the Lobster Mac and Cheese. That's an order.

Because we really love to eat out, and because we really love to extend special occasions as long as humanly possible, we continued our anniversary in Virginia!

We went to THE shoe hotel.
The Craddock Terry Hotel!
My Virginia-life-long dream has been fulfilled.

We had the most amazing evening, just relaxing and going to bed early to catch up on some sleep from all our traveling adventures.

Welcome to the lobby:

"...and suddenly you're in love with a shoe!"

The rooms are across this causeway, which also connects to two restaurants -- Shoemaker's and Waterstone Pizza.

We decided on Waterstone, which was just a few steps and an elevator ride from our hotel room!
It's our favorite pizza place in town.

We both ordered large mugs of their delicious root beer, and settled down for a scrumptious meal.

I always love seeing this busy restaurant full of interesting people - watching sports, hanging out with friends and just enjoying the downtown scene.

I always have goat cheese added to whatever pizza I choose, because I'm a wild animal.

I think we were asleep by 9 that night.
We were both so exhausted, and it was amazing to have our beautiful room right upstairs, pajama-ready!

How cute are the doors!?

Even the bathroom rug was covered in shoes.

In the middle of the bed, there was this vintage wooden shoe box. You put a little slip inside and place it outside your door, and in the morning, it will be filled with your complimentary breakfast!
Breakfast in bed, in a shoebox. I'd totally be okay with that everyday.

We slept in the next morning, and I'm not gonna lie, I totally pretended I was in Paris the entire morning.

It wasn't even hard, with that beautiful brick wall window and the light streaming in.

We stayed true to the tradition we created on our first anniversary, which was to go to Barnes and Noble and pick out anniversary cards for each other!
It was fun "secretly" writing in them, and giving them to each other at random times throughout our giveaway.

We left at noon, and grabbed some lunch at White Hart Cafe, complete with my favorite lavender latte and my love by my side.

Two years.
It seems like a long time to me, but two days ago, I realized it was our six year dating anniversary. And we've known each other for nearly ten years.
Before too long, I will have known Dusty for most of my life. What a fun/crazy/unbelievable/wonderful idea.

I hope you all are escaping the vicious flu that's spreading around - both Dusty and I have been sick all weekend, and are slowly but surely edging toward recovery.
It's definitely no fun being at work this week, but it's Dusty's first week of school so we're destined to get back into law school mode!
Wish us luck. :)

In love,
Cait