Happy Anniversary to us! ;)

Yesterday was our 3rd Anniversary, so we decided to take a little trip the weekend before to celebrate, since this will be our 1st Anniversary we've spent together! The 1st anniversary, I was in Germany, and the 2nd, he was in Iraq! :(

We asked his parent's to come watch Eli, and they graciously accepted, so they arrived Friday night around 6 pm and we spent a little bit of time with them, and then we headed out to dinner at Olive Garden, yum, and enjoyed the never ending Pasta Bowl! :) So yummy and a "little" cheaper than the normal meal that we get!

We then embarked on the 1.5 hour drive to Chattanooga, where we had booked a hotel for 2 nights... It was a Country Inn and Suites, and it was very nice and it was so much fun having a sit down living room area and kitchen area, separate from the bedroom... Ryan wanted to go swimming that night, (they have an indoor pool) but unfortunately it was after hours, so we just went to sleep.

We woke up pretty early and headed down for the Fabulous complimentary breakfast they had! They had "make your own" Belgium waffles, and they were to die for! ;) We then went back up and showered and finished getting ready and then headed to the Tennessee Aquarium which was only about 5 miles away... It was so much fun and we spent about 4-5 hours there touching baby sharks, stingrays, sturgeon, etc... It was a lot of fun and very cool since he hadn't been there since he was little, and I don't remember going to an Aquarium like this before.

Here are a few pics from my Camera Phone since I forgot the real camera! :(

That is a real shark! ;)

Ryan was so incredibly creeped out!
My attempt at touching the stingray while taking the picture!
Ryan touching the stingray!They felt so funny!

We also checked out the Imax movie on "Dolphins and Whales" which was 3-D... That was pretty much the only redeeming quality, unless you want to hear how horrible humans are and how we're going to to eventually destroy the planet if we don't save this dolphin or that whale, etc... Very liberal portrayal, but overall was fun...

We went to Cheeburger Cheeburger before we saw the Imax movie and if you havn't been, you should Definitely go! It was so yummy and about average price as far as nice burger joints go...

After the Imax and Aquarium, we headed to Ben and Jerry's for a little Ice Cream, and after we were stuffed, we walked around for a while, then went and signed up for the "Murder Mystery Dinner Show" where they have Italian Buffet and then there are "Characters" in the show, that walk around and interact with all the guests... It was supposed to be a High School Reunion where one of the classmates gets killed and you try to figure it out... There was the Class Nerd, the Prom Queen, the Class clown, the Coach, the English Teacher, the Class President... I think that's all... Anyhow, they walk around talking to you like you were in their class and this is your reunion too... It was a lot of fun and a little different, but a unique experience... It was pretty much a family friendly comedy show, with very little mystery! It would be impossible to figure out who had killed the victim, since it was totally random, but it was definitely more about the comedy! Ryan and I actually got called out to stand up since it was our 3 year Anniversary, and then they told me to sit down and said that "We want to thank Ryan because they were separated for a while because he spent 2.5 years in Iraq!!" Of course the whole crowd starts clapping and Ryan ends up getting a standing ovation!! ;) What does my "shy" hubby do? He starts doing hand guestures like he was shooting Iraqies! I thought I was going to wet my pants it was so cute! ;) I of course am proud of him too, so he can "fake shoot Iraqies" all he wants! Oh, and if you're wondering... The lady got confused... Ryan told her that we were separated for 2.5 years and that he was in Iraq, so she thought he meant he was in Iraq for that long, but still, it was nice that they appreciated it enough to say something! Overall, we had a great time and it was really funny!

We then headed on back to the hotel because Ryan REALLY wanted to swim in the indoor pool and then we watched, "What Women Want"... Overall, a fun day!

We woke up bright and early to eat some more Belgium waffles, Yum! Then we finished getting ready, packed our bags and headed out to the Ocoee River! We were so excited to go White Water Rafting since neither of us had ever been! We got there in plenty of time and after about 30 minutes we were on the stinky bus ready to head to the drop off point! We ended up with 3 other people who were really nice and did what they were supposed to do! I was afraid we were going to be stuck with a bunch of girly girls who would refuse to paddle or something! It was so much fun and we got soaked even before we decided to jump in! :) We definitely are HOOKED and are already planning on going on the Full River trip which is about 4.5 hours long and even more intense! It really wasn't as terrifying as I thought... If you have a good guide, he is going to put you at ease and make sure you understand everything you're doing!

So, if you haven't been before, you definitely have to try it!

I got these from the website... Ryan is the goofy one in the back with his mouth open in most of the pics... :) And I'm in front of him in the green shirt... You can't see me very well because I'm paddling like the instructor said while Ryan and the lady next to him were busy posing for the camera! ;)

We were a little sad when it ended, but happy that we would soon get to see our little boy! Ryan slept for most of the 2.5 hours home, and we were so excited when we got home and saw our Eli! He was soo excited to see us, even though his Grandma Leigh-Leigh and PopPop took very good care of him! He was pretty much attached to my hip for the first 2 hours, but we are definitely back in the swing of things now!

That's about it, hope you enjoy our pics!