5th Anniversary 12.30.11

On December 30 we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!

It feels like forever and 2 weeks at the same time.  A baby and 2 moves in a year will do that to you!

We love to celebrate with a really nice meal, so we made reservations at Rainbow Lodge.  It was amazing.  Simply amazing!  We started with an appetizer of fried quail on a pumpkin waffle, foie gras butter and a bourbon bacon ganache.  It was. So. Good.  Then we each decided to order a salad - Jeremy ordered the butter lettuce hearts with duck ham, bleu cheese dressing and toasted hazelnuts, and I ordered the blood orange and watercress salad with candied almonds, roasted beets, feta and fig vinaigrette.  Delicious, but we probably could have skipped that course.  Our entrees were phenomenal.  I opted for the special - a cut of bison, medium, topped with mushrooms and crab meat, served over mashed potatoes.  The bison was great and didn't taste too "game-y."  Jeremy ordered my second choice, the grilled elk chop topped with a delicious berry sauce served over sweet potato mash and wilted spinach.  Both of ours were fantastic and we were completely stuffed.  That did not stop us from ordering dessert though!  It was our 5th anniversary - very special!  Jeremy got the creme brulee (if you want a fancy pants description it's vanilla bean creme brulee with Sicilian-style pistachio bar!), and I got the very delicious apple streusel cheesecake bar with brown butter pecan caramel, lodge brandied cherries, and chocolate chip Mexican vanilla ice cream.  We were almost too full to enjoy dessert, but pressed on and ate a few bites.

After dinner we almost just went home and watched more Friday Night Lights, but since we rarely get to see movies anymore, we decided to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  Jeremy said he heard it was fantastic, so I think he was slightly let down.  I'm not sure where he heard such a thing, but I thought it was plenty entertaining.  I'm glad we went!

Thanks to Lolly, Pops, Josh and Jamie letting Sawyer have a sleepover, we also got to sleep in until 10:30 or so the next morning, which might have been even more incredible than our dinner!  Almost.

I did get Jeremy a little something for a gift, which we normally don't do.  I just happened to find a vintage UT pennant from the Bluebonnet Bowl (held at the Astrodome).  Jeremy, very thoughtfully, over dinner explained the traditional 5th anniversary gift is wood, so he asked if I "would" go on a vacation with him this year!  We are so excited to plan a real vacation, not with friends or family (sorry guys!), not driving, not staying at someone's house, but a real vacation with a plane flight and hotel and tourist attractions.  Our top contenders right now are New York City (I've been a lot, Jeremy has never been), Boston (neither of us have been), San Diego (Jeremy's been once for work), and San Francisco (I went in 1996).  And of course I just have to check on Hawaii to see how much over budget that might be... but one can dream, right?  Any suggestions?  We're kind of at a loss right now - need more direction in our planning.