Six years

Elise and I celebrated our 6th anniversary this past Saturday. The weekend started with Mom driving up Friday afternoon to visit for the weekend and for some free (and much appreciated) babysitting.

On Friday night, I got home from work and was almost immediately turned around and sent back out to get groceries for the weekend and pizza for dinner that night. When I got home, I cooked the pizzas while Mom played with Maly so Elise could get dolled up.

That night we met up with co-workers and friends to celebrate Jenny’s birthday at the Broken Spoke. Everyone had a great time and at some point, someone realized that this was the first time in years that our circle of friends were together without at least one offspring in tow.

Elise and I stayed behind after the party left. We sat next to each other at a table at the edge of the dance floor and watched people dance. It was nice to just sit back with my feet up and my arm around my wife while we both people watched.

Saturday morning came early as we all got up with Maly. We ate breakfast and then headed out for the Josh & Elise Anniversary day of whatever it is that Josh doesn’t know about.

Almost an hour later we were pulling into the parking lot of Skydive San Marcos. Let me preface this by stating that I love me some skydiving. I experienced a mini anxiety attack. Elise’s plan was that we were both going to go skydiving that day. When we were driving up to the drop zone, I noticed that the parking lot was almost full. I remembered when we were at SSM a year ago and how we spend almost six hours there. I wasn’t looking forward to spending the entire day there again today and I expressed as much as we were parking. So I pretty much immediately set the mood of the day off on the wrong foot, which really upset Elise.

After talking it over for a while, I decided I would jump with her; but if I jumped, I wanted to make sure that the jump counted towards my Accelerated Free Fall license. I inquired at the desk and was told that the jump would not count as I would need to take a class before the instructional tandem jump. So I weighed my options. I thought about my little anxiety attack and the cost of a tandem jump that wouldn’t count towards licensure, and decided to just let Elise jump and pay an extra $100 to have the jump filmed.

Since we got the SSM relatively early, Elise was on a plane within an hour, which was a nice surprise. Mom, Maly and I waved as Elise boarded the plane. We played outside the drop zone for 20 minutes or so before we saw the parachutes starting to float down from a mile up. We watched as Elise and her jumpmaster touched ground and then walked over to where we were standing.

Elise, like me, was at a loss for words. I could tell just by the look on her face that she had a blast, and I’m really glad she got to experience “flight”. I quickly asked if she would consider going through AFF training with me. She said she’d prefer to just do tandem jumps and “let someone else do all the work.” So we went back inside and bought Elise a same-day discount for her next tandem.

We decided to hang out on the patio at the drop zone and have our picnic lunch before heading home. After lunch we piled into the truck and headed back to the house while Maly conked out in her car seat.

When we got home we just hung out around the house. Mom, Maly and I played in the pool on the deck while Elise took a nap. When Elise woke up, we all hung out on the deck and watched Maly play. 5:30 came quickly and it was time for Elise and me to get ready for our date.

We headed into town and got to Starlite a few minutes past our reservation time. Luckily it didn’t matter that we were late because there were only three occupied tables at the restaurant. Dinner was awesome and we had a really nice time talking. Our waiter was extremely friendly and helpful with all menu items and wine selections.

We started with a bottle of Mas de Gourgonnier les baux de Provence, which was an awesome recommendation from our waiter based on the kinds of Cabernet’s and Pinot Noir’s that we like. We were next treated to an amuse bouche of pan roasted veal cheek. Yeah, cheek. And man was it good! I got all cheeky is was so good. Here’s a great write-up on Metroactive on cheek meat.

For our appetizer I chose the Ahi Tartare with avocado mole, shallot preserves and gaufrette potatoes. Elise and I opted to simplify the consumption of this dish by scooping the tartare atop the potatoes (researchers have indicated that ‘gaufrette potatoes’ is a fancy name for homemade potato chips) with both sauces and called them raw fish nachos. Needless to say, the dish was excellent.

For our main courses, Elise had the Halibut with potatoes and buerre blanc and toasted garlic broccolini. I had the 16 oz. grilled veal t-bone with polenta and pearl onion and red plum confit. Both were fantastic, well rounded meals. I’m pretty sure I speak for Elise when I say Starlite is definitely on our list of favorite Austin restaurants. I’m certainly looking forward to returning soon.

After dinner walked a block to the parking garage and drove the Jeep over to my office’s parking garage and then walked to the Littlefield Market on 6th where we picked up a couple four packs of white wine. We then walked over to the OMNI with our swimsuits and went to the rooftop where we sat in the hot tub and drank wine from plastic cups. We had a fun time just hanging out with each other and overlooking central Austin. At 11:30 a staffer came up to let us know they were locking up for the evening. So we went downstairs to change in the locker rooms.

We got home close to midnight and hung out on the deck for another hour or so for a nightcap, to exchange cards and to look at the photos from Elise’s first skydive.

So we had a really, really nice anniversary. It wasn’t a “milestone” anniversary by commercial standards, but I think it was one of our best. Each one is better than the last as each year Elise and I grow closer together, stronger as one and happier together as we experience the everyday milestones.

I couldn’t imagine being happier or more proud of the relationship I have with Elise. I don’t know how I did it, but I sure as hell lucked out.