Happy Early Anniversary!?

Richard has been asking me for the past few weeks if I was excited for our anniversary, and if I was excited for my anniversary present. What that means is, "I have a plan and a gift, and I'm really excited about it, but I'm not going to tell you what it is because I want to drive you crazy with curiosity." Well, it always works, and this time was no different. Richard has a way of letting his excitement rub off on me, even if I don't know what it is that he's excited about (I love that about him) and I have been so excited and curious to find out!

Well, the excitement got the best of us.

Our anniversary isn't til Saturday, but he ended up "giving" me my present on Tuesday....
Wanna know what it was?
Ok I'll tell you.

First I want to tell you what Tuesday was like for me...
It started out like any other day. I was planning on going out to work that afternoon, like I always do. But then, the unheard of happened. Richard called me and told me that he was "sick and tired" and was going to come home early. I was surprised because he NEVER does that. There is never an excuse good enough for him to come home early (which I admire). But I just figured that he must really be sick and burnt out that day, so I didn't try to convince him otherwise (Plus, that meant I wasn't going to work either, which I wasn't going to complain about). So, when he got home, we sat and ate and talked, and then I asked him..."so, did you really come home to sleep, or what?" And then he got this mischievous smile on his face and said, "well...actually, wanna go on a hot date right now? We have to be somewhere in an hour, will that be enough time for you to get ready?" Talk about catching me off guard! I was wearing sweats, and on top of that, it was one of those days where I did a minimal job of looking decent.

But he was nice to warn me with plenty of time.

We had gone shopping the day before, because Richard insisted that we needed "hot" outfits to wear on our anniversary, because in the pictures we have on our honeymoon, we look a little more than frumpy. And not only that, but we needed to MATCH each other!? I was surprised and a little confused that he cared about that, but not complaining.

Anyway, we started driving, and things started to "click." Richard had given me a few hints in the days before that got the wheels in my head turning, such as "You've been wanting this for a long time" and "We need to match!" Then, I noticed we were driving to the beach. Why were we driving to the beach, dressed up all nice and fancy? Hmm.... I thought we could be going out to eat at a fancy restaurant... but we had just eaten. But then it all came together as we pulled into the parking lot at Point Dume. I looked around and saw exactly who I was looking for: Mike and Anna Costa, a couple in our ward that we home teach. They are professional wedding photographers, and do amazing work! Richard had arranged with them quite awhile ago, to surprise me with a professional photo session, so that we could have some nice photos together to display in our home. I was sooo excited, because they really do amazing work and have a style that I really like. You can look at their website and some of their work here.
We don't get to see the photos til next Tuesday, but I think it will be well worth the wait!

Thanks, Honey for such a thoughtful, amazing anniversary present! I love you!