UNION REUNION and BABY SHOWER

Ten years ago, I graduated from Union High School and started my journey at the University of Oklahoma. WOW. I cannot believe how quickly a decade has passed! Even now, I can remember standing in the parking lot with my best friends on our last day of high school. We were SO sad that our great high school experience was over and that we were separating for college, but little did we know...life was going to get even better! College life was amazing, and married life is the greatest thing I've ever known. I've been told that life seems to pass more and more quickly the older you get, and I definitely believe it. What a sweet reminder to find joy in each day and cherish time with the people you love!

So, I'm thinking about what I was doing ten years ago, because I had my TEN year high school reunion a few weeks ago. It was so fun! Kevin and I flew to Tulsa for a long weekend and had a great time seeing high school friends. I really enjoyed catching up with people I haven't seen in years, and I absolutely loved seeing my closest friends from high school...because I think we're even closer now than we were as teenagers!

I also had the privilege of helping host a Sip & See shower for my friend, Jen, and her new baby, Athan, that weekend. Here are some pics from all of the festivities. (Good news--I learned how to embed a slideshow!)

FUN-FILLED ANNIVERSARY WEEKEND

To celebrate our first wedding anniversary, we planned several days of fun activities in San Diego and the surrounding area. We feel so fortunate that we get to live in beautiful Southern California as newlyweds! Our first event of the weekend was something I have wanted to see for a long time -- a Keith Urban concert! He played in Los Angeles at the UCLA tennis center, and it was actually a great location because it was a more intimate setting than most concerts we've experienced. It was a gorgeous evening to be outdoors, and his performance definitely lived up to our high expectations. Before the concert, we made time to stop at the new Magnolia Bakery for some delicious cupcakes (I first fell in love with these cupcakes at the original NYC location). Thank you, Diana, for letting us know that a location opened in L.A.! The buttercream frosting was just as incredible as I remembered.

On Saturday, we went sailing on the Pacific Ocean with our good friends, Diana & Chase Newman. (They were celebrating Chase's birthday.) It was extremely relaxing, and it allowed us to see the harbor and the ocean from a completely new view. We absolutely loved it!

Beautiful homes on Point LomaLook closely...we saw a dolphin being trained to detect things like underwater mines!

We enjoyed a special anniversary dinner at Firenze Trattoria on Saturday night. It had a very romantic Tuscan atmosphere, and we had a great time reminiscing about our wedding weekend and how much our lives have changed in one year. I have to say that this was possibly the best dinner date I’ve ever had with my husband! Gotta love mushy romantic conversation over a delicious meal with the love of your life. :)

Kevin has been anxious to go to San Diego’s Wild Animal Park since we moved here in October, so I took him there Sunday and surprised him with tickets to a special Photo Caravan adventure. The caravan takes you on a two-hour up-close and personal tour of animals in their pseudo-natural habitats. The tickets for this adventure were a bit pricey, but thankfully they were totally worth the money! I was crossing my fingers that Kevin would love the experience, and he enjoyed it just as much as I did. During the tour, the animals walked right up to our caravan so we were able to feed giraffes and rhinos! Yikes – see the terror in my face below! What a memorable way to mark one year of marriage. Overall, we spent about seven and a half hours at the park, and we took over 800 photos. (Truthfully – I actually took more than that, because we filled a huge SD card just three hours into our time at the park, so I had to sit down and delete a couple hundred photos before we saw the rest of the park!) I think it’s safe to say I/we love our new DSLR camera. To see more of our park photos, visit our shutterfly page at http://theobriens725.shutterfly.com/.

Yes, feeding them was as scary as it looks. Our guide told us to drop the apple slice into the rhino's mouth AND touch the rhino's bump for good luck. I found it rather difficult since I was so focused on keeping my hand from being eaten! How CUTE is this baby elephant?!?!Remind anyone of Aslan??

I had to add this one to see if Kevin is reading our blog. ;)

One thing that we loved about the park was how active the animals seemed to be compared to zoo animals. Here's an example: This photo is significant because the huge stick that Kevin is holding was THROWN by the gorilla at the crowd of people on the other side of the railing! Look at the distance between the gorilla and Kevin! There was a sign that asked visitors not to stare at the gorillas because they don't like people to stare at them in the same way we humans don't like others to stare at us...but, come on! We're there to see them! Plus, how do you not stare at these incredible animals interacting with each other? We ended our first anniversary by eating some of the top tier of our wedding cake and watching our amazing wedding video (yes, Kevin received major points for sitting through every minute of it, yet again.) The cake tasted pretty yummy for being one year old!

Okay, there’s one more thing I have to mention, because it was the most special part of the whole weekend. The traditional first anniversary gift is paper, and Kevin gave me the most sacred and thoughtful gift ever – our wedding vows, written in calligraphy, in a beautiful frame. I can’t imagine a more precious gift, and I will cherish it for the rest of our lives. In case you’re wondering, I did not give an equally precious gift! My gifts to Kevin were the photo caravan tickets I mentioned above and a magazine subscription. I guess Kevin is now the sentimental gift giver in our relationship!

ONE YEAR OF MARITAL BLISS!

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary (Sunday, July 25th), we've started a blog! Some of our friends and family members have encouraged us to start one so that we can keep everyone up to date while we live far away, and we have finally decided to do it. We can't promise that it will be the most entertaining blog, but we hope that you will enjoy hearing our latest news and seeing photos of what we're doing in San Diego. We always love to hear what’s going on in your lives, so we want you to share your latest and greatest news with us, too! Because we’ve had so much fun over the past 12 months, I thought an appropriate first post would be a recap of our first year as husband and wife. (We promise that future posts will not be this lengthy!) If you'd like to see more photos, go to http://theobriens725.shutterfly.com/. Since blogs post the most recent entry first, I started our recap in the current month and worked my way back to July '09. Enjoy!

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JULY 2010

I got to meet Jen & Jay's new baby boy, Athan Felker!

Jared & Reagan Johnson's Wedding

We finally met little Miss Mia Hays!

JUNE 2010

Trying to be a Marine on Jane Wayne Day

Kevin's sister, Erin, and cousin, Morgan, visited!

Del Mar Fair & Beer Festival with San Diego friends
MAY 2010

Our dear friends, Diana & Chase, got married!

Kevin and buddies at Jeff & Phoebe's Wedding

APRIL 2010

Kevin flying in the F/A-18D Hornet!
MARCH 2010

My Mom & Dad visited again, and we went to the famous San Diego Zoo! How cute are they?
FEBRUARY 2010

We spent our 1st Valentine's Day as 1st Lt. & Mrs. in Los Angeles.

JANUARY 2010

My birthday dinner at Donovan's Steak & Chop House

DECEMBER 2009

We met Amanda & Josh's baby girl, Abigail!

Johnson Family Christmas in Meno
(We need to convince Kevin's side of the family to take pictures with us when we're together!)

Our first Christmas as the O'Briens...the day before we flew to Oklahoma!

We had our first visitors in SD - My Mom, Dad & Brother, Adam!

NOVEMBER 2009

Medlinger (my Mom's side) Thanksgiving in Midwest City

My parents gave us their OU vs. OSU football tickets! What a great game!

Our 1st USMC Birthday Ball as husband & wife
OCTOBER 2009

We moved to beautiful SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA!

Stopped to see the Grand Canyon during our cross country trip.

While Kevin was at SERE school in Maine for 2 weeks, I spent time in Tulsa. I met Keely & Tyler's daughter, Gentry, just a couple of hours after she was born! She is 1 day old in this photo.

SEPTEMBER 2009

I met Kimmy & Caleb's baby boy, Logan, when he was only 4 days old!

House-hunting trip to San Diego

AUGUST 2009

Kevin blowing out his 27 birthday candles! (Look at that Pensacola kitchen)

HONEYMOON in paradise/St. Lucia!

JULY 2009

Kevin's winging ceremony - Pensacola, FL
We tied the knot...July 25, 2009! :)