HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROB!!!
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| ♥ happy birthday, babe! ♥ |
I really don't think I could ever convey how much this guy means to me, to my daughter and to our little family unit. It wasn't a smooth sail through finding out what we were both made of, but in the face of circumstance and a few select individuals who tried
very hard to deter things, we centered our focus on stabilizing ourselves eventually opening up to the other in ways neither of us ever would have expected.
And now, while I am still sometimes inconveniently independent, I
want him around and I look forward to doing things together. I know now that the rough waters were there for a reason, and that I won't ever have to wade through them again by myself.
That being said, I thought it appropriate to celebrate with some of our favorite times over the last couple of years. It was a tough selection, but whatev ;)
So here are 20 of my favorite memories with this guy I'm so lucky to call mine!
1. The first picture we actually took together, after being friends for nearly 2 years before that. That's a record lag time for me, btw! :) This happened to be the day we "officially" became a couple. It's a good thing we took this picture, because that's a date we both get a little fuzzy over from time to time.. haha.
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| dirt nasty concert | st. louis, mojan 2013 |
2. Supercross in Indianapolis. This was our first supercross together, and well, I'll leave it at that. What. A. [Weird] Night.
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supercross | lucas oil stadium, indianapolis, in
mar 2013 |
3. Mudbash! Giant diesel trucks, mud and friends. What more did we need?!
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| buchanan, mo may 2013 |
4. First
real concert together: Styx, REO Speedwagon & Ted Nugent! Thanks to Rob's mom, we doubled up with them as a belated Valentines Day gift to see some of our rock favorites at the VZW Amphitheater in St. Louis. Not a bad way to kick off the summer!
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styx. reo speedwagon. ted nugent | st. louis, mo
may 2013 |
5. Keith Urban! Rob spent the first half of his birthday week in New Orleans with Jesse, and came through Cincinnati to visit after that,
just in time for the Keith Urban concert.
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| keith urban @ riverbend | cincinnati, ohjuly 2013 |
6. Rob buys a boat. Haha. I got a call that he finally found and took a leap on the boat he's been eyeballing.. and so he, Kenny and I took it for its first run for us out in Grafton.
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boating | grafton, il
aug 2013 |
7. This was a big one.. there's always at least a
little hesitation when it comes to meeting someone's family for the first time, but I knew without a doubt that mine would
love him. I hadn't expected to be
that right about it. We headed up to Mt. Vernon to celebrate Sydni's birthday with my family, and the ice was broken!
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first visit to my parents! | mt. vernon, oh
sep 2013 |
8. Cirque Du Soleil's production of Totem. This was a big deal for me, since neither Rob nor myself have ever been to a full-on Cirque production. I bought tickets for us and we took the opportunity to see the show in Columbus.
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| cirque du soleil! | columbus, ohsep 2013 |
9. Office spaces. I moved to Cincinnati earlier in the Summer of 2013 and Rob stayed behind. We made sure to keep our minds [&hearts!] reminded daily, in Illinois & Ohio.
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| office spaces | cincinnati, oh & belleville, il oct 2013 |
10. First doggie road trip. Yep, we took the pups up to my parents' in Mt. Vernon for a weekend. They
loved it!
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| pup road trip | cincinnati to columbus, ohnov 2013 |
11. New Years Eve 2013-14! Happy NEW YEAR!!
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happy new years 2013-14! | st. louis, mo
jan 2014 |
12. Rob vinally moved to Ohio. Nearly eight months of long distance relationship and weekend visits finally ended. This... I will
always remember this. We're all
together!!
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words couldn't express the joy :D | cincinnati, oh
feb 2014 |
13. Building snowmen. This was the first time we actually got to build some snow sculptures, in the front yard of
our house, with Sydni and one of Rob's friends from IL.
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snow day! | cincinnati, oh
feb 2014 |
14 . Rob's first Cincinnati Cyclones game. Sure, the Cyclones aren't the St. Louis Blues, and Cincinnati's really not
that fanatic about their hockey team, but still fun, no less!
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cyclones game | cincinnati, oh
mar 2014 |
15. That time Rob shaved his beard off on accident, the day before we went to a joint bachelor/bachelorette party, and nobody recognized him. Haha. Need I say more?
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| beardless rob! | whitewater, inapr 2014 |
16. My heart, complete on Easter for the first time.
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easter! | mt. vernon, oh
apr 2014 |
17. Catie & Andy's wedding! It's rare that both of us are "cleaned up" at the same time, but I do have to say I was pretty proud to have him on my arm for the night :)
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| the doebler wedding | the phoenix, cincinnati, ohmay 2014 |
18. Journey & Steve Miller Band. Yessssss. All the Yessss!
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| journey & steve miller @ riverbend! | cincinnati, ohjun 2014 |
19. Our first official July 4th together as a family! :D
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| happy hearts!! | ault park, cincinnati, ohjul 2014 |
20. And.... DUH. JAMAICA. Go back and read the past week's worth of blogs for how insanely awesome that was! :)
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greetings from legends resort! | negril, jamaica
jul 2014 |
This man has proven that he loves me for
me, despite the clear and even subtle imperfections. He loves my daughter as though she were his own [shoot, might as well be half the time for how tomboyish she acts... or maybe that's from me? hahh.. who knows anymore..], and has shown us both time and time again that he is a staple in our little family.
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| my favorites ♥ |
To actually celebrate
today, we did dinner at Texas Roadhouse, primarily because we've still procrastinated on post-vacation grocery shopping, but also because Rob loves that place. According to Sydni [and also a rule in our house], when it's your birthday, you get to choose dinner. :)
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| excited to celebrate mr. rob's birthday! |
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| my world! ♥♥ |
The birthday festivities will continue this weekend, when we hit the Jason Aldean concert.. for now,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROB!!
xo |
cmd
