First Wedding Anniversary

It's been a year already!  ... okay not quite.

May 14th 2010 was our wedding day.  We chose the 14th because the 12th is my mom's birthday, and the 13th is my grandmother's birthday and we wanted a day that was ours alone, and didn't conflict with anyone else's special days.  However, when you celebrate a special day with other people, sometimes the celebration has to be scheduled on a weekend - which is what happened this year.

My mom is turning 65 on Thursday May 12th, and we are celebrating with her on Saturday, May 14th - our anniversary.

So not to have our own special day forgotten, we decided to celebrate a month early!  And luckily I had just the thing for it!

Back in October I found a deal on Living Social Escapes for a 2 night stay in the Banff Caribou Lodge and Spa that comes complete with a bottle of wine in your room.  I bought it thinking we could take off some weekend and have a nice little get away, but since it needed to be used by April 15th, we booked it for this last weekend, and then since our anniversary was going to be spent celebrating my mom's birthday, we decided we would make Banff our wedding anniversary celebration.

We left work on Friday at 4:30pm, swung by Ben's grandma's place to pick up Emmy (she had been cat-sitting while we had viewing's at our place) and headed to Calgary.  We arrived there about 8pm and spent a nice evening visiting with my mom and brother before turning in early (party animals on a Friday night we are not).

The next morning, I went to see my old Chiropractor who re-aligned my back and neck, and got rid of the headache that had been plaguing me for the previous 3 days (one of the joys of car accidents, you get instant notification in the form of a headache when some thing needs aligning).  Then Ben and I bid our freaked out cat goodbye, and headed to Banff.  (Emmy will be staying with Mom and her dog Sadie until we move - Sadie is the first dog Emmy has met, so he's terrified and curious all at once)

Banff was amazing.  Our room was cute, and was decorated with antlers everywhere you looked, from the light fixtures, to the headboards, everything had antlers - not my personal style preference, but it worked for what they were going for.

After we got settled in, we went for a walk into town, and settled on dinner at Athena pizza and Spaghetti, and then headed back to our Hotel room to watch several hours of Home and Garden television and share two bottles of wine (We typically don't drink, and we don't have cable, so as odd as this sounds we are actually doing two things we don't get to do back at home).

Then Ben was asleep by 10:30, and I followed soon after at 11pm... okay, maybe we're not party animals on a Saturday night either...

Sunday morning I was awoken at 6:40am by Ben crawling back into bed from using the bathroom - and then in an effort to pull the covers up over my shoulder I successfully punched myself in the eye (my grip was just a little too sleepy, and the blanket slipped out of my grasp).  I actually saw stars - I understand why cartoons have stars now.  I was suddenly wide awake- we both were, so we flipped on a little more HGTV.  By 8:30 we were hungry and decided to venture out to find a place to eat breakfast.  (Luckily my eye neither turned black, nor swelled that badly, it was slightly noticeable in a picture that night, but not too bad).

Just so you know - there are only 2 places to eat breakfast outside of the hotel restaurants in Banff- a place called Timbers a block back from the main strip, and a Phil's heading out of the downtown area and going toward the Banff Springs Hotel, in the residential area.  It took us 40 minutes to find Timbers, and we were starting to feel our search was futile.  After a delicious breakfast, we hit up starbucks to get our caffeine fix before heading to my surprise for Ben - a 1 hour couples massage.

For those of you who don't know - Banff is filled with Aussies!  And Aussies clearly know their stuff when it comes to massage - my masseur, (is that the correct term?)  was a tiny blond Aussie with a delightful accent in lulu's and flip flops - and she worked my back so hard I have bruises!  At the moment I'm writing this, I'm wearing a strapless bra to avoid the pain from my bra straps sitting on the large bruises this cute little blond left on my shoulders.  At the beginning of the massage I let her know that I had been involved in several car accidents and had lots of scar tissue through my back, neck and shoulders - and I think she made it her personal mission to break apart all of that scar tissue!  It hurt, a lot - but I also felt amazing afterward!

Ben had a similar situation, he has a condition where his ligaments are super stretchy, so his joints are loose and can easily slide in and out of joint, which can cause a whole host of other issues, so in order to keep his shoulders in proper working order, he needs to keep the muscle around the joint strong to hold his limbs in place where the ligament normally would - which puts a lot of stress on the muscles in his back and shoulders.  So he requested just a full work over on his back shoulders and neck - he too left with bruises.  He said at one point he kept hearing a weird shhhhh sound so he opened his eyes, and saw it was the feet of his masseuse sliding on the floor as she pushed on his back with all her weight.

We're talking elbows and thumbs here - but we were both jello when we left.  Hands down, the BEST massage either of us has ever received. If you are ever in Banff, and want to get a great massage, visit the Mountain Spa on the second floor of the Harmony Lane mall - you won't be disappointed (plus it's one of the better priced spa's in Banff). 

Then we headed back to the Hotel to soak in the Hot Tub, and enjoy the steam room.  Much to our dismay the promise of towels in the pool area was a lie, and we ended up toweling off with paper town found in the bathroom.  (classy - I know).

Then we headed back to our room to hang out there for a bit before heading to the Keg in our hotel to split an appetizer and then take a drive around Banff for a bit.  Then we went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for Ben's surprise - a 5 star meal at a swank restaurant a block down from our hotel.

This place was unbelievable, and made me feel both classy and elegant, and awkward as hell all at once!  I'm not used to the 5 star service, and almost made a couple "fancy dinner mistakes" (ie - refilling your own wine glass, stacking plates - etc).

To start our dinner, we ordered a bottle of wine, which was amazing, it was from Chili, and it was called Cono Sur 20 Barrels Pinot Noir.  So good!

Then while we waited for our starter, we were given warm pieces of bread and a delicious olive sun dried tomato spread.

Then we started with the Chef's sample platter for two for appetizers, it had braised tuna, marinated artichoke hearts with olives, grilled mozzarella on vine ripe tomatoes, prosciutto, shrimp and avocado on a pastry that's name escapes me at the moment, and a couple things more that I can't remember the names of - all in all, super good!

Then we were given a pallet cleanser between our appie and dinner (that's how fancy this restaurant was), which consisted of an iced white wine/cinnamon concoction which was awesome! 

For Dinner we ordered the Chef's Game Platter - which was three of the best wild game dishes - Roast Duck, Quebec Quail, and Elk, complete with all the sides that come with the individual dinner too - mashes potato, roasted veggies, mushroom risotto and a couple other things that were delicious but I couldn't exactly put my finger on the name of.  The meal was amazing, my personal favorite was the Duck which melted in my mouth - with Ben passing his hunting course, I require more duck in my immediate future.

For dessert we each ordered the Orange Cardamom Crem Brulee, which was amazing!  More things need to have cardamom in them!  And combined with the orange, I just couldn't get enough of this dessert!

Even with the bill they brought us another little plate with two little chewy cookie like things with a triangle of chocolate filled with a light orange filling sitting on top.  I just couldn't get enough of this restaurant!

We then waddled back to our room where within minutes were stripped of our dressy clothes, and back in our comfy comfy sweats.  Then we went for a nice walk where we picked up some cigars and celebrated an almost year married :)

When we got back to our room, there was more wine, and more HGTV (we freakin' love home improvement shows! Plus the House Hunter shows are right up our alley these days).  This time I was out shortly after 11, and I think Ben followed not long after because when I woke up at 12:30 he was fast asleep and the TV and all the lights were still on. I choose to believe it's the refreshing mountain air - not the "old married couple"  that put us to bed so early each night. 

Monday morning we managed to sleep in until 9am - which is a feat for us these days it seems.  Then we packed up, checked out, and headed to the Phil's for breakfast.  Then we went for a drive in and around Banff before starting our journey back home.

All in all it was a very relaxing and enjoyable weekend.  Everything we did echo'd our happy and in love attitude, and we laughed constantly the whole time.  I'm so very lucky to have found Ben, we have fun in everything we do, and our personalities are so perfectly matched I couldn't have asked for a better partner.  If I had known relationships could be this fun and easy, I would have moved to Edmonton and found Ben years sooner!

I love you Ben.  I choose you, today, tomorrow, a month from now, ten years from now - as long as you will have me, I pick you.  You are my everything, my life is better with you in it.  <3