traditions

Brian & I have always loved celebrating events and milestones through traditions. One of our first traditions as a couple is to celebrate our "date-a-versary" at Knott's Berry Farm every year. This all started because our date-a-versary is close to Halloween (October 28), the time of year when Knott's closes at 5 p.m. to set up for Knott's Scary Farm. Neither of us loves Scary Farm (aka 3 million high school kids and 2-hour long lines), but we both love the rides and the atmosphere at Knott's. We discovered that if you go to Knott's during the day close to Halloween, NO ONE IS THERE! It's amazing. There are no lines. You can stay on the rides as many times as you want without getting off. You can circle the park and go on everything in 2 hours. You can have funnel cake and boysenberry punch for lunch, then ride Montezooma's Revenge until you're sick. It's so fun. So every year we go to Knott's for the day, then out to dinner. Some of my favorite memories are of Brian and I at the theme park, just the 2 of us enjoying the day.

Last year on October 28 I was 5 months pregnant with Kyle, so our Knott's trip consisted of no rides -  just fried chicken and biscuits at Mrs. Knotts Chicken Dinner (heaven for a pregnant girl). And this year Kyle will be 8 months old, so October 28, 2013 (celebrating 12 years!) will be his first trip to the park. We can't wait to make him part of our tradition.

Every year, the first thing we do when we get to Knott's is take a picture of the 2 of us holding up how many years we are celebrating:

Corny? A little. But so fun.

Now that we're married, we still love to continue this date-a-versary tradition and added a new one for our wedding anniversary: have dinner at the restaurant where we held our wedding reception. We have so many fun memories at the Main Street Wine Cellar, where we hosted all of our friends and family for appetizers, wine and dancing. The Wine Cellar is the perfect spot for date night - great wine and beer selection, fun menu and everywhere we look we have a memory of the day we were married. It's the perfect way to reminisce and re-live one of the best nights of our lives.

Instead of holding up how many years we're celebrating, we decided last year to try and reenact one of our wedding photos every time we visit:

1st wedding anniversary - before we thought of the reenactment idea :) 

2nd wedding anniversary

3rd wedding anniversary

This year was especially fun because it was our first date night since Kyle was born. Grandma came over to watch the baby and those 2 hours away, just the 2 of us, were just what we needed to focus on each other and enjoy our special day.

the short rib sliders (top) were served at our reception. So good.

Now that we have Kyle, I'm so excited to start more traditions for the 3 of us. Summertime camping trips, Sunday night family dinners, making birthday cakes, scavenger hunts with his cousins, breakfast with Santa... so many fun traditions in our future. I can't wait!

Wedding photos by the talented Joseph Martinez Photography