My Husband's Anniversary Gift To Me

I am going to finally share with everyone what my handsome husband did for me on our 5yr wedding anniversary in September!

I already shared with you what I did for him which was NOTHING compared to the amazing thought he put in to my gift. The blog world probably does not have much of a male following but maybe this can inspire someone to try something different!

A couple of months before our anniversary I asked the hubby to come up with a fun surprise for me so we could start planning ahead for some time alone and a special evening. I really expected a nice night out to eat somewhere and possibly a little outing of some sort. I had no clue he was going to plan one of the most awesome weekends we'd ever had! While our anniversary approached he would give me little hints here and there; It would be a 2 day getaway, in Kentucky but not near by, would start out as a scavenger hunt (?!)... the hints were KILLING ME! I was so confused! My mind raced for weeks trying to think of what it possibly could be, and I could tell poor hubs was bursting at the seams trying not to spill the beans.

 GeoCaching, anyone?!

September 9th is our wedding anniversary and the day we started our adventure! Bryan gave me a packet of papers which were from www.Geocaching.com. It really is very neat! Basically people all over the country place little "caches" in different spots which usually consist of a container ranging in size from very small to large and easy or hard to find. Each cache has a log in it, then the "owner" of the cache links it to the website with a clue on where to find it along with the coordinates. When you find it, you log your screename from the website on it and put it back. Some of them have little things in them that you can take and replace with something different.

So we started out very close to home with Geocache #1:

It took a while to find since it was our first try. We were ALL over that field lol, I could only imagine how strange it looked to anybody who might have seen us. This one was just a warm-up... you'll see as it goes on that we could have used a few more warm-ups lol.

He was so organized with this trip that he already had every destination we were going to entered in to our Garmin, so all he did was pick the next destination and we were on our way to Geocache #2!

He comes bearing gifts!

While we hunted through a corn field, down in a sink hole and across the ball field, we never found the cache :( Even with using the GPS on our phone we just could not pinpoint the coordinates and find any sign of the cache! We did find a snake... and 3 days later would reveal we found a lot of chiggers, too!

Oh yeah, and we did find a weird wrinkly tree trunk!

Anyway, at this stop is when I started getting little presents so even though both of us failed to find the cache I still got rewarded so-to-speak hehe! When we first started dating back in high school somehow we came in to an odd obsession with frogs. Usually on my birthday or another special occasion he would get me a frog stuffed animal. For this stop I got a frog Pillow Pet and another little adorable frog. I was thrilled! It was SO awesome, and right then I knew he was taking me on an adventure through our relationship, not just to our final destination!  

*heart slowly melting away*

On to Geocache #3! Mr. Garmin pointed the way and off we went. Sorry, no photos... and we didn't find this one either! We really worked hard on it, too. (We realized it had not been logged online as having been found for several months and we think, based on where the GPS coordinates hit, that it was probably washed away during some heavy rains we had earlier in the year. Bummer!)

Either way, I still got my gift and that is what counts! After high school we were super broke. We had no cable TV and any real form of entertainment so on pay days we would buy a board game of some sort. Over time we built quite the collection of Uno games, Pictionary, Boggle... So once we realized we were defeated by the cache we sat down at a picnic table in the park and played Scrabble Slam. It was amazing that he remembered those simple times in our life. I whooped his butt (as usual) but it was another memorable moment and I loved it!

FINALLY!

Geocache #4 was a success!! We found this one! But yeah, again we were so in to it that we didn't take pictures! Argh on me! It was hilarious though because we drove right past it by quite a distance not realizing it and then I ended up walking across a plowed corn field with the phone GPS back towards the cache. The farmer on the tractor stared at me haha. This is the one time in life my husband got away with driving while making me walk! For this cache he gave me a bag FULL of chewy Sprees... oooh how I love chewy Sprees! It was perfect, and made a great snack for weeks!

Lunch break!

You now get to witness what happens when two very hungry people wait nearly 30 minutes for Pizza Hut in Beaver Dam, KY to bring out your pizza... and this isn't even half of the distorted pictures we took! I'll spare you ;)

 

 Come what may...

I won't lie, Geocache #5 was the absolute most beautiful thing I've ever experienced. Coming from a man who is terrible at surprises and not the overwhelming romantic type (sorry baby, but I still love you just as you are!), he actually made not only ME cry, but HE cried too! You know a man is doing it right whenever he does something so sweet for you that he himself sheds some tears! We found #5 on a fairly secluded back road (yaya, we found another one!). Hubby then took me to the back of the van and let me open my gift. It was a ring box with ear buds in it. I figured I'd have to listen to something but never expected what happened next. I put one in my ear and he used the other, plugged them in to his phone and next thing I know we're on a country road DANCING to our first dance from the wedding reception! OHHHH MY!!!! We could have ended the trip right then and there and gone back home and I would have been the happiest woman on the planet... wait, I already was!!

Here is

~Our song~

Ok, ok.. that wasn't everything. Yes, the man who just danced with me on the side of the road has more! Back on the road with Garmin and I'm told we have 1 more Geocache stop before our destination! For Geocache #6 We get off at an exit off the highway and stopped on the overpass hunting for the cache. What a hoot... we're wandering up and down the bridge looking under rocks, in the grass, next to railing posts, walking across the roadway from one side to the other, you name it. Apparently we suck at this Geocache thing. But wait, I found it!! Yay me!  

Geocache - 2, Bryan&Lisa - 4!! We ROCK, just sayin'

 

My gift for this stop was a full body massage "coupon" that I could cash in whenever I want. I already cashed it in.. hmm, I need to find a way to duplicate that booger :p

On the road again

Back on the road we go to the final stop! Eeeeeee! That evening we end up in Henderson, KY. I'm slightly confused trying to figure out what on earth could possibly be in this city. My last gift?! Tickets to see Josh Turner in concert! Yayay!

Coincidentally he was having a concert the next day on the 10th within short driving distance from our house so hubby planned everything around that! I don't listen to a lot of mainstream music, mostly Country if I do have the radio on, and even then I'm really picky about what I'll listen to but Josh Turner is the exception. He is the one music artist we have in common to the same degree lol. What a way to round out day #1!

The next day we had several hours to kill from hotel check-out til the gates opened for the concert. We decided to go to the Evansville, IN Zoo which turned out to be the perfect filler. All I cared about was the giraffe! I really enjoyed the peaceful time we had together there knowing the concert would be loud and crowded. It was a beautiful lead-in to the night. With the clear sky over head and watching the beautiful storm clouds in the distance things just couldn't have been any better!

Overall it was the most amazing 2 days! My husband poured so much effort in to this to make it a meaningful and exciting surprise anniversary and it truly did mean the world to me. I STILL have butterflies thinking about it and wishing I could go back and do the whole thing all over again. The Lord truly has blessed me with him in my life! 

Thank you, Bryan, for everything you do for me!

The Zoo




The concert

5 years ago when I married my high school sweetheart :)




 Charity suffereth long, and is kind. Charity thinketh no evil, rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things...
Charity never faileth.
(1 Corinthians 13)

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