One Year of Marriage

This weekend Greg and I celebrated our first anniversary! Our anniversary was March 1st, but we decided to celebrate this weekend so we could go camping with our friends last weekend.

I saw on Lynn's blog this adorable Bed & Breakfast that she and Ben stayed in, so I got the information from her and we booked a night there. It is perfect because it is so close - in Richmond Texas, but it is a great relaxing get-a-way. We went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory Friday evening. We stuffed ourselves with delicious food and then got some cheesecake to take back to the B&B. The innkeepers were really friendly and gave us the history of the house, and took time to show us each room (all with different themes) and all the changes they have made to the house. The husband is the ultimate super handy man. He did so much remodeling to the house - knocking out walls, putting in bathrooms, it was awesome. The wife went to culinary school and was also a pastry chef and former cake maker. She made us a delicious breakfast in the morning. Also, one of my favorite parts of this Bed & Breakfast was the animals. I love all animals so I was thrilled to see the grounds teaming with chickens, ducks, geese, and a bunny.

The geese weren't the friendliest, but still cute. This one tried to eat Greg.

Here is the cadbury bunny.

Check out this little guy. His name is Stormy, and he is friendly and likes to be held.

Here is the Great Oaks Manor. There are six different rooms to stay in. We stayed in "A Night in Paris". It was really cute.

We had a great time celebrating and reflecting on our first year of marriage. We thought about how we were feeling 1 year ago - so much anticipation and excitement for the wedding. Then we talked about the year and went month by month remembering the highlights of the things we did together. Praise God for a great first year!

Bed Making Prodigy

Every morning in the Mattern household the bed gets made...by Greg.

One would think this to be a mundane, monotonous task. Not for Greg. How many ways can you think of to make the bed? Greg can think of 346. I will give you a sampling below. And these are just a few!! Believe it or not he is constantly surprising me with new creations all the time. It's like a surprise party every morning.

Style #12: Simply Classic


Style #27: Geometric Jungle



Style #101: Sassy Stackers

Style #133: Vertical Vintage

Style #317: Modern Masterpiece

First Camping Attempt

This weekend Greg and I had our first camping experience together. Our Bible study group had been talking about a camping trip for months and months, and we finally got to go. One of the guys planned it all out, reserved our campsites, and gave us all the info we needed, including packing suggestions and available activities. There were about 8 or so couples who went, which made it a lot of fun.

However, 2 days before we leave to go camping Greg and I realize....

We don't have a tent.

Or an ice chest for food.

Or any of those fold up campy chairs to sit in by the fire.

What are we thinking? Why didn't we think through this? We are not exactly what you call professional campers. Well Greg could be. He doesn't really need anything. He would be ok sleeping on the ground, with a beef jerky stick, a bottle of water and a fishing pole. Not me. I packed enough layers to survive a week in the arctic.

Anyway, we have great friends who let us borrow all the supplies we needed to go camping. We got there just in time to set up our tent before the sun went down on Friday. We ate dinner around the fire, and sat around for hours just talking with the other couples. It was a really nice night. There was a short passing rain shower that sent us all running for our tents, but it didn't last long. Then we headed to bed for the night. And it actually got kind of chilly that night. I ended up sleeping in my hoodie.

Saturday morning we went fishing with another couple after breakfast. Greg was the only one who caught a fish that morning. It was pretty cold and windy, but was shaping up to be a pretty day. I ended up getting sick that morning, and we had to cut our trip short. We were planning on staying Saturday night too, but had to drive back to Houston. It ended up getting so cold that night; down in the 30s! I am not sure if I would have survived had we stayed. But we had a great time while we were there.

Here is Molly and her husband "Ranger Robby" who set the whole thing up. We call them Robby and Molly Camperson. Look how professional they are. They have headlamps! And they are eating deer sausage!

And here are the Doschs who let us borrow their enormous tent and helped us set it up.