One year

Today, is Sam's and my first anniversary. It doesn't seem like it could possibly have been a year ago that we were drinking mojitos and petting llamas with all our friends and loved ones. I'm told the anniversary gift for one year is paper, and I'm not sure where "electronic media" falls on the spectrum (perhaps in the future when paper no longer exists and we just upload all our thoughts to cloud servers), but I wanted to blog a little tribute to our first year together. My original goal, and one I will attempt to go forward with anyway, was to have a photo of the two of us together from each month of the past year. Unfortunately, what I realized is that we've apparently been very bad about joining the selfie craze. I have tons of pictures of things we've done and even more pictures of our cat sleeping, but very few of us together. This will definitely be something we'll have to work on in year two. As it is, by getting a bit creative (read: cheating) and lowering my allowance for what is considered a flattering photo, I think I've culled together enough photos to make an attempt.

So without further ado: Sam and Susan: A Year in Photos, Sort of

June, 2013. Chiang Mai, Thailand.

This first month was easy, picture-wise. We went on our honeymoon to Thailand and had many tour guides to take our photo. This particular photo was taken by a recent graduate of the University of Texas on a trip with his fellow frat guys. Interestingly they were in the Thai cooking class with us. I still haven't attempted to make my own curry paste since that day, but I do like this photo.

July, 2013. Fairfield, New Jersey. 

In July, we went to a hot air balloon festival with some friends (who are in fact getting married themselves in just a couple of weeks!). I realized that most of the pictures on here were taken by them. I guess if we want to have photos of ourselves together, we should hang out with them more. The photo above was taken sometime after we discovered the food truck selling only bacon but before the festival decided it was too windy to actually launch hot air balloons, which accounts for the naively carefree smiles on our faces.

August 2013. Camp site near Cape May, NJ. 

 In August, we went camping, or at least our version of camping (sleeping in a rustic cabin). We went with the same friends who took us to the balloon festival, thus explaining this photographic evidence. I think I've finally gotten the campfire smell out of that shirt.

September 2013. Fort Tyron Park.

There's nothing about this picture I don't like. The way the flowers match both of our dresses. Sam's glee at holding a stuffed monkey. The fact that we're all smiling at different cameras, but all look legitimately happy. Originally I'd hope to find 12 photos of just us, but I threw that out the window to allow this one. We have such lovely friends after all, and we all clean up so nice.

October 2014. Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington DC.

This is the point of the photo-searching that I started to be okay with photos that weren't too flattering. This was taken after walking a half mile in 90 degree weather (a crazy warm spell in October) to get some chili. Photo credit to my sister for this one. I don't blame her for making us look so bedraggled. For that I can only blame DC and also our insistence on walking because we were too cheap to pay for the metro.

November 2013. Central Park

Believe it or not, this photo represents our attempt to take more photos of ourselves. This is our sad recreation of our engagement photos from the year before. This may be taken at the same location and around the same time of year, but it's safe to say that left to our own devices and without a professional photographer on hand, we don't look quite as good.

December 2013. Tenafly, NJ

Sadly by this point, I pretty much gave up on finding a photo featuring us both. December, when we had so many family members around, and I have plenty of pictures of everyone else, there was not a single one of the two of us together. I do have a justification for the photo above though. While it appears only Sam is in it (and I was in fact behind the camera/phone), in this picture he is making banana fritters on Christmas morning. Since making banana fritters on Christmas morning is such an integral part of my identity as a Meyer, it is almost as if I am in the photo.

December 2014. Tenafly, NJ.

UPDATE: Received a photo from my Dad that has both of us in it! The photo above is from the day after Christmas. It not only features Sam and I, but also 75% of our parents and 50% of our siblings.

January 2014. Brooklyn.

 Remember that time we had a baby? Actually, this is a photo of us with our friends 'daughter. But another good way to get photos together is to hang out with other people's babies and wait to get caught in the photographic crossfire. We saw this little tyke last night and she's grown so much in the last 6 months. Bigger, yes, but also somehow even cuter.

February 2014. From Sam's mind. 

 Is this one also a cheat? February was yet another month when my photo documentation was found wanting. I have a bunch of Sam, but none with me. Still, Sam drew this last February because we were furiously getting our card business off the ground. This is the drawing of our little family that appears on our web site. I think Sam looks more boyish, I like more mom-like, and Dinah looks much thinner than our real life counterparts.

March 2014. Catskills. 

March 2014. Catskills.

So continues the lack of photos together in the spring. I blame the fact that it was cold and snowy for most of February and March, thus limiting photo opportunities outside (and who wants to take photos inside with unflattering artificial lighting?). My cheat for the month of March is to include two photos from the same ice climbing outing. If I wanted to further justify my photo choices, I might make some sort of convoluted and yet somehow simultaneously cliche metaphor about how marriage is like climbing an ice floe. But all I really have to say is how I feel really cold looking at these photos, and I'm glad it's finally summer. Also, we were on this trip with a bunch of perfectly nice people who totally would have taken our photo together with a beautiful mountainous backdrop, if only we'd thought to ask them.

April 2014. But in reality not even close to April 2014. Governor's Island.

The photos above and below are not from April 2014. That is the greatest cheat of all. I have no idea when these photos were taken (although I know I could verify on my blog). It was definitely sometime last summer and very likely June. What can I say? I like these shots from the Jazz Age Lawn Party and also I didn't have any pictures from April. Incidentally, these were taken by the couple we went to the hot air balloon festival and camping trip with.

April 2014. But in reality not even close to April 2014. Governor's Island.

And that brings us to May, and in fact today. Proving that in blogging, as in marriage, and as in life, I am capable of learning from my past mistakes, we made sure to get a photo together on our anniversary. We went out to Baked in Red Hook, the bakery that had made the delicious cakes for our wedding last year. Since we aren't the types to take up space in our freezer with cake for a whole year (nor the types to eat dried out, year-old cake), we thought it would be nicer to just get a fresh cupcake. And get a fresh cupcake, we did!

May, 2014. Red Hook, Brooklyn

It has truly been a wonderful year. I feel like the time has flown by, but at the same time so much has happened. We've traveled halfway around the world. Started our own business. Continued to obsess about our cat. It's been a wonderful year, and I can't wait to enjoy (and hopefully document better) all the wonderful years to come!