Dear Us, 10 Years Ago

Joe and I celebrate our tenth anniversary today. We were both established in our jobs but still pretty clueless about a lot of things in life. I often think about those two crazy kids, in love and determined to make the best life for themselves. Sometimes, I wish I could go back and tell them a few things, but then again, its much more fun to figure them out on your own.

Dear us, ten years ago,

Today you will say I do. You will probably never feel more beautiful then you do today. Cherish the moments with your family. Dance on that table at the reception! You wont remember much of the day....its just too exciting. I remember when you said you didn't want a videographer because you wanted to remember it a certain way in your head and who watches those silly wedding videos anyway? Get someone to videotape! Look around at all the people who are there to love and support you. Some of them won't be around 10 years from now...whether due to death or friendships lost or a falling out between family members. Enjoy every minute!

All those people standing beside you? You'll grow closer to some of them. The opposite will have with a few too. That's ok. Everyones on their own journey living their own life and you will see that the most important people will still be in your lives 10 years from now.

You are going to have so much fun making a home together and trying to figure out all the stuff: how to decorate the christmas tree, having opposite work schedules, who is in charge of the bills, who does that yard work. This is part of creating a family unit. It will be hard some days. Just because it is "how we did it at my house" doesn't mean that is how it needs to be now. Compromise and make your own traditions. Remember when you were asking your mom about how to obtain accessories for the house? Ha! She told you would collect them over time and boy was she right. Be happy that you both have the same taste when it comes to home decor.

Embrace the simple days. Life gets crazier down the road. Death, friends getting divorced, job changes...its all going to happen. Prepare! One day you will be so busy with life and babies and you will long for the days when the biggest decision you had to make was Pottery Barn or Restoration Hardware.

Enjoy your first house together. It will be the place where you have parties, create memories and bring your sweet baby home from the hospital too.

Enjoy moving to a bigger house. I know you are sad to be leaving your first home, but think of all the memories you will make in the new house.

Travel, travel, travel.....as much as you can. Go on adventures and don't think twice about spending money when it comes to this. It's so very important!!

There will be days where you are angry and hurt at each other. You’ll make a promise together to never go to bed angry, and you’ll keep that promise even on nights when you’d rather face the wall silently crying. Make sure to keep the lines of communication open. You’ll learn that you’re much stronger together, on the same page. You both have strong wills, let them work for you, or you’ll let them work against you.

 You'll teach each other many things over the years. You will grow up together, you will have babies and become parents together, you will love each other fiercely. Make sure you don't forget to put each other first. Make God the center of your marriage. 

It won’t always be perfect, but I can say with confidence, you’ll love to learn from and embrace those times.

You’ll write this letter to yourself, with a smile on your face as you think about those past ten years and look forward to the next ten years.

Be careful with each other. Let go of things quickly. Apologize when you mess things up. Support and encourage each other. Above all, love each other well.

Love,

us, ten years later

P.S- Take a look, it’s a beautiful life…

Walking Dead Weekend

Joe and I just returned from a fabulous weekend in Atlanta. We decided to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary by doing the Walking Dead Tours. We used Atlanta Movie Tours and we were VERY pleased with them. We met at the Atlanta Movie Tour office bright and early at 9:30 am. We were signed up for two tours. This one was the Big Zombie Tour. Our guide, Michael, has been a walker several times on the show, so he was able to share lots of secrets and answer questions.  Here is a picture of him as a Zombie. 

We loaded up on an air conditioned tour bus and we were off!

We stopped at so many places. Most allowed us to get off the bus to take pictures. So...in no particular order, I'm going to share pictures from our morning tour. I tried to also include a picture to show the scene in the show. 

When Rick rides into ATL on his horse.  

This is also the roof where Merle was handcuffed.

Right up there!

The alley where Glen and Rick escape the walkers. 

And where the tank was parked.

This is where they backed up the van to save everyone!

This is the department store where they were trapped.

Terminus

This is a place called the Goat Farm. Its basically an artists commune. This is where the Vatos goat farm was. They also filmed part of Hunger Games here. This was district 12. 

I got a piece of coal left over from filming Hunger Games!

This is the hospital where Rick wakes up.

This is the bridge where you see Rick ride into Atlanta on a horse. 

This is the CDC. Its actually a performing arts center.

 This building served as the King County Sheriffs Dept. where Rick worked and where he returns to get his uniform and guns. 

And this is the side of it where Rick says goodbye to Morgan and his son.

When the tour was over, we loaded up in the car and drove to Senoia, GA for Big Zombie Tour 2. This was also done by Atlanta Movie Tours. 

Here are some of the stops from Zombie Tour 2.

This is the house where Rick and Carl hid out. 

This is obviously the house where Carl eats pudding.

This is the street where Morgan had all the birdcages and walker traps set up. 

His apartment is right here and we had keys to go in. The guy that owns it took pictures before the walking dead people took it down so he could recreate parts of it.

This is on the street in Senoia.

This is the bar where Hershall fell off the wagon.

This is the Walker Fight Club arena in Woodbury. 

These are the stairs Michonne comes down when she discovers what is going on.

The town of "Woodbury" is actually the town of Senoia.

I saw the trailers where all of the actors hang between filming.

The town of Alexandria (see the walls!?) is where they are currently filming. Its actually a neighborhood in Senoia that they have blocked off. We were told that there are actually 4 houses that are occupied inside by normal families. How crazy would that be?!

Here are the gates to "Alexandria".

This is the area where Daryl kills Merle.

This is the barn where Rick and the Govener meet up.

They even have a table and glasses set up!

This is from the opening sequence.

This is a seedy motel where Michonne takes out a walker and stomps his head (our guide Michael!)

 

This is the wall that Rick gets thrown through.

This is the field you see in the opening credits that has a lone walker going through it.

There were a lot more spots too...just didn't want to totally overload you. If you are a Walking Dead fan, you would LOVE this tour!!

We were so tired after a day of touring so we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Antico's Pizza and some chocolate cake at Cafe Intermezzo. 

The morning we left we hit up brunch at The Treehouse in Buckhead. 

I had the most delicious waffle that I think I can recreate at home. Its a Georgia Pecan Waffle complete with whipped cream and maple syrup....so yummy!

If you have any questions, please let me know!!