We have all seen these cute pictures on Pinterest, and you say "Hey! Super awesome fun idea, we would have no trouble taking these!" I am here to prove that wrong, like we have done before. Sometimes the picture we are expecting is far from the reality of the situation. Here is my (lengthy) tale:
This last March my husband and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary, to do so we decided to go on a cruise to the Carribbean! Woot! Awesome right?! Well we were super excited for the whole adventure... minus the 15 hour layover we had from the time we got to our port city, till we could board our ship. We had originally planned to get a hotel and stay the night, but we would get in at like three-ish (in the morning),and then have to check out at ten, which kinda stinks because that's a lot of money for a few hours of sleep, and come to find out a lot of hotels won't let you do that. Lame sauce. So we decide to sleep in the airport. For anyone who has ever slept in an airport, (I am hearing a resounding" DON'T DO IT!!!!!" from some of those readers right now...) it isn't a pleasant experience.
For a little background on the sleeping in the airport experience we had here is this little gem: The year before this we went to Alaska to visit my sister who lives in a tiny village named Kaktovic. Kaktovic happens to be in the arctic circle at pretty much the northernmost part of United States. We ended up sleeping in the airport after about 18 hours or so of plane hoping, three or four different airports, and it just kept getting colder...(did I mention we went in December !). Anyways, the point of all that was that we have done the whole airport sleeping thing, and it's pretty much my least favorite thing in the world, right next to sharks, onions, and opening biscuit cans. Don't judge.
So we get off the plane at our port city, and we both know it's going to be a hellava night, we decide to try to call a cab and get a hotel for even a few hours sleep at this point ( 3 A.M. remember?). So we call I kid you not no less than 23 hotels, all of which say we don't take customers at this point or we are full or we are $500 a night all we have left are executive suites. After paying for all the extravagances of a cruise $500 dollars for 6-ish hours of sleep just wasn't going to happen (even if we hadn't done the cruise, that's a lot of money for a college couple to spend on a hotel, but it is especially a lot when they have scrimped and scraped for a cruise for over a year).
We decide to call it a night and sleep on the floor of the airport. Yes the floor.
We did find a bench, however it had those metal armrests about every two feet and seeing as neither of us are toddler size , climbing through them to at least lay down wasn't an option.
By this time it is the day of our anniversary .Woot! Only by this time we are beyond exhausted, just spent over an hour on the phone with every hotel within a 45 minute radius and we now have to sleep on the floor and change in the family restroom...Happy anniversary sweety!
What is the point of all of this you ask?! (" Why am I still reading this?! Get on with it already!) For this picture:
The Original
Notice how happy, rested, clean, rested, fed and did I mention rested they are?! P.S. They have theirs framed, it's a nice touch.
Anyways, a lovely idea to commemorate where you were for your anniversary and what you were doing. We gave it a go, and well Chip had the bright idea to do it right before we tried to "sleep"...did I mention we slept next to a homeless lady and a guy in a thong? Well we did.
Here is our less than perfect but definitely US anniversary photo...
The Pinstrosity
A few points to recognize here:
-My llama face, the one I do when I am just NOT having it. (Note to self, stop making that face, it's not attractive).
-Chip in his ninja turtles PJ's
-Custodian who is waxing the floor behind us, try sleeping with that. Boo.
-Also my blonde hair phase, that deserves another negative note to self.
-Can you tell we are tired?
So we looked at the first one we took and tried to look at least a little bit like we were enjoying the adventure, here is what we got:
Not as bad, but if you knew us you would know we I look exhausted lol.
Moral of the story, your photo doesn't have to look perfect to help you remember what you were doing and where you were. I took one look at these this morning and laughed, it's funny now, it wan't then but in all honesty I had long forgotten about that awful 24 hours in lieu of how wonderful the time with my man was, and what an awesome adventure the rest of the week was. In case you were wondering, we will be using the first photo in our anniversary picture next year, because well, it tells way more of a story than the second, and I look like a llama. And who doesn't like a llama wife?!
Happy long winded Wednesdsay Pinstrosipeeps!
This.
ReplyDeleteIs.
Awesome.
I really enjoyed reading this post.
Thank you.
PS: I have not yet seen this idea. I wish I had heard of it when I got married, our photo would have been awesome (and hard to decipher, I imagine, with the originals getting smaller and smaller) as we celebrated 20 years in August.
OMG--they could do a third "layer" of photo on their 20th! holding the picture they took on their first.
DeleteI love your pictures, it doesn't always have to be perfect to be memorable. I love it!
ReplyDeleteI have been thinking of doing this for my daughter's first birthday and then again each year. I just can't decide if I want to have us holding the first pic of us as a family right after my csection or not.
I saw this idea and decided to do it with my kiddos on their birthdays, each year holding the previous years snapshot.
ReplyDeleteI'd say the same thing here I said about cake-strosities earlier: Do your own thing and to heck with everyone else.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you look a whole lot better than I would after a trip like that. I don't have pictures of myself after the travel fiasco that took me from the U.S. to Tanzania via the Netherlands, but I guarantee you that it would be the homeless lady and the guy in the thong who would be complaining about the types of people who sleep in airports.
I love the fact that you're using the first picture for the rest of your set. Talk about memories flooding back - how fun!
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd seen this idea 6 years ago! I guess it's too late to start now. :(
...so is this the part where we quote from the movie, The Emperor's New Groove, and say "WAAHAHAAAHA! Llama-face!"
ReplyDeleteNo, seriously, cute even if you were tired! :D
your llama face is adorable. One of my best friends from high school used to make that same face. :D You look excited and fun in the second photo, nice job faking it.
ReplyDeleteAs an avid traveler, I actually love your funny airport photo! Very memorable and fun.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the most memorable photos are the ones where you don't look your best, e.g. a group photo taken in Machu Picchu after a 4-day hike through the Andes at high altitude.
ReplyDeleteBesides, the original pin also had a "crazy" first photo. Makes the concept a lot less corny.
Actually, I think this is great. To think that every year of marriage you'll be in a bright wonderful place on your anniversary is nutty. I think you'll be able to look back and laugh at this and remember what crazy kids you were. I think it's a pin win!
ReplyDeleteI HATE OPENING BISCUIT CANS TOO!!!
ReplyDeleteBut on the topic, I think this is really cute. And real. Great story!
I don't care what you say, those pictures are adorable! :-)
ReplyDeleteI think you guys look awesome still. But at least trying to do something together with your partner is better than nothing at all. I love taking pictures whenever I have a chance with my bf as well so I think we'll have to try to do this soon. =] Still in love with your blog. I think it's one of my favorite blogs that I keep am coming back for more.
ReplyDeleteHa! I just saw you on BuzzFeed. You guys are amazing!
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