(A couple of weeks late...)

One year. We have been married an entire year. What a year it has been! Since I haven't been doing a lot of blogging, here are some highlights from our first year (mostly in order):

• Our honeymoon in Aruba.  Nine days of paradise...so wonderful.

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• A new job for Ahmed (an answer to prayer). 

• A Great Gatsby Halloween party with friends.

• Many weekends and holidays spent with wonderful family and friends.

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• Our first New Year's Eve as husband and wife was spent at home, with both of us recovering from the stomach flu.  Maybe not a highlight, but definitely memorable :)

• A weekend in Sioux Falls in January with my family to celebrate my Mom's 50th birthday. We went bowling and to an indoor trampoline park.

• A warm weather get-away to Florida in March. A much needed break from an especially harsh winter.

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• A spontaneous trip to Minneapolis to see Twenty One Pilots in concert in the middle of the week in April. We had never heard of them, but it turned out to be a great concert.

• A weekend in June with Ahmed's family that included a trip to the Omaha Zoo.

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• A weekend June in Rochester that included a visit from my brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and  niece. My brother and I went skydiving for Autism awareness.

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• We scored tickets to the free MLB All-Star concert featuring Imagine Dragons in July.  It was a really fun show followed by an impressive fireworks display.

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• A weekend get-away in July at the most adorable Bed and Breakfast in Duluth, along with some exploring of the North Shore.

• A long weekend in August at a cabin in Yankton, SD with my family. We had a few relaxing days on the beach. (And I took ZERO pictures, oops!)

• Our annual weekend o' fun in Yankton, SD in August with some of my friends from high school.

• Kayaking down the Zumbro River on Labor Day.

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• MANY lovely dinners and brunches with just the two of us (both at home and out and about).

• To wrap up our first year together, we made a celebratory epic trip to NYC where we saw Wicked, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (which included Seth Rogan, James Franco jumping topless out of a cake, James Spader, and freaking Stevie Wonder- AMAZING!), Central Park, Top of the Rock, Empire State Building Observation Deck, the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial, Times Square, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Central Perk 20th anniversary Friends pop-up, and anything we could fit in between. (More pictures coming soon, I’m still working on them.)  

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Wow, we made a lot of really great memories in our first year! We are so fortunate. We of course have our ups and downs like anyone else, but I love being married and having Ahmed by my side every day. I can't wait to spend many more years with my amazing husband. He is supportive, patient, affectionate, loving, thoughtful, helpful, and of course he's still a big dork :).

I love you, Ahmed! 
**Update: several hours after I posted this, I realized I forgot one!  So I added our weekend in Duluth to the list.  So many great things!