August Anniversary!

First morning light, first look, and first day of our lives together!

When August finally rolled around, butterflies started fluttering in my tummy! I remember counting the days... "only 8 more days, now 5 days, tomorrow"... until I woke up from a relatively sleepless night and thought, "It's TODAY!" We had a morning wedding for many reasons. Dustin and I love mornings! We love the peace that is present with the morning air and early light. We love a hearty breakfast that lasts all morning long. But most of all, we love seeing each other first thing with the new day! That was the last morning I would ever wake up to an extra pillow next to mine. From that day on, with my first morning sight, I would see a sleeping groom, the keeper of my heart! What a glorious day! What a beautiful covenantal union between God, man, and wife!

"Introducing to you, for the first time: Mr. and Mrs. Dustin Jernigan!"

We knew we were asking a lot from our guest, having the wedding start at 10:00 am. But we also knew that there was no better way to share our most special morning of love, with friends and family, over a hearty brunch! Also, being as frugal as we are, we knew eggs, grits, muffins, and fresh fruit would be both delicious and unlimited because of how inexpensive these tasty treats are! Who doesn't like cheese grits and wedding cake in the morning?! :)

To smoosh or not to smoosh cake in your face... that is the question, darling!

This year has definitely been full of many new and unfamiliar adventures! We were happily married, made a big move to a new town, started a unfamiliar "normal" job, HAD SWEET BABY JULIP, along with all the other expected experiences that come with marriage and starting our own family. (Just as a side note, fried eggs and mashed potatoes were the only items on my humble list of cooking expertise!)

At Over Easy on our honeymoon! We'd eat it everyday for the rest of our lives if we could!

To celebrate our anniversary, we started with breakfast, like our wedding, at our favorite breakfast place we've found in Alabama, Another Broken Egg. As we were indulging in our lobster omelet and fluffy beignets (you can't not get the beignets), the ever-so-generous manager topped off our coffee and told us breakfast was on the house... ON THE HOUSE! We were glad we ordered the lobster omelet after all... yummy!

This was our favorite breakfast on our honeymoon at our ALL TIME favorite (all organic, all local, all responsibly grown) breakfast joint, Over Easy, in Asheville, North Carolina! Yummy!

I would show you my full belly, but this picture is more tasteful (ha, get it?) and almost gone!

To continue our anniversary celebration, in the afternoon, we picked blueberries at a local farm, something we also did while on our honeymoon! It was rather toasty outside, but it was the last day of blueberry picking... we had to stock up! And I can officially report that Dustin and I are turning into blueberries from mass consumption! :)

Picking wild blueberries on our honeymoon at our favorite place on Earth- Max Patch in North Carolina.

Picking blueberries on the farm. Yes, same t-shirt, different color! :)

Now we have a baby blueberry! We shaded her and attached a fan to keep her cool for it was rather toasty!

I can tell you that this year has been the best year of my life!!! I never knew a love like this could exist. I still wake up, look over at that now occupied pillow next to mine and think, "Do I really get to wake up next to him every morning for the rest of my life?" Let me just say that God is a good!

With all the love in the universe,

the Jernigans, all three