Fourthiversary Fun!

Although Jason and I were pretty bummed to come back to California after our week in Michigan, we turned our frowns upside down in time for the long Fourth of July weekend and our anniversary--our Fourthiversary. This year we had more than just fireworks to look forward to--we had NKOTBSB tickets!

We drove up to San Jose on Saturday afternoon and got settled into our room at the Hilton before heading to dinner at a local pizza place. I picked it specifically because this place offers Daiya vegan cheese. It was so good that we got another one to stash in our room for a post-concert snack.


A short taxi ride took us from our hotel to the HP Pavilion, where the fangirls were milling about in giant hordes. We made our way through the long door and beer lines and made the ascent to our nosebleed seats. I wish I would have been able to get better ones, but by the time I was sure that we'd be able to go to this concert, the upper deck seats were the only ones left.

Jason wasn't super-thrilled to be there, so he was in and out of the arena the whole concert long, but I was beyond psyched and totally transfixed the whole performance. The New Kids have been my loves since the tender age of 7, and I was known to enjoy some Backstreet Boys in high school. The two groups mostly took turns singing their own songs, but they did collaborate a few times, which was pretty mind-blowing. My camera died halfway through the show, just as Donnie Wahlberg began tearing off all of his clothes. You'll have to take my word for it that you could wash your clothes on those abs.


We got up on Sunday morning in time to enjoy the delicious breakfast buffet. Seriously, Hiltons have the best breakfast/brunch! It was a beautiful day in San Jose and we didn't want to go home yet, so we went to the Tech Museum (where Jason considered a career change) and the San Jose Museum of Art, then walked around downtown San Jose until I realized that my wedding day sunburn was getting its own sunburn.


On Monday we celebrated Fourthiversary day one with a quiet cookout food dinner at home--veggie dogs, homemade baked beans, homemade jalapeno cornbread, and strawberry shortcake for dessert. We watched the base fireworks from our friends' driveway while sipping moscato from Jason's special anniversary gift--pewter-stemmed wine glasses that he brought home all the way from the Royal Selangor pewter factory in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which he visited during his deployment. They are seriously one of my favorite gifts ever!


Although we consider July 4 to be our anniversary because it's the day we met (in 2005), we were actually legally married at court on July 5, 2006 (since it was closed the day before). It works out great--we just get to celebrate even more! On Fourthiversary day two we had another quiet day at home, and I taught my city-boy husband how to shuck corn, which he had never done before. I laughed and laughed about that discovery. It's the little things, people.