1 yEaR aNNivErSarY

Although today isn't our 1 year anniversary, it was a good long holiday weekend here so i'm just now sitting down to write. Saturday was our anniversary, June 11th. The year flew by so so so fast. I can't believe it's been a year since we said our vows in front of all our family and friends, then had a huge gorgeous reception and an after party!! Darin and I always hear from people who have been married for so long that the first year or years are the hardest, I don't think so in our case. If we lived in Orlando, maybe it would of been different but our lives drastically changed when Darin moved to the caribbean and then after the wedding I moved to be with him. We really only have each other here which I think really makes us appreciate the other. We spend a lot of time together and never really argue, disagree maybe with things around the house, but nothing ever escalates. I think dating for 4 years helped us really know each other, our good traits and our faults. Even before we were married certain things made me crazy that Darin did and they still make me crazy, but I married him knowing that's part of his faults and regardless, I made the decision to love him no matter what. Nobody is perfect so you need to love every part of someone to really make it real and last.

1 yr Anniversary

We spent our anniversary at a place called A Stone's Throw Away. This place we found on accident when Alan was here. He was going shark diving and had to be picked up by the bus at a location he picked. He thought "a stone's throw away" was literally that far from the shark dive lol. So when I dropped him off to be picked up by the bus is when we realized it was no where near the shark dive, but the place was VERY cool and we went in and looked around. Since then i've been telling Darin we should go watch the sunset there, it's really high up on the rocks, and would be a perfect sunset location!! So finally we go on Saturday, there were to many clouds to really get a good sunset but the place is so great. It's so quaint and quiet, some modern patio furniture, couches, candle light, draps hanging, just a really good romantic wine night spot. We laid back in the couch, had a few drinks, talked about our life, our future, our friends, our bucket list, kids, everything. It was a perfect night with the perfect weather and the perfect guy.

a little candle light, wine & dessert (raspberry tart w/ almonds)

Another thing we did Saturday during the day was get scuba dive certified. We have been wanting to do this since forever!! Especially since we live on an island, we figure that it's something we need to do in order to fully get the experience of this life we have together. We had a private session with someone Darin knows here. We did some pool diving and then went out to the beach and walked in with our gear on. The hardest thing for me was clearing my mask. Darin keeps saying how easy it is and to just hold your breath then flip your mask up and blow through your nose. The dive book says to continuously breath and to never hold your breath. I could imagine how easy it is if you could hold your breath, but I kept trying to breath while clearing my mask. I gagged a couple of times and freaked out a little, but finally did it!! I think holding your breath for 1 second will be ok and i'll just do what Darin did next time I need to clear my mask. So we're now PADI scuba certified!! HOORAY!!!


We also went to the beach on Sunday and brought Remie. It was her first time at the beach since we had to wait for all 3 of her shots before she could go. Darin brought her in and she swam right away. She was scared but did really well. As the day went on she would chase us in the water, swim to us, go after her toy, walk around on the rocks and look for sea glass with me, paw at crawling crabs and looked like she really enjoyed it!! Thank goodness she liked the water, if she wasn't a beach dog I don't know how she would fit into our family. We're trying to bring her more than just once a week so she gets used to us going and knows that's something the Doty family does. Eventually maybe she'll go paddle boarding with me, that would be cool!

break time

Darin and Remie

And here's a video of Remie swimming the first time!! She's so cute and small haha!! We <3 her!