In the weeks before our first anniversary, Mike and I had a little chat about what we wanted to do for gifts. We agreed we didn’t want to get into a present-oneupsmanship game that could spiral quickly out of control and decided that we would buy ourselves a joint gift each year, but I was a little stuck on what that joint gift should be. The vision I had was of a new vacuum cleaner, and I really didn’t want us to fall into the habit of giving ourselves something so mundane and unsentimental.

Then Mike had the idea: art. We would buy a piece of art for each anniversary. We would live with these pieces in our home and see them every day and remember where we bought them and which year of our marriage they commemorate. Buying art together also required us to acknowledge and honor each other’s aesthetic taste by looking for pieces we both loved.

Here’s our third anniversary art:

We bought it at A.T. Hun Gallery in Savannah, Georgia during our fall vacation. We saw several pieces there that we were interested in, and although we each liked this one at first, we bypassed it and continued to look around. Each of us kept coming back to it — it has surprising depth and a subtle sense of motion — and we finally realized that it was the piece.

It’s a bit of a made-up word, millediversary. In case your Latin’s a little rusty, diversary is like anniversary, but for days instead of years, which makes millediversary a celebration of 1000 days.

Mike and I kept a countdown to our wedding on the white board on our fridge in the months leading up to the big day. It was fun and all, but it didn’t even occur to me to start counting up after the wedding. Mike started and has been doing it ever since.

We’ve been married 1000 days today. I still think he’s awesome and sweet and fabulous, and couldn’t be happier. Bring on the next 1000!

Having your birthday while on vacation is pretty cool. (I need to make a point to do it more often.)

We got up really early and took a kayak tour with Ben Turner, owner and operator of Native Guide Tours. I had found him in the guide book put out by the Hilton Head Island visitors bureau, and based on the testimonials on his website, I was sure we would have a great time, and we sure did. Mike took this picture about two minutes after we’d started out into the May River:

Yup. That’s a dolphin. The May River doesn’t drain from freshwater creeks and streams; it’s actually an embayment fed by tidewater and rainfall. Its salinity level makes for a rich food web, and all sorts of sea creatures make their way into the area to feed (Ben called it their grocery store). This dolphin placidly surfaced and dove in front of us for a while, trolling for breakfast.

Our tour included high tide, and over the course of the 3+ hours we were on the water, we could see how it rose and fell.

Here we’re paddling right through the spartina — the abundant sea grass that shows up everywhere along the coast — at close to high tide. About an hour before this, with the water levels dropping, we had to find little channels between patches of what seemed like much taller spartina.

It was gloriously quiet, and I was so glad to be sharing this with Mike. One of the things I love best about him is that he’s patient enough to stand still and just watch for a while, because he knows he’ll see something cool eventually. And we sure did see a lot of cool somethings.

Finally, after a late second breakfast at the Squat ‘n’ Gobble (love that name!), we stopped by The French Bakery (which I had found on the web) and picked up the cake I had ordered for myself before we left.

It tasted absolutely as fabulous as it looks: four layers of white cake, filled with vanilla buttercream and apricot mousse, and iced with more buttercream. It was probably the best birthday cake I have ever had, and I wish I could get one from them every year.

Ooh! And Mike totally surprised me with his present: a very compact and lightweight cordless drill that has enough umph to drill into our hardwood window casings for hanging brackets, but won’t break my arm when I’m trying to use it holding it over my head. It’s fabulous! I don’t know that a lot of people would get too excited about such a gift, but it was so thoughtful: I know I complained out loud that his drill is too heavy, and he tucked that away and remembered it for me. All around, a fantastic birthday.

I couldn’t resist this shot of my dear husband and his cute kitty napping on the couch.

We spent a lovely hour and a half or so at the zoo yesterday before our traditional Sunday morning grocery outing. We’re members, and we like to go first thing, partly because it’s before the crowds show up, and partly because it’s before it starts to get hot out, which is good for us and for the animals.

We headed straight for the Rainforest, working our way backwards toward the Siamangs. Our zoo had a successful birth a couple of years ago, after which mom for some reason rejected her baby. So now it’s just Dad and little Tucker, now just over two. He’s looking more and more like a siamang these days — broader, more muscular shoulders, longer torso. He seems to play-fight with Dad a little less, but is starting to vocalize along with him in the mornings. He has this ridiculously cute little air sac under his chin, and makes little hoots that crack me up every time. We stayed to watch them for about 25 minutes, until the first of the crowds started to show up. It’s a good time.

It’s a turtle. I made it for Mike for his birthday. It isn’t necessarily that he likes turtles or anything. For some reason I started calling him turtle, as in, “Hi, Turtle, I’m home,” or, “You’re such a turtle.” And, clearly, I had to make him a turtle.

My wonderful husband came up with the best birthday present for me — a collection of nine gift certificates to local restaurants. Some are favorite places we go to frequently; others are places we’ve only tried once and have said we should try again. He even wrote little messages on each envelope that pertained to that restaurant. Fun!