Buon Anniversario! Auguri!

This is a story about a boy who looked quite a lot like Gilligan -- if only for fun.  He dated a girl who -- if only for fun -- once wore a lot of neon clothing.

Okay, pick your jaw up from the floor.  Check yourself for broken ribs; you were laughing really hard.  That's us on our first "official" date...Halloween 2001.

Well, time came and went.  Memories were made.  Then came October 2003.  (Sadly, upon writing this I have no digital copies of our wedding pictures.  Trust me they were gorgeous and are in my album stored away for eternity.)  The boy no longer looked like Gilligan.  He looked like a happy honeymooner.  And the girl had shiny new hardware on her left hand.  Nevermind the fact that she looked slightly like an oompa-loompa in this picture. Geez, sunscreen please!

Yep, we got married October 4, 2003 and honeymooned aboard the Carnival Holiday.  Our little slice of cake there says it all "Happy Honeymoon".

Years passed by.  The man and wife loved each other deeply.  Granted there were times he felt like climbing the walls...

...but they were truly happy.  In fact, they lived happily ever after!  Isn't that always the trite ending to the big fairytale build-up?

Hahaha, okay seriously.  You could say October is kind of a big deal in the Morris household.  We fell in love, married, honeymooned, and now celebrate every October.  On our first anniversary, a new restaurant was opening in town.  Let me digress a bit.

I don't know if it is because of my heritage or because I have working taste buds, but I could eat Italian food daily. Every. Single. Day!

Back to the point.  In the fall of 2004 a new restaurant opened in town.

Johnny Carino's Country Italian.  We decided to celebrate our 1st anniversary there.  We had a fabulous dinner.  We went home and ate freezer-burned year-old wedding cake and had an all-around wonderful night.  So much so, that we decided to go there in October 2005 and in October 2006 while our new baby Rob was about 7 weeks old.  We went in October 2007 and liked it so much that October 2008 we returned.  Unfortunately in October 2009 I was very pregnant with our sweet baby Caroline, so I could not enjoy a celebratory glass of wine.

On Sunday night the Morris family of four decided to celebrate our anniversary together.  Another first.  Ohmigosh we had wonderful food tonight.  Rob's bowl of spaghetti was bigger than his head!

Caroline noshed on crayons, but that's okay because she was so well behaved (for the most-part) that we didn't care so long as she didn't choke.

We had a lovely dinner!  Rob was our post-meal photographer.  It's okay.  You know what Bobby's hair looks like, anyway.

There.  That's better.  Oh and one other thing...I said that October is kind of a big deal in the Morris household.  Well, October is also a big deal for college football teams and college football is, of course, a big deal for the Morrises.  Upon the Saturday return from our honeymoon, we drove straight to Tuscaloosa and watched the Tide beat Southern Miss 17-3.

In keeping with our October tradition, we celebrated our anniversary with a little Alabama Football victory. This time the stakes were higher!  On Saturday October 2nd we watched the Tide beat #7 Florida Gators 31-6!!!  More on that later.  Stay tuned...

So, Buon Anniversario!  That's Italian for Happy Anniversary.  I've been married to the man of my dreams for 7 years and counting.  But for now my garlic-breath self is signing off.

'Til then, bye!~