Today was our technical anniversary, but since there was a leap year, it pushed our actual anniversary back a day. Before coming here to the Downtown Market, we saw a movie, and we would soon be heading out to the place we first started.

We were loaded with laughter. Enough to make the ice cream drool out of my mouth, and Alec, knowing me well enough not to care. I kept on trying to take cute “in the moment” happy pictures, but every time I’d try, he’d take my phone and drown it into his pocket and say, “We have a designated picture time!” This came as a shock to me because you have to understand that Alec hates pictures, and for him to say we have a specific time for them, blows my socks off. We were just about the last ones to leave, the cleaning lady was even waiting to clean off our table. His mom came as our chauffeur and soon dropped us off at our next destination.

We walked up the steep hill that we had been on 365 days ago to watch the sun go down together. It was such a cute throwback being able to stand in the same spots as we had a year ago. After a few minutes of catching up on our memories, and seeing downtown in the distance, Alec realized we had nobody able to take pictures for us. But who needs somebody when you have something!

I looked around and all there was, was a few trees, and this little bush that was about the height of my waist. I took his phone and balanced it on a few branches on the little delicate bush, having to wrap some branches around and find the position so it would both balance and focus on us.

Alec kept saying, “What should we do next?” Or “I have an idea!!” Let me tell you, when a guy that hates pictures  was now throwing out ideas, it was like a miracle had hit; I’d call it the One Year Miracle! The real challenge began when Al’s phone thought I was no longer human because I was so cold I was becoming unable to push the “take picture” button. I kept making his phone fall deeper into the miniscule bush. It was rough but we got some cute pictures out of it.

As we had before, we laid down to watch the stars start to appear again. We shook together as our hands turned deeper shades of purple. I knew a tradition had begun when he started taking off his jacket to wrap around me, just as he had done 365 days ago.

We sent a text saying we were ready to warm up, and we began making our way down the steep hill. Holding onto his hand and along with memories I will never let go, we saw the headlights of his mom’s car begin to appear.