Last weekend marked Collin and my four year anniversary. As cliche as it sounds, the time has literally flown by. My favorite parts have been the laughter, smiles, hugs, kisses, and fantastic memories that we have made.

We decided to drive down to Collin's parents lake house that they graciously loaned us for the weekend. An entire lake house, all to ourselves, all weekend long! Gorgeous views and beautiful weather were too good to pass up. We packed up Friday night and headed to the lake. But, I am getting ahead of myself, let's start with Friday night. After work I wanted to head to dinner somewhere fun, relaxing, and I was craving pizza. We decided to head downtown to Mr. G's Pizzeria. Every first Friday of the month downtown Bryan hosts 'First Fridays.' There are art galleries open late, restaurants, shopping, and music drifting out of every alley and doorway from rhythm and blues to rock 'n' roll. I snapped a few pictures of an amazing jazz band playing outside Mr. G's.

We ordered our pizza and waited patiently for it to cook in the wood-fire stove. All of a sudden, the music gets louder, and a belly dancer appears out of no where. And, I'm no belly dancing expert but she was pretty good. Everyone was a bit shocked, to be honest, that there was a belly dancer at their local pizza parlor but I thought it was fantastic! Collin and I danced in our seats to the music and enjoyed the show. After stuffing ourselves full of half a supreme pizza we took a stroll around downtown and popped into a new gelato store for a quick treat. They recently started serving gelato in The Chocolate Gallery. They sell chocolate so pretty it could be considered art and even offer classes. They have a huge wrap around window where you can watch the chocolatiers at work. I felt like I was in Willy Wonka's Factory, without the umpa loompas. We both decided to get the bourbon caramel gelato which was rich, creamy, and utterly delicious. We stepped outside to snap a few pictures all the while the gelato was running down my hand. Not the most elegant of desserts but oh so good.

Our gelato finished and our fingers sticky with caramel we headed back to the car. We packed up the car at home, loaded Gwen in the back. and headed down to the lake house. We arrived late but the stars were sparkling and the moon was out which bathed the lake in a eerily beautiful glow. Saturday morning we woke to sunlight streaming in our bedroom. I love waking up to the views of the lake, calm and inviting. We sipped coffee and I whipped up some scrambled eggs and salsa. Yum. Funnily enough we turned on the television and the Women's French Open was on. I love tennis and played when I was younger. I had no idea that Collin would want to watch a tennis match but we watched the whole thing until the reigning Sharapova took another French Open title. Ya know...you learning something new everyday about your spouse. He even decided that it would be fun to play together. I'm going to have to dust off the old tennis racket - along with actually finding where it is.

Gwen swam a few laps around the lake and then we slipped into our bathing suits, lathered up with sunscreen, and headed out to the island for swimming and my poor attempts at diving off the diving board. Collin is gifted with all around athleticism where I am gifted with...other things. He made me try and dive and boy was I glad that we didn't have the camera. No one needs to relive those moments. We swam and lounged around for a while before heading in for lunch which was, of course, left over pizza! After a few more hours of lounging, relaxing, sun bathing, and watching House Hunters, we got ready for dinner. All dolled up and ready for a night on the town, we drove down to the Woodlands. We walked around and found a fire juggler, a band setting up, and lots of couples enjoying their Saturday night. We strolled around the outside shopping areas and popped in a few shops along the way. Shopping always makes me hungry.

We were given a gift by a friend of a free dinner for two at the Cheesecake Factory and I never pass up a generous offer like that! We were seated at a very remote table with a great view of the waterfront. We ordered stuffed mushrooms which were swimming in a delicious garlic butter sauce. Collin said they were good but not as good as mine. He's quite the charmer. I ordered garlic pasta with chicken and sun dried tomatoes and Collin ordered steak medallions with garlic mash potatoes. Everything we had was delicious and the evening was topped off with a sinfully delicious white chocolate raspberry cheesecake with a chocolate crust. Yummm!