Christi and I celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday ... in unusual fashion:

The Build Up: Christi and I both took the day off to celebrate together and spent the past two months deciding what we would do on this historic milestone in our lives. We decided to try to recreate parts of our honeymoon here in Omaha. We had a trip to the zoo planned, fish and chips at the Dundee Dell and much more.

The Reveal: Even though we've been planning this for a while, I was secretly planning a day that she didn't know about. Throughout the whole month of April, I was planning our day and hoping that she wouldn't find out. At 6:00 am sharp, I woke Christi up.

"Why did you set your alarm on our day off?"

"Because plans have changed. Do you remember what the traditional gift is supposed to be for your first anniversary?"

"Paper, right?"

"Yep. Open up your card."

As she was opening up the card there, which I didn't even have time to sign or write a note in, there was a piece of paper inside. As she opened it up, she saw that it was a boarding pass for a flight heading out 2.5 hours later to Chicago. Our engagement city. She was completely surprised by everything, and a few hours later, we were back in the Windy City.

We arrived to a beautiful day (72°) and started walking around the city. We headed to the Merchandise Mart to view home ideas for our future dream house and she was even kind enough to turn down my new fish and chips place I found (to go with our Aussie honeymoon) and tell me that we should eat at Gino's East because you don't come to Chicago without eating some pizza.

Then it was off to the Pier where my heart raced out of my chest 3 years earlier. It's always fun to go back and recollect on how you got to where you are today. After logging a few miles on our feet, we took a break and she graciously let me take some pictures of us. I told her that every year I want to have a picture on our anniversary so we can always look back.

As for gifts for each other, we went down the Magnificent Mile and each bought a new pair of shoes, for a couple of reasons:

• As mentioned above, our feet were killing us.
• The insides of our rings are engraved with the saying, "I'll never walk alone."

This brings us to our dinner reservations at Carmine's, the Italian restaurant we first ate at after we were engaged. We decided to take advantage of the nice weather and eat outside. There was an abundant amount of people that knew each other walking down the streets and with the combination of the bouncer next door, we were glad we traded a romantic night for some fun and conversation.

I also researched and called 5-10 bars to find a place that made a Moscow Mule and a Grasshopper. I was lucky enough to find one place near Carmine's, but with dinner running late, we walked back to the "L" (with the thanks of the local firefighters) and made it onto the platform to head back to Midway(with the help of Christi's amazing eyes) to catch our flight back home.

All in all, it was a long but fun day and we were happy to get off our feet and play with Stan when we got home.

Here's to one down and many more to come.

Cheers.