Anniversary at Carowinds

Ethan surprised me this year for our 3rd anniversary. We knew we couldn't too anything too extravagant, given our financial situation, but we still wanted to do something special.

The day of our anniversary, I had asked a couple questions regarding what I should wear, shoes, etc., and unfortunately for him, I guessed what we were doing without really trying. Fortunately for both of us, I was super excited! We had been wanting to do this for some time, and we finally got the chance. We got tickets to the amusement park here called Carowinds.

We left Nixon at home with Sarah and were ready to ride as many roller coasters as we could. We expected to ride a couple because of lines, but when we got there, the longest we stood in line was 15 minutes max! Although the heat was a little bit of a killer, it was amazing!!!

We had ridden about 5 or 6 of the biggest roller coasters before it was time for us to ride The Fury. This is the newest ride and is definitely the most intense! We were able to ride it back-to-back and I was done for.

I stayed in this position for a good 30-40 minutes. I felt like a loser, but Ethan went and rode a spinning ride without me and I couldn't even look at the ride. It literally made me nauseous just looking at it, so I kept my head down. I'm pretty sure people thought I was dying, which didn't seem too far off, with how I was feeling. We ended up grabbing a Sprite to see if it would help. It helped ever so slightly. I had drank so much water/Sprite throughout that I headed to the restrooms. It was FREEZING in there and it felt amazing!! I was actually starting to feel a lot better just getting out of the heat and cooled off, but then it happened.. The person in the stall right next to me was throwing up... a lot. I got out of there real quick, and regained some of my nausea.

Because I was still feeling pretty crummy, we walked around for a bit and found this!!

The North Carolina and South Carolina border runs right through the park. Cheesy? Absolutely! But we have now kissed while being in two different states, and on our anniversary nonetheless. So precious. The only thing that could have made it better was if I was actually from South Carolina, but I'm an Idahoan.

Ethan rode a couple more rides while I enjoyed it from afar. We were wrapping up our day and I knew I had to ride at least one more ride and go out with a bang. Cue the Intimidator! Not quite as intense as The Fury, but about twice as long. I was proud for going on one more, but I was D-U-N done.

We had planned on staying a little later at the park, but with the heat and me feeling sick, we went to dinner a little bit early. We wanted to go somewhere other than fast food, but not too spendy, so we hit up Smashburger. I LOVE Smashburger. It's fantastic. The burgers are great and the Smashfries.. forget about it. It was on a Monday as well, so they had free milkshakes if you bought an entree. Ethan enjoyed both of ours.

We went home after dinner and hung out with Nixon for a couple hours before it was time for the movie we were going to see. We went and saw The Man from U.N.C.LE., which was surprisingly funny. It almost reminded me of Get Smart, a little bit.

It was such an amazing day. I don't know how many times throughout the day we would look at each other and say how much fun we were having. It's been a while since we had us time where we got to let loose a little bit. We also agreed that we want to make things like anniversaries and Valentine's Day about experiences, not gifts. Memories, for the most part, will always last, and be more cherished than things.