4nniversary

If you're a loyal Young House Love reader (like myself), then you probably recognize that I shamefully stole this post title.  If you're not, you can consider me amazingly creative/smart/witty.  Either way, our 4th wedding anniversary has now passed and with all my wedding reminiscing, I realized I never mentioned how we celebrate our anniversaries (hard to believe by the time we arrive at our 5th next year, we will be the proud parents of 2 actual children and one doggy child!).
Every year, Josh and I commemorate our big day by taking time to go out to a nice dinner, just the two of us.  In the early years, we took this for granted, but now a night out alone at a place like Ruth's Chris is a real special treat!
Additionally, Josh and I have never gotten each other presents for our anniversary.  Instead, we like to take the money we would have spent on something and apply it to something we want together.  Year 1 was Chipper.  Year 2 was new bedroom furniture and a weekend getaway to Kingsmill.  And Year 3 was a family vacation...to Ocracoke, North Carolina.  Year 4 is slated to be a family vacation as well, but we have not quite decided where to yet!
As for anniversary keepsakes, I saw this idea on Pinterest a few weeks back and totally wish we had thought to do something like it:

Oh well...while we don't have cute picture to document each year, we do have our handy-dandy Anniversary Memories book.  I spotted the book on clearance at Hallmark shortly before our first anniversary and scooped it up.  Every year when we take it out, I consider redoing it in a more fashionable/chic way, but I probably never will because now it has 4 years of history behind it.  If you can't find your own book, though, you could so easily DIY something.  Each year after our anniversary dinner, Josh and I sit down and document what we did to celebrate, the things our days were filled with (it's funny to look at how we went from "laying in bed on weekend mornings" to "chasing a toddler"), the vacations we went on, what we did over the year (big things like move or have a baby), things we dream of doing in the upcoming year, and what happened in the world around us (which we consider to be both family stuff like my brother got married and current events like Obama was elected President).

I also take the time each year to make a little "Our Life" photo book from Shutterfly.  Our anniversary seemed like a logical place to mark the completion of our years, and now that we have a few volumes of the book proudly on display on our living room table, I am really glad we have some documentation of what we have done.  Plus, they have become some of Colton's favorite books...he pulls them down frequently and insists on looking through the pictures together!

So there you have it...nothing spectacular, but our little traditions nonetheless.  What about you all?  Have any fun anniversary traditions?