On August 26th, 2008, Kyle and Alli turned 2 years old.

We woke up excited and opened our gifts to each other. I snagged this sweet shirt, which declares in no uncertain terms that I am my wife's favorite, in Chinese characters no less. 2 years is the cotton anniversary in case you did not know. Alli also got me a really nice new laptop backpack. I'd been using the same backpack since about freshman year of college, and it didn't have any real structure to it or anything. This backpack is the mobile edge premium model. It has great padding for my laptop and the back is made of a mesh with a sort of venting design, so it's supposed to make my back not sweat when I wear it for a long time in the heat. That will be nice. Anyway, I like it a lot.
Alli got this cute shirt + cami combo, all from Anthropologie. It was on a mannequin, and it looked good, so I bought it. And it looks good on Alli too!
We then went about our sad lonely day apart from one another, but we met up later for a glorious sunset cruise through the Boston Harbor. The departure point was the Boston Harbor hotel, pictured here. This is also where we've been a couple times on Friday nights to watch screenings of old classic movies.Our sunset cruise was in fact the commuter ferry from Boston to Hingham. Pretty much the same as a harbor cruise, but much cheaper, and quite nice. We pre-purchased some fine gourmet cheeses from our favorite formaggio kitchen (the South End store) and snuck aboard some champagne (they sell alcohol on board-- full bar, but we'd been told you could actually bring your own.. still we snuck it on board in used tea bottles, and we're unsure whether this was technically okay or not). We got a seat on a bench in the back of the boat, so we could watch Boston as we pulled away. Here we are at departure:

Then we just rode and snacked merrily on our cheese and champagne, with a nice sunset behind us:

(those itty bitty buildings are Boston in the distance)

some sailboats in the Hingham bay:

and our view of Boston on the return trip:It was about an hour and a half round trip, just a nice little jaunt to celebrate our first 2 years.

I left out another present Alli gave me. It's a small book, titled "I Like You", by Sandol Stoddard Warburg. It's kind of perfect. Of note:

"when I say something funny
you laugh
I think I'm funny and
you think I'm funny too
hah-hah"

and

"I like you because
I don't know why but
Everything that happens
is nicer with you
I can't remember when I didn't like you
It must have been lonesome then".

The book is cute and funny and perfect, just like my wife.
Happy 2 years to us!

Look for a detailed review of our gourmet cheese in a separate post.