Danielle Kanka Photography » Lifestyle & Wedding Photographer

I didn’t intend to tak a whole month off of blogging but it’s been a busy month. So…here I am doing catch up blog posts.I’ll start with an anniversary post, enjoy!
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I’ve been married to James for 6 years but I’ve loved him even longer. We met in 2003 and shortly after our first hello, I was completely smitten. He was the real deal- it didn’t take me long to know that this is the man I was meant to marry. In loving him I knew I was in for great adventures, the kind that take a lifetime to build.

The pics above were taken the summer we met in 2003. And yes, I really did think my sweat shirt was cute

After dating long-distance for over a year – I decided to move to northern Virginia for a new adventure. We were soon engaged and married. We decided to live in the northern Virginia/DC area for a few years.

Once we saved up enough money we packed up everything we owned and moved across the country to California for a different adventure. The pics below are from California.

Speaking of adventure, James has a way of talking me into doing things that terrify me. Years ago while we were dating, James convinced me to do one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever done before. But I didn’t know it was going to be scary. If I remember correctly he said, “so do you want to go see behind a waterfall? It’s really cool and you can jump through it!”  It sounded lovely so I immediately agreed. I had no idea I would have to crawl into a tight rock crevice where there was no light, swim into dark air pockets, and then jump through the waterfall and  let it push me down only to bob back up again. It was terrifying and I think I stepped on a dead fish. It was an adventure all right…..here are some not so flattering pics after the big jump. As you can see I was not too happy about being tricked- but I soon got over it.  

Below is another adventure that James talked me into. When we were in California we decided to hike up to this lone tree on top of the mountain by the hollywood sign. James had apparently gone before with some guys and he thought it I would like it. It was obvious to me that this “trail” was not exactly a main trail and was quite rocky. I was moving around big boulders and climbing my way through the small path. Suddenly we came to a big 20ft. rock wall that James wanted us to scale, without any climbing gear. It was so SCARY! I only did it because at this point turning around and hiking down the way we came up would have been just as hard. The rock wasn’t solid either it was crumbly in places so we had to check our hand holds and foot holds before we put our weight on them. I prayed the whole way up. That was an adventure to say the least!

I know you’ve seen the next two pictures before but these are from another adventure, these pics are from Yosemite where we climbed up a very tiring and strenuous trail. Once we arrived on this very high mountain it began to storm hard. I was scared about getting hit by lighting, and wanted to get off the mountain as quick as possible. The rain just poured harder and harder. The whole way down was suddenly way more dangerous as the rocks were slippery and it was all downhill. Water was gushing down. I’m glad I did it and it was a beautiful hike up- but wow was that hard! James has had some crazy adventures in our relationship too. When we were dating James came with me and my family on a vacation in Gulf Shores Alabama. He had a bug bite that turned into a crazy staph infection on his finger. I drove all 16 hrs. and by the time we got there we had to take James into the emergency room. They operated on his hand and gave him some good antibiotics. I felt awful for him. And amidst all this, he had planned and successfully asked my parents for their blessing in asking me to marry him. (I had no idea they even had any time alone to talk.) Then fast forward to a a couple of days before the wedding, James’ arm swells up really big and we end up taking him to the emergency room again. We were there all night, and he needed to get continued IV treatments. We were worried that we’d have to cancel the wedding, but things worked out and his IV treatments were able to be scheduled around the wedding.  The day of our wedding we were so happy just to get married. We didn’t care that we had to cancel our honeymoon, or that we’d have to drive to the hospital to get more IV treatments after the reception and the following days. We were just excited to begin a new chapter together and to celebrate our love with our friends and family. Surprisingly the flowers around the chapel opened up that weekend and made for the most beautiful backdrop. We were blessed that day in so many ways.

All of this is to say that James you are my adventure- I will go anywhere as long as it’s with you. Happy 6 years of marriage, love to you to pieces!