Ten Years

 
 
 
 

Brian and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on January 24th. We joke because we can't believe it's been ten years already, and at the same time it feels like it's been forever. That sounds bad, but I honestly can't remember my life without him. And I can't imagine my life without him now.

I was able to go with him to Jacksonville, Florida this week to celebrate. He had to go to attend a Recreation Ministries conference, and the church was willing to let me go along (which I am SO thankful for). This was the first time we had left the boys for more than one night since Harrison was 15 months old. It was great to get away and just focus on us for awhile, but hard to leave our little men. We arrived on Saturday, and got home yesterday afternoon. It was a week full of relaxation, fun, shopping, good eating, and oh yeah, some great seminars. :) Seriously, we both learned a lot, especially from Steve Petitt, the main speaker who talked a lot about marriage, which we didn't expect given that it was a Rec Lab. That was a nice perk.

It was really weird sleeping completely through the night, waking up when I wanted to (it's been years since I've done that) and just getting to go and do what we wanted to do. The first day was rough, almost like we had to reacclimate to just being "us" again. I hate to admit that, but that's how it was. Honestly, I spent the first two days feeling like I had forgotten something...turned out I kept thinking I was forgetting three little people. :) But once we got through the first couple days, it got easier, and we found that we still had LOTS to talk about, laugh about, etc. It was wonderful.

On Sunday we went on a seven hour fishing tour with Capt. Dave Sipler. That was my anniversary gift to Brian, and he was so excited that he barely slept the night before. I have to admit that it was definitely a sacrifice of love for me, because I really don't have the patience to fish, but I ended up having fun. It was SO COLD on that water, and we were not dressed warm enough, but we survived. Unfortunately, Brian didn't catch as many as we had hoped, but he did catch a few, and one was a big flounder. That was fun. I got brave and held some live shrimp (and even baited a few hooks with them) because I wanted to prove to the boys that their mom is no wimp. :)

My 31st birthday was Monday, and Brian surprised (and I do mean surprised) me by having the leader of the conference call me up on stage for the Happy Birthday song. He also gave me these beautiful red roses that morning. I honestly wanted to run, or crawl under a chair or something, but I toughed it out. It was very sweet, incredibly thoughtful, and totally surprised me. I will definitely not ever forget my 31st. He also took me for what had to be the best massage I've ever had (and that's my guilty pleasure, so I think I really am the authority on that) and pedicure. It was amazing, so amazing that it almost made me wish we lived in Jacksonville. Almost, but no.

I know I've been going on and on now, so I'll stop. It was a wonderful week, and it was equally as wonderful to come home to our boys. And we cannot thank our moms enough for stepping in to take care of the boys for us while we were gone. It was so great to be able to go, and not to have to worry~ we knew they were in excellent hands. Thank you both so much!!