10th Anniversary

I remember the year that Heather James celebrated her 10th anniversary and she was so excited about their plans. She kept saying with enthusiasm that it was going to be their "10 year Jubilee!!!" I wasn't quite sure what "Jubilee" meant but I knew that it included something special and that reaching the 10 year mark certainly was a milestone in your marriage.

So for our 10 Year Jubilee we were planning on going back to Hawaii for a week long trip with just the two of us. (Hawaii is where we met, dated and spent the first few years of our marriage). But, we ALSO decided recently that this was the year that we needed to take the kids to Disneyland (we're worried that Jacob is going to be too old to experience the "magic" of it if we wait too much longer). Soooooooooo, since we can't afford the vacation time or the airfare for 2 trips in one year we opted to postpone our Hawaii trip for another anniversary.

Even with the initial disappointment of not lying on the beach in Hawaii and reminiscing about our younger years we still had a wonderful weekend getaway spent in an oceanfront cabin on the Hood Canal. It was my year to be in charge of planning the trip (we take turns every year) so I chose this resort because it had a private cinema room with a 14 foot movie screen. Over the past several weeks I had secretly slaved over making a DVD slide show which included painstakingly collecting and scanning hundreds of old pictures (those were back from the days before digital cameras) to compile the story of how we met, fell in love and were married. The sideshow spanned the last 12 years chronicling all of our memories from when we first met, started dating were married, and the expansion of our love through the birth of each of our sweet children. I entitled it "The Story of Us" and had for the background music some of our special songs from our dating days and our wedding. I had an arrangement with the owner of the resort and he was so sweet to help me with the surprise. Aaron thought we were going to the cinema room to watch The Notebook (our favorite movie-which we did watch later on that night) but instead he had it set up to play the slide show that I had made. Needless to say it was a good surprise and was well worth the time and effort invested. Watching it made us both get teared up looking back on this amazing journey we've been on and to see how far we've come in our life together.

I know that everyone out there has a wonderful story about how they met, fell in love and started their lives together. And after working on this project I am even more convinced that it's so important that we all as couples never forget those early days in our relationship. Taking that trip down memory lane together from time to time by getting out those old pictures, reading journal entries about the way you felt when things were fresh and new can really bless your marriage. I know it sounds kind of silly but as I was making this sideshow and looking back on all the old love letters, memorabilia and pictures I found myself falling in love with my husband all over again. This slide show was supposed to be a gift for Aaron but ended up being a gift to us both as it strengthened our love and commitment to each other . I hope that we all remember to remember why we fell in love with our spouse and that we can always keep a part of that person who our husband fell in love with alive and present in our marriage. Aaron likes to calls me "his girl" and I've always liked that title. It's nice to know that even after 10 years of marriage and 4 kids that I' not only his wife but still his girl.

Here are some pictures and memories from our weekend getaway.......

At the Timber House Restaurant where we had our anniversary dinner. The view at sunrise from our cabin window and pictures from the Lena Lake trail hike.

More pictures of the beautiful scenery on Lena Lake. Half of the Lake was frozen over and the other half was a beautiful turquoise blue. I love living in Washington and being surrounded by such beauty so close to home.

The heroes of our our weekend (Papa and Gramma Laws) who willingly braved watching our four children so we could enjoy a romantic weekend away. Thank you so much!!!

April is such a busy month for us so we had to take our anniversary trip on the first weekend of April even though our anniversary is on the 14th. I wanted to thank some of my wonderful friends who took in my kids on a school night so that I was able to surprise Aaron in Seattle after work and spend our actual anniversary downtown in a fancy hotel. Good memories- and man, I can't believe it's already been 10 years!