Anniversary Trip

10 years ago this May, we got married on a blistering hot day in Texas and started our lives together. What a fun and happy day it was! I remember laughing so hard with my bridesmaids before the wedding that my sides were splitting from the laughter. 

In 10 years we...

....finished college

....served in two youth ministries

.....got a dog

.....learned how to cook

.....learned how to garden

.....gave up ironing

.....made lots of great friends who are all over the U.S.

.....went on life-changing mission trips

.....mourned over our first baby who went to be with Jesus before we got to meet him/her

.....rejoiced over the blessing of 3 healthy kids

.....have been sleep deprived for 5 of the last 10 years 

.....nursed justin back to health from a dislocated back, a melanoma scare, and a nasty wisdom teeth removal

.....gave away our dog of destruction

.....moved to South Dakota

.....learned to drive in the snow

.....learned to love those who are sometimes hard to love

.....sacrificed a lot to follow God's call to help start a church

.....helped our firstborn ride without training wheels, write his name, and sound out words

.....have gone from an organized, clean house to one filled with lots of laughter, the noise of children playing, toys everywhere, laundry never caught up, sticky messes on the floor, pee around the toilet, disorganization, dirty hand prints, crushed cheerios under my shoe, children hanging from my legs in the kitchen, big hugs from little arms, slobbery kisses from sticky faces, and we wouldn't change any of it! 

When I look back on the last 10 years I am grateful and thankful for every where we've been, and all of the things we've done...together. I love living life with him. 

We saved our money and decided to take a trip to celebrate...and to sleep..since we haven't slept since my labor started with Josiah. Ha!  My mom flew up here to stay with the kids and we jumped on a plane to San Diego. We wanted to go somewhere warm, somewhere near the beach, and somewhere to relax. We rented a condo that overlooked the beach and was in a town about 20 minutes from San Diego. The first day we were there we sat on the beach for several hours in silence just watching the ocean. It was glorious! 

View out the back door of the condo.

We took a trip to Mission Beach and rode an old wooden roller coaster, walked on the beach, ate the best mexican food EVER at a local bar, and watched all of the beautiful, tan Californians roller skating and running on the beach. You could definitely tell we were visitors with our hats and translucent skin. 

We ate good the whole week. 

I want to live in California for the shear fact that they have amazing food there! And people can grow vegetables almost all year round. 

We also found this place....

The views along the ocean were stunning. I can see why a bazillion people live in California. It's beautiful country. 

We went to see the new Star Trek movie in a luxury movie theatre with leather reclining seats and fancy food, and a button to push if you wanted to order more food during the movie. Fancy fancy fancy! 

Justin wanted to play golf at the famous Torrey Pines golf course but his back was still bothering him pretty bad so we just drove by and we hiked around near it. The views were breathtaking!

We also took a boat ride into the ocean looking for whales and dolphins. I was SO afraid I was going to get sick because the water was really choppy that day. I kept my eye on the horizon (something my grandfather always says he does when he's on a boat) and thankfully there was no puking on my part! We saw tons of dolphins but no whales. Justin loved being on the boat!

We had a fun experience eating dinner at The Melting Pot. 

The chocolate fondue...yum! 

Our last day we spent all day at the beach. There were always a lot of surfers out so it was fun watching them. Justin did some body-boarding and I watched. I am too fearful of animals touching me in the water, I won't go any deeper than my ankles. Even the seaweed getting wrapped around my legs freaks me out. I'm not sure what happened to me as a kid to make me so scared of the water. 

We brought home all sorts of shells for the kids. 

The last night the sunset was beautiful! 

The trip was just wonderful, relaxing, refreshing, it was great to have uninterrupted conversation for the first time in a long time! 

We were ready to get home by the end of the week, and were missing our kids. 

My mom got us the best anniversary present, ever, by getting Leah to sleep in her own bed, all night while we were away. My mother is a miracle worker! THANK YOU!