Nine. Whole. Years.

Many years ago, I received the best advice about marriage. A friend of the family shared that while marriage is great, it's also a lot of work. Every single day. At the time, I was nowhere near ready to marry. I hadn't even met Nate yet. But I tucked that piece of advice away and retrieve it on a pretty regular basis.

Being married to Nate is great. I love him and I even like him. But marriage has been a lot of work. Every single day. We share many things - viewpoints, ideas, passions. But we disagree too. And I think that's healthy. Like most married couples, we could do better at communicating with each other. We could be more considerate to each other.

Yesterday, we celebrated nine years of being married. Although I think it's more important to note that we've been together for nearly 13 years! Anniversaries are a nice time to reflect on the year and the relationship. Every year, I'm happy to be sharing this life of mine with Nate. He makes me laugh. He is a wonderful father. He cares about his family. He likes to have a good time. But most importantly, he's the best kind of person to have in my corner. He is supportive. And when the going gets tough, he is my rock. 

Happy anniversary, Nate. We have created a meaningful life with each other and our two greatest achievements, Benny and Lila, bring us joy every single day. I couldn't ask for a better partner.

Hike Dates

For the past two years and change, Nate and I have been bad about going on dates and focusing on our relationship. I'll blame it on the two-kid syndrome. We didn't always feel comfortable leaving a young baby/toddler with a sitter. Compound that with little energy and a "dating" rut, and we haven't made many romantic overtures over the past two years.

Beginning this year, we are committed to going on a date at least once a month (more if possible). In January, we took a hike date. This month, we were planning a night out and then got a last-minute offer for a sitter during the day yesterday. We grabbed that offer and we drove up to the mountains and snowshoed damn near close to the Continental Divide. It reminded me of the days pre-kid when we hiked and went out to dinner and played cards and generally spent quality time together.

On Friday we're taking advantage of a parents' night out event at Benny's daycare to celebrate Valentine's Day at one of our favorite restaurants in Denver. I'm already salivating!

Preppy Pearls

Preppy top

Preppy bottom

Pearls

Confession time, again. I haven't been very good about following the Style Me May Challenge. I am now working from home, so I am taking full advantage of the "do not get ready" aspect of the situation. However, I did find something "preppy." It was hard, but tying a sweater around my neck seemed to do the trick. Please note: I only wore my sweater like that for the pictures.

Oddly enough, yesterday's challenge was pearls. I own one pearl. Not a strand or a bracelet, but one solitary pearl on a chain. I wore it on my wedding day. It was quite serendipitous that yesterday was my anniversary. I've worn this pearl for (nearly) every anniversary since. It is quite timeless.

Several people have asked what we did for our anniversary. We considered getting a babysitter and going out for dinner. Then we considered taking the kids out to dinner. We settled on Taco Tuesday at our house. Then we watched some friends' kids for an hour or so and put our kids to bed. After cleaning up the house, we sat down outside and enjoyed a delicious bottle of wine and some chocolate cupcakes. Then we talked about our life together: our kids, our house, our professional lives. And we came to the conclusion that the past eight years, while not without challenges, have been pretty damn good. It was the perfect celebration of our relationship.

Lucky No. 8 (2nd Ed.)

5th Anniversary - Denver

1st Anniversary - Austin

Wedding Day, May 22, 2004 - Des Moines

It's pretty amazing to think that Nate and I have been married for EIGHT years. Happy anniversary, to my darling, amazing, frustrating (the good kind of frustrating - he keeps me on my toes!), funny, talented, handsome husband. Remember when I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on our wedding day, worried that it would rain during our ceremony? Remember the tornado sirens blasting during our reception? Best day ever, hands down.

Seven Years!

Last weekend, Nate and I celebrated seven years of marriage. What? Where did the time go? We are pictured above on our first anniversary. We celebrated our first anniversary at a quaint French restaurant in downtown Austin and then stopped by our friend's house to say hello. You can barely see the Frost Bank Tower in the background. And if you look really closely, you can see wine on my teeth. Super classy. We look so young!

We meant to get a picture from our date night this year, but failed. That's what happens when you're preparing to leave two kids with a babysitter - all thoughts of capturing the moment move to the back burner. Here's to you, Nate! I love you more and more every year.

Blast from the Past

It's hard to believe that Nate and I tied the knot nearly seven years ago (not to mention that we've been together for nearly an entire decade!). We've entered a phase of general joy. Lila has rounded out our family very nicely and I think we're both taking the time to enjoy one another as well as the amazing luck we've had as a couple.

Sure, Nate still drives me nuts sometimes. For the most part, however, he's making me laugh and making a major effort to contribute to the team. Here's to good phases - may they outlast the bad.

No, Mr. Tweedy, I Will Not Make Out With You

OK, that's not true. I would make out with Jeff Tweedy - in a metaphorical sense only, of course. Nate and I went on our second date night since Lila was born last night. We had a nice dinner and then saw Tweedy perform solo at the Boulder Theater. This is the tenth time we've seen Wilco/Tweedy perform. And he didn't disappoint. I do love the music so much.

He ended the show with a Radio Head song and then performed a song without any amplification. It was fantastic. We were in the 13th row, so we could hear and see EVERYTHING. Plus, it was a sit-down show. I'm old enough now to prefer sit-down shows. No more moshing for me!

Back at the house, Benny didn't give the babysitter any trouble, but he did report that Lila cried "a lot." So much that Benny didn't get any bedtime stories. Poor Benny. Luckily, she was asleep by the time we got home and only woke up once. After going to bed at 1 a.m., I was appreciative of that!

The Redeemer

Over the past year I have had the privilege of giving Nate some major crap about my birthday last year. Not only did he not acknowledge it with a card, gift, or dinner, but he went into work ... on a Sunday! I've been able to hold that over his head in some major ways.

But, he has redeemed himself this year. And I can no longer give him crap. Last night he had Benny surprise me with The Year of the Flood, a book I've been wanting to read for a long time. Then he gave me lessons to water color painting at Denver Free University. And he signed me up for a class three weeks after Baby Girl is due. So, not only did he do something to encourage a creative outlet, he offered to take care of TWO kids for four hours on a Saturday. I feel very, very lucky.

Nate wanted to take me out for dinner, but I opted for a night in. We made quinoa salad and had cherry pie. Nate and Benny sang me happy birthday and then I watched them laugh and wrestle on the bed. It was the perfect birthday. The best in recent years.

CELEBRATE!

In about 12 hours, Nate and I will be taking off on our first adult-only trip since Benny was born (probably since he was conceived!). We are heading to San Francisco to spend some time with friends and to experience Sonoma wine country in all of its glory.

We have a lot to celebrate this week: I finished my dissertation and graduated, Nate passed the professional engineering test and is now an official P.E., and I got a job. And on top of all of that, we celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary in May (in September we celebrated being together for EIGHT years)! We have a beautiful, amazing son and a house that will be beautiful and amazing some day.

So, while Nana and Papa spoil Benny all week, we'll be spoiling ourselves. On the itinerary: Staying at a B & B in Healdsburg so we can bike around to different wineries and taste without risk of driving after too many tastings. Spending Friday and Saturday in the city, one of my favorite cities. We'll cap the trip off with an evening at a speakeasy with four friends. It's going to be great!

Five Whole Years

Nate and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on May 22. Five whole years! It seems like a long time, but hasn't felt like a long time (well, it usually doesn't feel like a long time). This picture represents a lot about our big events in our marriage: A baby and a house.

Here's to you, my lovely husband.

Speaking of Marriage

Nate was going through some old photos the other day and ran across the new ones posted below (I can't figure out how to post photos within a post, so until I do, you'll have to scroll). We took these photos on our honeymoon. We spent our honeymoon in the Canadian Rockies, specifically in the mountains of the Banff and Jasper National Forests (by the way, that's where Benny's middle name comes from - our honeymoon - Benjamin Jasper Brown). The Jasper National Forest was the site of what was supposed to be a five-day, four-night hike. Neither of us had ever been out in the wild that long and we were excited to do it together.

Until we met up with the mosquitos. When we started our hike, we happened upon a nice couple who didn't speak English. We smiled and exchanged whatever pleasantries translated and then the guy started saying "BUG! BUG!" We smiled and waived and went on our merry way. Yes, there are bugs in the wild. Thank you very much man from somewhere else.

It wasn't until we arrived at our campsite (which is another adventure story for another day) that we realized why the foreign man had put so much emphasis on BUG! There were mosquitos everywhere. We wore long-sleeved everything, hats, etc. We couldn't keep our shoes off and had to wear mittens over our hands. We didn't spend much time outside of our tent because my face began to look like pepperoni pizza and then like one big red welt. We figured that the higher we climbed throughout the trip, the less we would have to deal with mosquitos.

Wrong. On our third night we stayed at a campsite that was even worse than the first night. We arrived at the site in the early afternoon, which meant that we had few options: 1) being that we hiked to pass time, and 2) being that we stayed in our tiny two-person tent until the morning. We decided to go with the latter (hey, we'd already been hiking for six hours with 30 pounds on our backs).

We woke up the next morning thinking that once we started on the trail our mosquito woes would be behind us for the day's hike. Wrong. Again. Hordes of mosquitos followed us up a pass. We were covered from head to toe in clothing, but the mosquitos swarmed around our faces. So, we hauled ass up the pass. We were in awful moods and just wanted to get out of the mess. Once we got to the top of the pass, the mosquitos disappeared and our moods lightened. We stopped for a break, removed the packs from our back, and decided to get naked. The pictures are a result of that break.

That day we were supposed to stay at our first campsite again. Once we got there we decided that we would rather hike all the way out than deal with mosquitos for another night. So, we ended up hiking 22 miles out - still with 30 pounds on our backs. What a honeymoon story, eh?