7 Years!

We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness–and call it love–true love.

Happy Anniversary to us! Yesterday Gil & I celebrated 7 years of marriage. In the morning we went to the zoo with Mason and then ate outside at MBrew. It was sooooo hot at the zoo, so it was a good thing we got there in the morning.

Water Break!

In 7 years, Gil and I have learned a lot about marriage. It's funny thinking back to our wedding day. We were so young and naive and really had very few expectations. I think it's hard to understand what marriage is until you're in it. 

The image of marriage that I usually see is the glossed over, perfect couples on tv or in movies. That's definitely not real life. Gil and I are not perfect and our marriage is not perfect. Sometimes it's really easy and sometimes it's really hard. But I love that we keep choosing to work on it together. 

I think the most important thing I have learned so far is that communication can make or break a couple. For a long time, I thought I was perfect at this. Surprise, surprise, I am not and often I have to humble myself to my imperfections, which isn't easy.

I've also learned that it's so important to make room for each other to grow and change in the relationship. The person you start out with is not the person you will find yourself with 7 years down the road. Keep falling in love with that person, whoever it may be. 

Through all our ups and downs, I'm really proud of our marriage and where we are today. Can't wait to see where the future will bring us...

Tapas & Paella

That's what we had for dinner last night...we had some delicious tapas, paella, and sangria for our anniversary dinner. Yum!

Gil kept taking pictures of me while I was getting ready to leave...

Anniversary picture!

We finished out with our typical trip to the pastry shop for dessert. Yes please!

Gil got a peanut butter mud pie and I got carrot cake, of course. I don't know when it happened, but carrot cake has moved into my top two desserts, I think.

Since we got sangria at dinner, we didn't have our Year 3 bottle of wine...savin' it for another day.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

3 years of wedded bliss!

Set to Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am"- Our wedding song!

I Heart Weddings

Yesterday Gil & I went to my cousin's wedding in East Lansing. Oh, how I love a wedding! There were about 5+ moments where I had to work hard not to cry. Not that I'm opposed to crying at weddings, but I just knew it wouldn't have been one or two tears...there would've been major waterworks involved, that's just how I am! And I worked too hard on my eye makeup for that.

Anyways, it was a great wedding and my cousin was such a beautiful bride! Her dress was so pretty (loved the back) and the bridesmaid's dresses were so cute.

Mom & Sisters

Cousins

It was fun seeing family & getting dressed up. We had to head out early to let Laila out, which I was a bit bummed about because I do love me some dancin'. We danced to one song in memory of Kristi's mom and during that one song, Gil said "I don't like dancing!"...haha he cracks me up. At least he's a good sport.

One thing that I love about weddings is that it reminds you of those feelings right after you get married. Not that I'm not super nice to Gil all the time anyways :) , but after living together and being in a relationship for (gasp) almost 10 years, it's easy to let day to day things get in the way. Like sharing sink space when we're both trying to get ready in the morning or how Gil never puts anything away or how I constantly forget to put the cover back on the camera lens (that drives Gil crazy). Weddings are just a good reminder!

Two Years!

Happy Anniversary, Husband! Thanks for 2 great years of marriage and 9 years together (wow)!!

Never Before Seen...

When Gil and I met up with his Aunt for lunch in Seattle, his Uncle Larry gave us a CD with over 200 pictures that he had taken at our wedding. I was so excited to see them for the first time and relive our wedding day! Here were a few of my faves:


The sky couldn't have been any more blue!


Married!


St. Cecilia Music Center in Downtown Grand Rapids where we had our reception


I love how happy I look!


Gil and Meem at the reception

We have a video of our wedding somewhere out there...we'll have to watch that one day!!

One Year!

Senior Prom
As 16 year olds, we had no idea where our high school romance would lead us...


Yesterday, Gil and I celebrated one year of marriage!

I can't believe how fast the past year flew by! With all the house stuff going on, we decided to have a low key day together. We have plenty of years ahead of us to go somewhere fun for an anniversary! We went to dinner in RO and then stopped by Astoria Pastry Shop to grab dessert. Gil got the Black Forest Cake and I got a slice of Carrot Cake. I don't even want to think about the calories! We would've eaten the top layer of our wedding cake, but we devoured that while sitting in a traffic jam on the highway on our way back from Grand Rapids after the wedding!

For those of you who were at our wedding, you'll remember that instead of signing a guest book at the reception, we had 5 bottles of wine for you to write messages on.

Last night, we enjoyed our "1st Anniversary Wine" with the cake! Delish!!! Thanks for all of the Happy Anniversary thoughts we received!

And now the best part:

You can't wait to untie that red string, can you??
Here it comes...

Behold the frosting, chocolate, and carrot cake-y goodness.

I wish it was always our anniversary.