Happy 14th Anniversery, Andy Boy!

 Andy and I celebrated 14 years of marriage on June 20th. It's pretty crazy. I mean, 14 years?! I met him when I was 18. I have been together with him almost as long as I haven't. 

I will spare you the "Life passes us by too quickly" spiel, but it really is true. I mean, how can it be?! 

Anyway. We love celebrating our anniversary, even if it is something little. It's funny how life ebbs and flows and changes over time. Some years we both make our anniversary a huge deal and other years we celebrate on a much smaller scale.  The past few years with crazy life and growing, busy kids, it has been much smaller. HOWEVER. I EXPECT A TRIP NEXT YEAR!! It will be our 15th, and it will be special, dang it. I actually tried to book something for us this year, but we wanted to do the grand canyon and with Andy getting a new job in May, he couldn't take any time off. So! Next year it is.

We always get a small gift or card for one another, but this year we both forgot! Haha! So we told each other what we would have written in a card had we gotten one. Tee hee!

The morning of, I actually had to leave quite early to take Laylah and Jonah to teen week at Camp Hobe. By the time I got home Andy was ready for his lunch break and we went to get Thai food at our very favorite Thai place. 

It was a really fun lunch date and we talked about our life and how much we have both changed and grown together over the years. It was so much fun.

That evening we celebrated our family's birthday by taking our kids swimming for FHE. We had a picnic at the pool and because Laylah and Jonah were gone, it was just our three little ones and it was a blast together. 

 I spy, with my little eye, a handsome bald guy! I like him.

After swimming we took our kids home to bed, and Andy went and rented a movie and picked up our very favorite-- cheese fries and ice cream from Leatherby's. Sooooo yummy (even though they look super gross in this photo)

I can just hardly believe how long we have been together. I've mentioned this before, but we have not always had an easy marriage. There are times where it is easy and effortless, but equal amounts of times where it is challenging and difficult and I want to run away (and actually have, on occasion). Andy and I are both soooo stubborn. But, the funny thing is, I like it that way. I like that we are both passionate and that we fight for what we believe in and what we want. Otherwise, I think our marriage would have ended a long time ago. Our grit and passion has served us well in our crazy, trial filled marriage. It has given both of us the determination to go back to school, trudge on when we want to give up, job search when there are no jobs to be found, fight hard for one another and our family, get through the most painful and difficult time of our child battling cancer, and show our children by example of how a marriage should be. 

It's life. Real life. It is not a happily ever after when the wedding bells stop ringing. It is hard work. It is sacrifice. It is love. It is selflessness. It is helping. It is listening. It is so many more things that someday they will understand and I hope they will remember that their parents did their best to teach them just what a marriage is.

Look at those two down there in that photo. They have no idea what is coming. Ha!

This married life is nothing that I would have ever expected it to be. It has made me the person I am today, and I wouldn't change it. At least I don't think I would, haha ;)

Happy Anniversary, Lover Boy! I love you always and forever.