10 years

David and I celebrated our tenth anniversary a couple weeks ago. We didn't do anything big--it was a quiet, low-key day. We had family visiting from out of town. We played games with them and had a good time. In an odd way, it seemed fitting. "Quiet" and "low-key" are words I would use to describe almost all of our most monumental moments, as a couple. It's how we roll, thanks to David. I love it.

Ten years. Ten years! I feel like we have moved at a break-neck pace for most of that time. Our stats look something like this:

16 years of loving each other and being BFF's

10 years worth of individual minutes and hours and days

4 beautiful, transformative babies

3 miscarriages

4 exhausting college/post-secondary degrees

7 moves

4 states (in different corners of the US)

1 horrible but miraculous motorcycle accident 

1 home excitedly purchased and stressfully sold

5 months and $2,000 of life-changing marital therapy

1 demon cat

2 tiny frogs

5 fish

1 good dog

It is ten years stuffed to the rafters with LIFE...love, pain, miracles, growing hearts, happiness. (Isn't that how all ten-year time frames feel?) It all somehow beautifully adds up to two extremely thankful, deeply happy, never-more-in-love-than-now people. I'm so grateful for all the experience and wisdom and love we have gained over the last ten years. They have made us better, stronger, gentler, more whole people. I'm so glad that that process of refining will continue over the next ten years. I hear people talk about the newlywed years as if they are full of bliss. I believe those people, but...seriously, you could not pay me enough money to go back to those years. I wouldn't trade what we have now--our particular marriage--for anything. We have become grayer, balder, more scarred, a few pounds heavier and a whole lot softer, but...life is good. It is oh, so good. We are blessed, and we know it.

The photograph we used in our wedding announcements, taken by David's mom.

August 23, 2003 at the  Portland, Oregon LDS Temple

1st anniversary (2004 at Aunt Kathy's house in Utah)

2005...two bachelor degrees from BYU and a three-week old baby Elijah

2nd anniversary (August 2005, shortly after we moved to Connecticut)

3rd anniversary (August 2006, ready to welcome our first nephew, pregnant with Haven)

4th anniversary (summer 2008, family trip to Palmyra, NY, just before moving to Texas)

5th anniversary (August 2008, home to Oregon on vacation)

The wreckage of Dave's near-fatal motorcycle accident (September 2008)

6th anniversary (August 2009, at Dane's baby blessing)

7th anniversary (summer 2010)

8th anniversary (summer 2011, after Kai's baby blessing, just before moving to South Carolina)

We move to South Carolina. With a moving van. Over four days. With four kids. And a puppy. And massive help from Dave's mom. We miraculously manage to stay sane in the process. (October 2011)

David finally, finally becomes Dr. David!! (with David's family at Texas Tech University, December 2011)

9th anniversary (fall 2012)

10th anniversary (August 2013, playing games at home, with family in town)

What part of your last ten years makes you feel proud, happy, or grateful?