Saturday, June 20, 2009

11 years

Today Chris and I have been married for 11 years! Happy Anniversary honey!

I have been blessed to have such a loving, caring husband that I can truly say is my best friend!



Chris and I have celebrated our anniversary over the years in some very romantic and unique ways. I will never forget our 2 year anniversary when I received a package at work that had a change of clothing in it along with a small tape recorder with a message for me. It began with the theme from Mission Impossible (sung by Chris), followed by instructions that I was on a "mission" to find my husband! I first had clues that would lead me to my destination and then I would have to perform a task before I would get my next clue. He led me first to the house of the couple that introduced us - Alan and Adrienne. I then had to hula hoop for a specific amount of time before I got my next clue (all of which were small little tapes that Chris had recorded). My next clue sent me to an older friend's house - Morris & MaryAnn - and there I had to stuff as many marshmallows in my mouth before I would receive the next tape. (At all destintions, by the way, I had my picture taken doing these rediculous tasks). Then my third clue took me to my grandmother's house, where I had to hopscotch down the sidewalk to receive my fourth and final clue, which led me to "Table 25". Chris and I met while working at Red Lobster in Hutch at.... Table 25. There my husband was waiting to have dinner with me, with a rose and a smile! I think he was pretty creative with this one!!!

Another memorable anniversary was our 5th year. Chris wanted to do something special and arranged a weekend away together. He had secretly worked it out with my mom to watch Maddie and then picked me up from work on Friday afternoon and wouldn't tell me where he was taking me. We ended up going to the Castle Inn Riverside, a bed and breakfast in Wichita and staying in their Royal Suite.



This anniversary even got a surprise... it came nine months later and we named her Ashlyn! (NOTE: Never rely on an ovulation calculator on the Internet).

Last year we celebrated our ten year by taking a week trip away to California. We had a wonderful time sight seeing (without children) the city of San Fransisco, the vineyards of Napa Valley (our relaxing and spoiling part of the trip) and the Pacific ocean at Monterey Bay. Out of all the beauty we saw..the Golden Gate Bridge at sundown, the entire city of SanFransisco from the top of Coit Tower, the lush wine vineyards from our seats on the Napa Valley Wine Train, the beautiful ocean crashing up on the shores along the 17 Mile Drive... my favorite memory was our experience at the Martini House restaurant. For those of you that don't remember... you can get a recap here.

We have made some awesome memories over our 11 years of marriage...

...buying our very first house on 17 Harvest Lane in Hutch
...the birth of our first baby, our daughter Madison Grace on May 3, 2002.
...living in my grandma's house for 6 months, while our house was being built on 41st street
...our trip to Virginia Beach with our good friends Chris and Holly and their family
...the birth of our second daugther, Ashlyn Reese on February 25, 2004
...our numerous trips to Vegas with family celebrating Chris' mom's birthday
...the birth of our third baby, our daughter Brooke Elise on December 15, 2006
...the decision to move to Salina so Chris could start working for the family business
...the tiny rental house that we lived in here in Salina while we looked for a house or a spot to build
...buying our current house on Presley Dr and spending four weeks updating it before we moved in

...and of course there were many, many more that I can't obviously list.

We're excited to see what new memories we'll make in the future. We feel extremely blessed to have one another, our three beautiful girls, a healthy and happy home, a loving church and a wonderful and supportive family!

2 comments:

Lauren said...

Happy Anniversary!!!

Dana said...

Wow! You've had some good anniversaries! We had an anniversary surprise too and named him Ben. ;) Hope you had a good one!