August 12, 2019

It’s been quite a story arc over 24 years of marriage. Plenty of highs and lows, conflicts and resolutions, wins and losses. Completely worth it, every last bit.

We’ve gone away for a long weekend each year for our anniversary. The last few years, we’ve driven to Gatlinburg, TN. It’s an easy, scenic 4 hour drive to town with lots to do or nothing to do. The nice thing about Gatlinburg is that there’s enough touristy stuff to do if we want. Dollywood, Titanic Museum, the aquarium, sky-lift, zip lining. But it’s also relaxing enough that if we want to do nothing except sit in rocking chairs on the porch, that’s ok. We always rent a place with a pool table since we played pool on our first date. My pool game actually improves after a couple shots of moonshine. But my lowered inhibitions also make me more likely to blatantly cheat. So there’s that. I can proudly say that I think Paul and I won an equal number of games. Unfortunately, none of the wins were skill-based; I won because Paul played poorly, and I returned the favor for him.

It’s nice being at the stage where we can leave town Friday and come home Sunday and just trust Grace to be in charge. We don’t need to arrange babysitting for the girls. And thank you to DoorDash for making it so easy for Paul to order Chick Fil A delivery for the girls while we were hanging out in downtown Gatlinburg. When we got home, Oh Emily asked us what souvenirs we brought home for them. I told her that her Chick Fil A sandwich from the day before was her souvenir.

It seems we got home just in time. If we’d been gone much longer, the girls would have needed to change 2 rolls of toilet paper. Thankfully I was able to take care of that for them. The boyfriends made appearances, and the girls and boys know our expectations and boundaries when we aren’t home. Grace of course did a great job handling the homestead. And she and Lauren actually even squeezed in some emergency babysitting at our house for a friend Friday night. It’s nice to know that even when Paul and I are gone, our house is still bustling with the activity of kids.

So today is the actual anniversary. 24 years, thank you very much! Right now, we are at the orthopedist appointment for Lauren’s injured knee. We will celebrate later with a trip to the Food Lion and some laundry. Don’t hate us because our life is so exciting. I’ve personally had enough of the highs and lows, conflicts and resolutions, wins and losses. I know that’s just part of life and more are coming our way. But for today, pushing a buggy at the grocery sounds pretty darn good to me. Happy Anniversary!