An Anniversary Story

Last Saturday marked the 6 year anniversary of our wedding, although Nick and I have a total of 14 years of history behind us.  And like I said in our vows all those years ago…

“This isn’t the first day of our lives together, this is just another page in our story.”

So I wanted to share my version of our anniversary story…

Our wedding day was- like everyone anticipates their wedding day to be- the best day!  We found a place in Elkhart Lake that we had visited many times before on our random road trips.

We used to talk about getting married in the fall, in a lodge with a big crackling fireplace and windows gazing out over a lake.

The Osthoff was the only place that Nick and I ever walked into and said- this is the kind of place we want to get married!

Once we got engaged we never really considered anywhere else…

So at sunset on November 15th, 2008, I walked down the aisle and married this man-

And you would think that would be all the reason to celebrate every year, this “anniversary”, but something else happened along the way…

The day after our wedding when the gift opening was over and all our family had gone back home, Nick and I sat in our hotel room waiting for our Monday morning flight to Savannah Georgia for our honeymoon.  Our special day had gone by so fast and we were comforted by the thought that the fun was just beginning!

Although we had a slew of years behind us full of various road trips and even a few visits to Colorado to see good friends, we’d never really gone on vacation together.  Not really.  Not by ourselves, not for a consecutive 5-7 days.  We’d just never really had time, or made it a priority before.  It had felt frivolous to us when we were always so busy with our jobs.

I’ll be honest, our honeymoon started a little rough- Monday was lost on cancelled and rescheduled flights and exhaustion!  We arrived in Savannah, ready to kiss the ground at the airport, got to our hotel and crashed…

But I will never forget the feeling of waking up the next morning, walking out the front door of our hotel to a café off River Street for breakfast.

There was just such a sense of freedom.  Just a sense of- here we are, married!  Just the two of us- in a new place with the rest of the week ahead of us to do whatever we wanted.

It was like- look at us– we made it!

We made it!

Life is full of firsts together when you are a couple-

First date, first kiss, first picture together…

First selfie-style photo together (before there were smart phones)!

And we don’t often get a do-over on those famous firsts!  But we found a way to relive that honeymoon euphoria, that sense of freedom-

And so that is why every year around our anniversary we take a trip.  We pick a place and we go.  The first few years we returned to the south, to recapture that feeling of being a newlywed in a new place!  But we realized we could travel anywhere and relive it!

This year we headed to the west coast!  Flew into Seattle and then drove down the pacific coast across the Oregon border to Cannon Beach.

We hiked, saw big trees…watched the sun set!

Our wedding day was memorable, it was special and it was ours…but it went so fast!  It is hard to bring back the essence of that day…but an adventure, a week away together in a new place…that can be replicated!  That’s what our anniversary means to me- that through the creation of new memories, we honor the old.

“Some people like to say your wedding day is the first day of the rest of your lives together, but I don’t agree…it’s not the first day our lives and it won’t be the last…it’s just another page in our story- and we get to decide how its written.  And if I ever get lost or forget who I am along the way, I know I will only have to look to you…you are my breadcrumbs that lead me home.”