Happy 7th Anniversary to my better half- and that he truly is. It is hard to believe that it has been 7 years. In just 7 years we have gone from just the two of us to an almost-family of 5. When people say marriage is hard, they are 100% right. And when people say marriage is worth it, they are even more right. When two strong-willed people get married, it isn’t easy, but it is easily worth it. At the end of each day, I am happy that I get to do life with this guy by my side.
In 7 short years our family has grown, we’ve made job changes, we have moved, and we have made a lot of new great friends. We have continued to love to travel, adventure, being outdoors, and keeping ourselves busy spending time with family and friends. We have also come to enjoy a date night in when the kids go to bed, a glass of wine on our deck, and morning coffee together before the kids wake: the things you take for granted before you have little ones.
Looking back, the first years of marriage were quite easy and I will be completely transparent here when I tell you that we have had to learn to work at our marriage. You would never expect to be a good runner without executing a training plan. You would never expect to advance in your career without working hard and putting in the time. Just like any other thing you really want in life, you have to work at it and having a good marriage is no different.
We have far from a perfect marriage. We fight and we argue. We also work on our marriage weekly. We set time to just be together even if it is something as simple as playing yahtzee or a card game. We plan date nights in advance and stick to them because we know it is important to have time together. We read together, we pray together and most importantly we forgive each other.
And guess what else? We don’t always go to bed happy. There are some nights we go to bed mad. Somewhere in the last 7 years we have learned that the phrase, “don’t go to bed angry,” doesn’t work for us.
Even on those nights I go to bed angry, I still thank God that He gave me this man to stand by me through every stage of life. He accepts my faults, praises my strengths, celebrates my accomplishments, challenges my thinking and truly loves me unconditionally.
Seven years ago I knew I was a lucky lady to be walking down the aisle to this man and I feel even more blessed today. I have said it over and over and I will say it again: I am so proud and appreciative of how hard he works for our family. I love that he is a team player and has no problem folding all the laundry because he knows I hate it. He doesn’t love country music, but if I ask to go to a country concert he doesn’t blink an eye and even downloads music before the concert so he knows some songs. He supports my crazy dreams and ideas. I love to travel and he is a darn good travel planner who makes every trip we take awesome. Seven years ago I also knew he would be a good daddy to our babies some day, but I never envisioned him being this good.
It has been a wonderful anniversary weekend celebrating 7 years of mostly wedded bliss with my main man. We usually keep it pretty low key for our anniversaries and cook a nice dinner at home, but this year we splurged a little more than normal.
Friday night we finally tried a new restaurant that was recommended to us by some friends and it did not disappoint. The food was incredible. Once dinner was over, we took a little break from eating and then headed to one of our frequent date night restaurnts to have our favorite dessert in town: bananas foster. We came home to no kids and sat out on our screened in porch for a little while before calling it a night.
On Saturday we slept in until 8:30! I can’t tell you the last time we did that. We had planned on going for a hike, but with the late wake up, we headed to a kid-free and enjoyable brunch before picking up the kiddos from their grandparent’s house.
As for gifts? We don’t do the traditional anniversary gifts and have always just saved for our next big trip and this year was no different. J did however surprise me with a replica of my bouquet and the flowers are gorgeous and it was super thoughtful.
It was a great weekend celebrating 7 years of marriage. As I reflected on the last 7 years a little more today, I am so blessed that he makes me smile and laugh as much as he did on the day I said “I do”. He would do anything for me… including dancing on a table while singing my favorite counting Counting Crows song- just like we did at our reception. Life is an adventure, and having this man be my partner through it all makes it even more thrilling!
Leave a Reply