10 YEARS

Guys, this year Brigham and I celebrated our ten year anniversary. We've been married for one whole decade. That's pretty big! In honor of the magnitude of this anniversary, here are some flashbacks of activities we've done for our past anniversary years:

Well, first we got married.

First Anniversary: we each fed a bite of our frozen wedding-cake top to each other before we threw it out and wondered why people even do this, I got a new (and final) band for my wedding ring, and we took a trip to Logan to eat at The Bluebird and attend the Logan temple.

Year Two: we didn't do too much because our lives were pretty much wrapped around our one-month-old Lydia. But we did escape to do a session in the Bountiful Temple.

Year three: I have nothing documenting this year, but Brigham did graduate from college with his Bachelor's around this time.

Year four: I have absolutely nothing documenting this year. But we did have a baby boy we had recently added to the mix.

Year five: We took another trip to Logan and stayed at a fun little inn for a night. I remember it was the first time leaving the kids overnight, and it was a little nerve-wracking for me. We ate dinner at The Bluebird and Firehouse Pizza, roamed a bookstore, did a session at the Logan temple, and went for a hike.

Year Six: Brigham surprised me with some wedding picture retakes. There are a lot of things I hate about my wedding pictures and he wanted to "fix" some of those issues. He was lucky I fit back into my dress. At first, it totally stressed me out. But then it was really fun getting all fancy again and acting like I was a blushing bride when everyone at the temple told me how beautiful I looked. It was a little weird to have two kids tailing along, but we included them in a couple pictures that I love - even if they are a little confusing. Katrina took the photos and there are so many that I love, but I only included a small handful of favorites.

Year Seven: this was the year that two of my siblings were married within two days of each other, and within four days of our anniversary. So it was a wedding extravaganza. But Brigham and I were able to go out on our own to celebrate. We ate our hearts out on Mongolian grill.

Year Eight: I have absolutely nothing documented for this year. We had moved to Washington at this point, and were settling into our second year in Maple Valley.

Year Nine: I have absolutely nothing documented for this year. However, we did have our third child very recently added to our family.

And finally, this year. Year ten!

Brigham and I were very busy on our actual anniversary. We were watching my sister and I was up to my neck in kids' activities and basketball games. However, Brigham took work off early and we were able to sneak away with only Kendrick in tow to go out to lunch together. Then, when the kids and Kayleen got home from school, we packed them up to squeeze in a "walking" picnic - meaning we didn't have time to hike AND eat, so we ate dinner while we walked along the White River trail.

It was beautiful walking, throwing rocks in the river, rolling down hills, and snacking. We had a great time, despite an emergency bathroom run for one of the kids...but that's what you come to expect together after ten years of marriage and three kids, right?

A month later we were able to get a weekend off and escape while my mom watched our kids for us. We went about an hour away from our house to stay with my Aunt in Lynnwood. That might not sound exciting to you, but we knew it meant three days of gaming and good food and company. That equals a great time to us.

These are the games we played. The only game we played more than once was Smash Up. It might not look like a big stack of games, but some of these take a good six to seven plus hours to play. I won Castles, Mission to Red Planet, and Smash Up once, while my team killed Dracula in Fury to Dracula, and we all won for the co-op game Mansions of Madness. I lost horribly at Kemet. We had a blast. Nothing like a good strategy game.

Brigham also gave me a real pearl necklace and bracelet while we were away. It was sweet because, during our wedding ceremony, our wedding sealer gave Brigham a beautiful shell and explained that it is an oyster shell that works to take a bit a dirt and, through strife and toil, turns that dirt it into a beautiful pearl. The dirt represents our marriage and the work that needs to be put into it. The sealer then turned to me and told me that he was giving me nothing because I am the symbolic pearl in the end. The shell is to remind Brigham of all the work that he needs to do, but if he does it he'll get me as a pearl in the end. Brigham gave me the pearl jewelry set to remind me that I'm still his pearl after ten years. Sappy, huh? Sappy and sweet.




I told Brigham the only thing that would have made it better was if we had taken a hike each morning. It was BEAUTIFUL weather that weekend, and it was a bit of a bummer that we wasted it indoors. We took a walk each day, but a nice hearty hike would have satisfied my need to be outdoors and move. Now we know for next time.

We were truly spoiled this year by my aunt who hosted and fed us, and my mom who took care of my sick toddler while we were out of town.

And that's ten years, folks. What have we learned? I need to be better about recording what we did. My hope is that some day my kids will love looking this over and seeing what we did each year. That they'll remember that Brigham and I love each other and that we did fun stuff together to celebrate our marriage. Because that's what we do.

I admit, this anniversary was a bit hard for me. I felt old. I was only twenty-nine and yet married for TEN years? How could I feel young and so old at the same time? I still feel like we're barely starting to try and figure it out together, and yet it's been a decade.

We have three kids together, we've moved four times, had seven plus jobs, and earned three college degrees together. Pretty good. I hope we'll have at least one more of each of those in the next decade. So much that we've done together and even more to look forward to.

I did make Brigham this little ditty for our ten-year, and I love how it shows the progression of time and it has a bit of both sap and truth to it.

I'm so grateful Brigham has been patient with me for 3,652 days, and on those days when he isn't, I'm grateful we have laughter, love, and hugs to fall back on. Happy Anniversary, Brigham. I really love you!