We commemorated both occasions, but between work and school and kids, we barely had a moment to reflect on what a milestone ten years actually is. Maybe it's because we anticipate many more decade celebrations...sorry, Jon, you're stuck with me.
At any rate, I'll not put it off any longer and briefly recount what ten years looks like for us:
10 years
3 moves
2 states
7(ish) jobs
2 kids
...and a partridge in a pear tree
It all sounds so cliché to say that the time has flown by, I wouldn't trade it for anything, I'm more in love than ever...blah, blah, blah. All of those statements are true, but I would be remiss if I didn't also point out that none of this marriage business has been easy and it's rarely glamorous. But I feel so #blessed to be married to my best friend. Barf.
And now I'm done with triteness for the duration of the blog post.
If you've known us for a while, you know that we have two official wedding anniversaries. Since we like to make life more complicated than it needs to be, we chose to get married twice: once at the courthouse in Kansas City to take care of the legal business and then again several months later in a church in Bamberg, Germany.
We celebrate both occasions but count the Germany anniversary as the "real" one. The way we celebrated this past year was a good reflection of that.
For our "First" 10th Anniversary (don't worry...it's only going to get more confusing) on November 3rd, we utilized our babysitting co-op to get all gussied up for a nice dinner out.
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| Post-dinner photo with the beautiful flowers Jon gave me |
For our "Second" 10th Anniversary on March 4th, we upped our game a bit. The night prior, we actually hired a babysitter so we could stay out longer. We went downtown for drinks, dinner, and dessert (alliteration unintentional). Needless to say, I am glad that my eight-week fitness program that required me to keep a food journal ended that morning. Quite providential.
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| Ready for a night on the town [photo credit: Elsa] |
That was all Jon thought we were doing for our anniversary, but I had other plans. We were married in a Catholic church in Germany, so I thought it would be cool to have a vow renewal in our Lutheran church. Our pastor was totally on board and helped with the secret plans to make it a special day.
On our actual anniversary--March 4th--we went to church on Sunday as usual. At the conclusion of the service, the pastor asked Jon to come forward. He was pretty confused until he saw me then join him at the front of the church with a bouquet of flowers. It was at this moment that I slipped my new wedding band to Elsa to hand to Jon.
I had lost my original wedding band at my grandmother's house the previous Christmas. I was pretty devastated about it and was avoiding replacing it. But I figured that our tenth anniversary would be an okay time to get a new one. I opted for an identical ring but engraved with our wedding day: 4 March 2008 (written German-style, of course).
Jon knew I had ordered a new ring, but he didn't know that it had arrived. He realized instantly what it was when Elsa handed him the ring box. If I had to get a new ring, having it placed on my finger during a wedding vow renewal was the best way to do it.
After some pretty touching words, we then celebrated like all good Lutherans do after any service by having coffee and treats in the fellowship hall. The rest of the day was spent with family, and we ended it by watching our wedding video as we do every year. All in all, it was a lovely celebration, and we look forward to many more.
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| Our vow renewal was a family affair |
Cheers to 10 years!
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