8 Years!

Yesterday we celebrated our 8th anniversary!  I was at work of course but I was trying to decide what my wife would like most of all for an anniversary gift and I decided what she would probably want was time, so I arranged for my parents to pick up the two older kids and take them away for the morning, where they had a grand time playing with cousins (thanks again, Mom and Dad and Auntie Elise and cousins!), and then I came home a little early from work with flowers and so-so sushi from Walmart so that I could take over when they woke up from their naps so she had the rest of the afternoon free too, and then surprised her with this:

Still working on likenesses, but you get the idea.

Then we hired a really fun babysitter and took to La Jolla Groves for a delicious dinner with a little plus-one:

Such an adorable tagalong, and he didn't make a peep.

Then we went home and I sabotaged my own food dehydrator gift secret and then we shared some amazing cupcakes from the shop downtown and watched Psych until we couldn't make it through two episodes and crashed after a long and fun day.

The kids told us this morning that they want to get married (not to each other), and if that's not a ringing endorsement of how we're doing, I don't know what is!  It's wonderful to have a partner who's clever and lovely and takes care of so many things and makes me laugh.  All the love to my Juliet (as in O'Hara, not Capulet).

The real deal.  Smoldering back when it used to be called (yikes) smizing.

Lucky 7

Quick, before it's more than a full calendar month late!

We had our anniversary and even actually celebrated it!

On the Saturday before we dropped off the kids at Mom and Dad's house and went to do sealings:

Kissy kissy

 And then we went to lunch at the beloved Asian Buffet:

walnut shrimp *DIES*

 And then on the day of I surprised The Wife with this little number:

Like I do

Detail because sexy shoe in sexy toe point

And then we went to a work party celebrating our anniversary the new office:

He hasn't stopped talking about working at Daddy's desk ever since

And all in all we had a nice evening of free and delicious barbecue and then put the poopsies to bed and probably fell asleep on the couch because they do wear us out. XD

I do so love that wife of mine.

Lucky me.

The Last Five Years

(Not to be confused with the musical of the same name, which I love, but which I haven't actually listened to in its entirety for the last five years, because after I was married it suddenly became too sad.)

Five years ago yesterday I went from being a bachelor (read: lonely) to being a husband (read: blissfully happy).  Five years is a pretty big milestone, and we have always and often talked about the big plans of funtivities we would do and places we would travel when we reached it, but when the time finally came, we found we had our hands pretty full with this:

So those plans will have to wait a little while.  But, northeastern coast or southwestern coast or right here in the mountains, we're still joyously and quietly celebrating five glorious years of marriage, and just over a year of having added a third most splendid member to our party.  Marriage has been a lot of things so far, some of which I expected, and some of which I never could have anticipated, but all of it, up, down and in between, has been just exactly what I want and need.  This girl of mine is special and she really does make me want to be better in every way.

Ah, so young.  She's just as lovely though (lovelier!).

I'll post again later with more details about the house (that we have purchased -- OoO -- and what a story it is!) and our actual day-of celebration, however minimal and/or subdued it was (what am I saying, we had our first flood!), but for now...

... happy fifth anniversary, Wife!!!  I promise I'll take you to Maine one day, but in the meantime let's just keep emptying boxes and filling closets and stocking shelves and spending money to make this house our home.

Four Years of Wedded Bliss

Yesterday was our fourth anniversary!  It's always nice to reach another milestone, and we had a wonderful time being together with our little Bobo.  It's so great that I work from home so I can have little visits from them both throughout the day, and sometimes have a little coworker while The Wife has a nap or does some of her own things.

We didn't have a big fancy celebration this year, but we did reach another milestone:  Leaving the CAG with a great pair of babysitters so we could enjoy a nice dinner alone at Chef's Table (by the way, check the expiration dates on your LivingSocial deals for that place... sometimes the window of time to use them is pretty narrow).  The food was delicious as usual, and partway through dinner, after regularly checking our phones for messages from the sitters, we realized we have definitely become Those Parents who go out to have a little private time and then proceed to think and talk about their offspring pretty much the entire time (I guess all parents do, really).  But we did have a nice time for an hour or two, and although it would have been a little easier if the baby hadn't started very uncharacteristically crying right before we left (his outburst even warranted the full-first-and-middle-name treatment from me), he seemed to do all right for Lacie and Leland, who were so nice to come over and watch him for us.  I'm sure he loved his first babysitters!!!  Next time will be easier, I'm sure.  He was probably just still hungry, or maybe gassy.  I know that always makes ME cranky.  Ha.  Gross.

 

Yes, maybe I AM wearing the same thing I wore to that restaurant on a previous anniversary.  Try to forgive me.

 

These were the updates that were periodically sent to us throughout dinner.  My boy already has a love for Asian peoples.

First babysitters!  Christmas jammies FTW!

And then we all watched a so-so episode of Project Runway together.  And a fun time was had by all, including the little one who finally calmed down once he had his second dinner and a little rock.

Happy anniversary, Wife!!!  I'm sorry I dropped the dozen-per-year tradish, but by this point I think that would become a little bit much.  I figured you would be quite happy with a dozen from me and a dozen from The Boy.  I love you!!!

And why not end with a few beautiful photos from our reception?

Yes.

There is something so marvelous about this photo shoot.

Twu wuv.

An extra P.S.  :*

Two Years Ago... (Or, The Best Two Years)

... I was married to the best girl in da world!  I love her so!  She is sweet, charming, talented, funny, gorgeous, and perfect for me in every way.  I just spent a few minutes looking through all of our wedding pictures and I felt such a rush of affection and memories that the workday suddenly seemed really long.

We have some fun plans in store for tonight, so I'll do a post about those after they happen, but I did have to post something right away to express my utter happiness and excitement (especially since The Wife wrote such a delightful blogpost herself today about how awesome I am and we are).

I can't believe it's been a year since we celebrated our first anniversary in Windermere (alas that we can't be somewhere quite as exotic for our second).  It hardly even seems that long since we were actually wedded (which you can read about all over again here, if you feel so inclined).  Are we still newlyweds?  Sure, why not?  We still feel like it.  :D

Now those were the Best Two Years.  (So far!)  I love you more than ever, Wife!  Let's be married forever, okay??

Ye Olde Englande, Week 5: A Lot of Lakes

So, just to keep up with things, I'll give a few highlights from last week and of course refer you to Julie's blog, where she has posted another update about our recent goings-on.

As for me, the highlight for this week was of course our anniversary trip to the Lake District.  We had made plans to try to make our way to Disneyland Paris for this momentous occasion, but due to some unforeseen paperwork issues at the UK border, we were afraid that if we left the country, we might not be allowed back in.  So, England-bound, we decided to visit the picturesque Lake District.

On the walk up to Hill top, Beatrix Potter's home.  It looked like a setting out of Lord of the Rings.

Oh, that Mr. McGregor.  Such a hata.  His face also seems to have been fashioned out of some kind of gourd.

We stayed in a charming Bed & Breakfast in Windermere called the Hillthwaite House, which featured a posh dining area and a wonderful selection of breakfast options in the mornings, which included a Full English Breakfast, complete with black pudding, also known as blood pudding.  (!!!!!)  There were many lakes, but our adventures centralized at the biggest, Lake Windermere.  The town, which reminded me a lot of Park City in style and tourism aspects, was fairly uncrowded and we enjoyed taking our time there.  We did a lot of walking, rode a ferry across Lake Windermere, visited Beatrix Potter's home (parts of which are featured in many of her book illustrations), dipped our feet in the lake, had some amazing ice cream, did a little window shopping, ordered and ate way too much Indian take-away, and watched some movies on TV and from the hotel's DVD selection.  It was a wonderful, two-night stay and we were sad to go back the work the day after we returned to London.

Anyway, as you can surely tell from my previous post, I certainly adore my wife, and this weekend away was the perfect celebration to commemorate and remember the events of last 15 August, which we did in great detail in our conversations throughout the day.  Best year of my life!  (That's right, the best.)

One Year Ago...

... I married my one and only.  I loved you as much as was humanly possible then, but my capacity to love expands every day I spend with you.

Wife, companion, best friend, confidante, lover, advisor, supporter, you make me a better person by knowing you.  You make me laugh and you make me smile.  You encourage me and you challenge me.  I'm ever learning to be a husband and you are ever patient and understanding.

Here's to one glorious year so far, and to an eternity more.

A Tale of Rings and a Healing Finger: An Anniversary Blogpost

I don't even know if this is blogworthy story, but I'm due for an update, so here goes.

Two months ago today I was married to my lovely wife. We had previously carefully picked out our wedding bands and even had them engraved , and the very nice salesman at the shop insisted that we get mine a half-size smaller than we had decided, since my finger would surely shrink in the winter months. I learned quickly, however, that we should have gone with the half-size bigger (you wouldn't really think a half a size makes that much difference, but oh how it does). My finger was rapidly swelling and at times the ring wouldn't even fit on or off of it without much pain and extreme difficulty. I was pretty sure your wedding band shouldn't put your finger in a state of perpetual throbbing and pain, but I thought it might just be the California humidity or getting used to a new ring or something. After a while I just quit trying to remove it altogether, which very quickly started to cause a band of raw, white, pinched skin at the base of my ring finger. The ring store and online research suggested I give it a couple months, since winter was coming, but I decided in the end that I would rather have it be a little loose for half the year than unbearably tight for the opposite half. Luckily the ring shop provides care for the life of the ring, and while Tungsten, evidently the hardest of all metals, cannot be resized (which is a shame, because Julie and I are both a little sentimental about these sorts of things and I wanted to keep hold of my original wedding band), they were willing to replace it (and they had better, since it was their idea to get a ring that was too small for my finger), and I quite insisted they foot any bill for the engraving too (even though we didn't originally have it engraved at that location...). They were nice enough to provide this little loaner in the interim so I looked like a married man still:


I'll spare you all the details of the following two days weeks that it took to provide my replacement, and suffice it to say that I called once, sometimes twice every day as suggested, only to find that it had been engraved crooked at least three times, and then the $100,000 machine was broken and needed to be fixed, and then when it finally arrived, believe it or not, they had misspelled the engraving. I mean... isn't that something you double- and triple-check the spelling for? Several days later, a ten-minute job was finally finished and I am now wearing the wedding band we picked out, but in the size that was meant for my finger. I'm a happy man, and my finger is healing nicely.

Happy anniversary, baby! Kuv hlub koj!

A Glorious Wedding

Just over three weeks ago I was wed to my beloved Julie Ann. I finally have a few minutes to sit and blog about it all. I decided against a detailed synopsis of what happened, since most of the people who read this blog were present anyway, but I am going to provide, in bulleted fashion, a list of highlights of the day.

• Things started off pretty stormy. Our morning brunch was forcibly relocated from the awning in the front yard to inside the house. Luckily Mom's living room/kitchen is perfectly suited to host a party of exactly such a number of guests. We were glad to have a little something before the afternoon wedding to get the Party started and get loved ones gathered near.

Seethong and Mai Chou Yang came all the way from Appleton, WI to visit and to attend the wedding. It was my first time meeting Emerson Cojtus, their 3-month old baby. OMGsocute.

Kami had just finished doing Julie's hair, which was gorgeous! It looked even better later on when the flowers and ribbon were added. Those girls were up and working on it at 7 am.
What a couple of troopers!

Here you see a photo of what the storm did to the awning and the table setup we hadall ready to go. Things were looking pretty grim for the reception later that evening...

• I forgot this when Julie, I and our escorts headed to the temple. Yes, I raced back to find it, and yes, I panicked when I couldn't, and yes, I said a little prayer, and yes, I found it just in time. (Much thanks to Amber's skills for providing it. It was a perfect companion piece to the strand of pearls and the pearl earrings I gave Julie for her birthday.)
  

• We had a really lovely sealing in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. The officiating sealer was Alvin G. Schow, evidently randomly assigned to us. I don't remember everything he said, but he talked about the importance of covenants and how we will report to Heavenly Father in a little PPI (his euphemism for Judgment Day). All I know is that I was so happy to have this beautiful girl sitting next to me and so many of our loved ones gathered around. And yes, I was a little misty when he declared us husband and wife. I'm not ashamed of my emotionality.
  
• And then she appeared in her full wedding attire and my jaw almost quite literally hit the ground, I had never seen anyone look so beautiful.

• Less than 30 minutes after emerging triumphantly as husband and wife, thanks to the expert organizational and photographical skills of Matt and Travis from Tandem Photographers, we had all of our group shots with everyone and were on our way to taking the traditional couple photos around the temple. They turned out just beautiful! (This is just a random sampling, I have posted hundreds of wedding photos on facebook in the last few days for those who are interested.) As you will notice, the weather cleared up perfectly, leading to a nice, cool afternoon and a blue sky dotted with white, fluffy clouds. I almost stressed in the morning, but all was well by the time we headed to the temple.

(Emily, we missed you so, but we're so glad you're doing so great. Hang in there!)

Yes, we kind of just wanted to mix it up for those last two pictures. Random, I know, but it was fun. We love you, Laceland!Mah boyz.

And now, presenting highlights from the official wedding photos:

Special thanks again to Tandem Photographers for the professional and friendly experience.

• The reception was a huge success, by all accounts:

~ The tent resumed its former, upright position, and the weather remained gorgeous and even kind of cool all the night long.

~ The cake was beautiful, and turned out exactly as Julie hoped it would. (And wow, it tasted really good. Thanks, Dawna, and hurrah, the colors were just right too.)


~ The guests were smiling and abundant, and we were happy to share the evening with so many loved ones.

I like to call the above two the "Sisters Do As Sisters Should" photos.And this one is the "Brothers Do as Brothers Should."

And this one is the "Former Elders in the WMM Do As Former Elders in the WMM Should."

~ The music and slideshow were a big hit, though it took some doing to get it started. Special thanks to Dan Findley for his moral support.

~ Then of course we had to take some awkward pictures. If there's one thing we love better than awkward wedding photos that somehow look just like bad prom pictures, it's wedding photos that are intentionally awkward. But I think we love the first ones better, though it was fun to take some really bad ones. Special thanks to Lili for posing us just right.

~ Then we just couldn't take it anymore and busted up laughing.

~ Then of course we had to take some LOST Club pictures...

~ And a few Disneyland reunion pictures...

~ And then it was finally time to head out! And a special thanks to the Disneyland Club for decorating the car so tastefully and celebratorily. (Best made-up word ever.)

We drove away and all I could think about is how lucky I am to have this newlywed bride sitting next to me, and that we would never again be parted, in this life or the next. I was so over being single, and I know this is the girl who was meant to break my nearly three-decade streak of bachelorhood. Maybe it won't always be a picnic (as some people feel the need to inform newlyweds for some inexplicable reason), but even during struggles and trials I know I can still be happy because I have my beautiful and patient companion by my side, and we were sealed for time and all eternity by the power of God. Ah, yeah.

Honeymoon post coming soon! Stay tuned...