Ten years of us

I'm a little late in sharing this, but we had a belated anniversary date planned and I wanted to share a bit about our celebration.

We've been married for TEN YEARS! It simultaneously feels like no time and so much time. I've spent so much of my adulthood with Nicholas, and a whole decade as his wife!

On the actual day, he had to work in Chicago, per usual, so I took the boys with me to our local health food store to pick out some fun, Nicholas-approved snacks, like Epic bars and Nick's sticks turkey sticks, and Siete Jalepeno salt and vinegar chips. We watched a movie and talked for a long time and snuggled after the boys went to sleep.

And this past weekend, my father- and sister-in-law graciously agreed to watch the boys, so we could do an anniversary dinner date! We sat on the patio, as it was a cool, breezy evening. We don't eat out very often, so when we do, we like to choose foods that we couldn't easily make at home, so Nicholas ordered a spiced shrimp and I had mussels for the first time. And this particular restaurant does a really nice charcuterie board, so we ordered that, as well. We prayed for our food and our marriage over the last ten years and the years ahead and really enjoyed our food.

Since we were close to Lake Michigan (less than a mile) we drove down to the water. The waves were huge and it was a beautiful night. And then, we had just enough time to drive downtown and grab coffee before a local coffee shop closed for the evening. So sweet to come home to our boys and get into cozy clothes for a night in.

Every year around our anniversary, I write a little love letter to Nicholas.

Looking back over the last year, we grieved the passing of my Grandma Donna and the passing of Nicholas' grandfather, we had the first anniversary of my mother-in-law's passing and just the general coexistence of grief and joy, one alongside the other. We worked on projects in the yard, hung up a swing in the backyard for Cooper, went on a few family bike rides, went on a movie date, he started growing his hair out, we visited friends and family, built a lot of Lego and tile creations, and worked in the garden.

As I do every year around this time, I like to write a list of some of my favorite things about our life together right now:

We do gua sha together any night we're able to, in part for the lymphatic benefit, but it's also become a sweet little ritual together
We have gone on quite a few evening family walks in the last few weeks. The cool evenings and longer days (for now) mean firefly spotting and an easy bedtime routine when we get home
Lots of meals and coffee outside on our patio table on the deck
Talks about how much we love it where we live and how much we love our church
Grilling burgers (to be served with sourdough hamburger buns, of course), and steak and chicken thighs. The grilled meals are some of the easiest to make and most delicious to eat. We've eaten a lot of this hearty beef stew in the last year, always alongside homemade bread.
We really enjoy watching Simple Living Alaska YouTube channel together
Whoever gets up first makes the coffee for us both.
He kindly reminds me not to rush through life in the present for the sake of the future.
Watching these wonderful little boys grow and change and learn, wishing for them to grow and wishing stop time, sometimes

I'm so thankful for another year alongside you, Nicholas. I love you, sweetheart.

Forever yours, Andrea

Here are some of my favorite pictures of us from the last year of our marriage, most of which feature our little family of four, since we have the best little tagalong companions these days:

P.S.— if you're curious, here are my previous anniversary posts and our love story (the beginning of it, anyway; our story is ongoing, of course!) in two parts:

And for nostalgia's sake, here are a few photos of us from years ago.

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