Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary!!!! I cannot believe how the years have flown by! I have spent so much time the past few days reflecting on the past 10 years of my life and on all of the amazing things that Andy and I have done together. I thought it would only be appropriate for this occasion to post 10 pictures for our 10 years. It was so hard to choose only ten and extremely time consuming to go through all of our albums and look at all of our memories. So I will begin with a picture from when we were dating...
This picture was from one of our first dates, he took me spelunking, which I so did not want to do, I am so claustrophobic, but when you are in love you will do pretty much anything!!
The next picture I chose is the proposal picture, oh the proposal picture.....it is just a little less than totally romantic. Andy chose to propose to me immediately following my tonsillectomy surgery. To sum that moment up, basically what happened is I came out of surgery, the nurse asked me how my IV was, I was not responding because I was not even fully awake yet, the nurse asked me again a little more sternly this time, I still did not respond, then finally she said "Shay! Look at your hand!!!!" So I looked at my hand, and there it was a Mongolian wedding ring on my finger. I looked up to see Andy standing there with roses and I think that is when he proposed, I don't fully remember. He made up for it a few weeks later when my real ring arrived with a proposal at the Bountiful temple, where we were getting married.
My wedding day was the most perfect day! We had the best reception with dinner and dancing, it was so fun. I don't have much more to say about that day or event because it was AMAZING!
Next I chose a picture of us at Zion National Park in Utah. This is one of my favorite pictures of us. Our first two years of marriage were filled with many camping and fishing trips, well, just trips in general. Looking at our pictures it was so cool to see us at Disneyland, on the Jay Leno set, swimming with Dolphins, in Vegas, in Montana, Yellowstone National Park, Moab, Ennis, Bozeman, and it goes on and on.
When I didn't think things could get any more amazing....they did. We had our first baby, Porter! That was an amazing experience that I will never forget and it changed my life in so many ways. The emotion that lies in this picture is something that I cannot describe. Having a baby early and in the NICU is something most new parents are not prepared for. We made it through that together and now almost 8 years later I could not have asked for a more perfect son.
Then came Carlee, oh, our sweet Carlee girl, named after Andy's grandfather Carl who had passed away. Thinking of having her brings back a flood of memories, mostly at the hospital, before and after. I love this picture of Carlee and I, the joy I felt that day was so great. And what more could I ask for we had a perfect and healthy baby girl!
The next few pictures are all around the same time, but were so huge and life changing, I had to share them. First came Andy's medical school graduation. Medical school was such a long haul, but brought great experiences and memories on the beach of Maine that forever changed my love and appreciation for the sun. We got through medical school with the great support of each other and our families, me staying home with the two kids, living off of student loans. His graduation in Maine was a big sigh of relief that we were moving on to the next big stage in our life.
Buying our first home was something we had waited for so long to do and when the day came it was unbelievable. We pulled up to the house after a long drive from Maine to Ohio and we were all literally running around like crazy people from room to room, backyard to front yard. It was so comforting to know that for the next few years we had a place to call home and to raise our two soon to be three children.
After being in Ohio for just a few weeks we welcomed baby number 3 into our family. Having Tessa made everything about being in Ohio that much better. It also meant that we had three children all born in different states!
The last picture in this "10 of 10" series is a picture of Andy holding Marin at the hospital. It was just Andy and I there and I was brushing my teeth and getting dressed so he was just holding Marin. I sat down on the bed and got comfortable, and when I looked up I saw Andy holding our sweet new bundle by the window just adoring her. I grabbed the camera and took the picture that captured that moment perfectly.
So there it is, a quick summary of our past ten years. I know how truly lucky I am to have married Andy. I do not know any father or husband and wonderful as he is. Our life together has been so wonderful and I am so grateful for the life experiences that I have shared with this incredible man. I get so excited when I think about the next 10 years and where we will be then, especially when I don't even know where we are going to be living in 6 months when Andy finished residency! I love knowing that for all time and eternity I will have the best companion by my side. I love you so much Andy, Happy Anniversary!
