Happy Anniversary! {June 13th, 2003}

For our anniversary we went to Ocean Shores for the day. On our first anniversary, we spent the weekend there camping. It rained all weekend, our camp site flooded, we moved our tent in the middle of the night to higher ground. We never got dry. Morning sickness was awful (but went away that weekend for good!). And it was perfect on our last day there. Ocean Shores holds good memories for us (and for me from when I was a kid). So we wanted to take our cute kids to the beach and help celebrate the beginning of our family.

Ahhh, the Ocean! That's the Pacific Ocean! Isn't it amazing? And beautiful??? I love it!

We got some kites for the kids. It was really windy, and what a better way to spend a few hours on the beach, then flying a kite? Zoe loved it! But not the wind. She was a mix for giggles and crying. Silly girl.

Jake loved flying his kite! He would have run all around the beach. He was jumping up and down and had a blast! But he would not take his shoes off. He hated the wind. And ended up going first into the van.

Do you see that? The pure joy on Leo's face? He was in heaven! We were a little worried about him holding onto his kite, but he never let go! Leo loves the beach! He loves the water! He loves the wind! He ran into the water with us and would have stayed there all day!

Love letter in sand!

The three kites. From left to right, Zoe's, Jake's and Leo's! We hooked them onto our van and let them fly while we played in the sand. It was nice to hear them flapping in the wind and seeing the wind play with the kids' kites!

Jake in the sand. He played with it, but would not get on it.

Zoe likes the sand. I think she liked being all the way in the wind. But her hair was all over the place. She didn't much care for that.

Leo making a castle with Daddy's help. Like I said, this boy would have stayed all day at the beach!

Teage did really well for his second time at the beach. He didn't care for the wind. But if we turned him away, he would go and play. He loved being near his mama and just playing with our sand toys! We took him once to go put his feet in the water. He loves water, but once he felt the cold Pacific, he started to cry.

Jake was the first in the van, and the others soon followed. That's fine. I wasn't ready to leave. So we put on Finding Nemo (which, btw, Steve and I watched in theaters a year ago today for the start of our honeymoon!) and just watched the Ocean and some people wind surfing. It was so relaxing to be in our van and watching the waves.

Seven years later and we're still pretty cute!

We took the long way home and drove from Ocean Shores down to Astoria and through Seaside onto 26 and home. It added an hour or so, but it was ok. We were together on our special day, with our wonderful kids (because really, who could say lets take the long way home with four kids 5 and under???) and see the beauty that God has blessed us with!

Seven years with this guy has gotten me:

Three states

Seven different apartments

Three different cars

Four kids

Two Graduations (for him)

Lots of different jobs

But in the end, all worth it because it's has been with the love of my life! The reason why I can get up and do this every day. The reason why my life is so much fun and wonderful and awesome. Really, because Steve is truly the best husband ever! I am so lucky to have him forever! Because spending eternity without him would not be fun. Whoever said that getting married on Friday the 13th was bad luck, really was wrong! It has been lucky for us!!

Steve I can't wait to see where our journey takes us. I know one thing though, I wouldn't want to do it with anyone else. I love you! Forever and ever!!!