We’re so thrilled to have a new sister in the family. Travis and Jenna were married at the historic Deepwood Estate in Salem, Oregon. The weather was perfect and the lovely couple organized an intimate wedding for friends and family. We enjoyed their unique twists, such as a taco food cart, an area for field games, a piñata, and riding off on a tandem bicycle to their happily ever after.
We dropped the kids off with Jenni’s parents in Washington then drove to Sunriver through the Mt Hood route. The sun had set before we got to the mountain and made the entire drive dark. We arrived in four hours, only making two stops: once to try to stop a rattling sound in our gear and another, a bio-break at a casino.
During our drive, we reminisced about our marriage, told each other what we were grateful in each other, and explored conversations that are best uninterrupted by our children’s darling requests.
“If we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.” – John F. Kennedy
I am believing America is still a safe place to share differing opinions. The following post is an exploration of my changing opinions. Read on if you wish to ponder with me.
For our eleventh anniversary, we enjoyed a date weekend together exploring Cathedral Park and the St. John’s bridge. Jenni and I were experimenting with video features of our new camera and sound equipment. Recording good quality video and audio with a SLR camera is much more complicated than I thought. But we enjoyed learning new things as we recorded ourselves answering trivia questions.
We walked across the St. John’s bridge and added it to the list of bridges we’ve crossed together. We hope to walk across all of Portland pedestrian bridges.
I remembered that the most important part of our wedding to Jenni was not her dress, not the venue, not the cake, and not the ring—it was the people. When she told me that, I found myself astonished by her heart.
I’m thankful that a decade later, our celebration included people at its center. Our anniversary would not be complete without spending time with those who have supported us for the past ten years. What a great gift to have nearly everyone in our original wedding party and our closest friends and family join us in a reunion.
I discovered a wonderful storytelling app for the iPad, Adobe Voice, which allowed us to quickly put together our Mother’s Day sentiments this year. I highly recommend trying it out if you have an iPad and a desire to tell stories. Check out the two we created.
For our ninth chapter of our “happily ever after,” we embarked on two health challenges, one ongoing kitchen remodel, and one career milestone.
Though I wasn’t quite as surprised as my dad was that Jenni and I were celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary, I felt the growth of eight years of learning how to live out our love since the magical day. There were two things that Jennilyn did this year that stood out for me.
Recently, I posted the following on facebook: Air hugs are just as irksomely incomplete as playing only 7 notes of a major scale. Stay well everyone! Get rest, go exercise, stress less, pray more, laugh more, and of course…eat your veggies!
While this comment is referring to getting a cold this week, my family’s overall progress in health has been something I am so thankful for this year.
Here is a synopsis of what has been going on this past year:
Seven years and three kids later, I’m more thankful than ever that I said, “I do” at the altar. For all my imagining and dreaming, I couldn’t have come up with the life I have now—it’s so much better.