Six Years

So Saturday was our six year anniversary. We both remarked the other day how we're starting to feel like the old married couple. Our friends are still getting married and just starting families and we're feeling like it's all so old hat for us...

I was trying to think of what I could share that we've learned this year about our relationship and maybe the biggest thing is our constant desire to be better spouses to each other. We don't want to settle for the status quo but truly desire to love each other better. It's so easy to say and so much harder to put into practice! What I did notice about both of our anniversary cards to each other was that we both commented about how, six years later, we still look forward to the end of the day when we get to see each other again. No matter how bad the day our highlight is still each other. :-)

As for what we did this year...Howard's parents came up Saturday night and watched the kids so that we could go out to dinner. The time flew by but we had great food and a wonderful time just lingering over a meal instead of rushing or being interrupted by our kids. On Sunday we left the kids with my parents for the day and went to a local burrito joint (did I mention my love of Mexican food!) for lunch and then played a round of miniature golf together. It was nothing serious, no deep discussions, just the two of us enjoying being together. We needed it, benefited from it and have great sixth anniversary memories to look back on. Howard and I both got hole-in-ones so that was pretty cool too.

Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine

We took last Saturday and went to Strasburg, PA for A Day Out with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Chase has been looking forward to this since July. I love this picture because it captures perfectly how a little kid feels when they have to wait in line for 20 minutes to do something they've been waiting forever for. :-)

The train ride was a short twenty minutes but Chase loved it. We saw cows, school buses, a donkey, a goat, miniature horses and draft horses on our ride. It was a very exciting twenty minutes to a three year old.

Alexa had fun too, although most of it was spent quite taken with the "babies" (children the same age or slightly older than she is) who were sitting around us. Check out her dimple! We still don't know who it came from although my Aunt Ruth has dimples so maybe it's a recessed gene!

We were in the William McFarlane car. It was quite spiffy and very nice compared to the train ride we took last year.

There were a lot of other activities for the kids to do. Chase loved the Cranky Cars which had to be cranked by hand. He rode this ride three times and loved every second of them.

He had fun trying to race away from daddy!

Howard and the kids are at the back of this mini-train. The train is about 86 years old and still steaming away.

This was one of the vacation days that we had planned this year. It was a beautiful day and we all had a great time. Chase got to pick out a t-shirt and he also got a Thomas the Tank Engine train whistle so that he can imitate the sounds of the trains we were around. He loves both and at bedtime the "poop-poop" of the whistle can be heard now and again.

Labor Day

For us Labor Day meant a chance to have Howard home for a little while. He is in the midst of his busy season at work and our time with him is limited. He is often working six days a week right now and Labor Day weekend was no exception. That he had Sunday and Monday off was wonderful for all of us. We took the kids to a lake that I grew up around and Howard and I spent time together at once we met.

Chase and daddy were trying to spot the fish.

Lexie and I went off to find a good spot to watch the boats launching from the marina.

It was a perfectly beautiful day. The sailboats were out in force and the kids loved watching them all. We waved to everyone launching and they happily waved back making the kids feel like mini celebrities.

We took bread to feed the fish which Chase enjoyed chucking all over.

Alexa hungrily chowed down on the bread (which was going stale) instead of throwing it since she hadn't eaten much breakfast that morning. She was slamming the pieces into her mouth so fast she was barely able to chew!

We took Chase's bike and went for a mile walk/ride down the walking path before coming back for a little more lake time.

Yes, I'm starting to show quite a bit...:-)

We found a small hill that Howard and Chase were running up and down. Alexa didn't want to be left out and she LOVED having daddy run her back and forth.

     We returned home for leftover hotdogs and shrimp on the grill. I'm the only one who eats shrimp and I relished it. I had marinated it in balsamic vinaigrette and then skewered the shrimp for grilling. Chase, who hasn't liked shrimp in the past, asked to try it. We gave him one and he proceeded to try to eat all of mine! He gobbled them down like candy so I had to guard my meal carefully! I was thrilled that he liked them though and I'll be making extra next time.
     Chase keeps asking if I want to go back to the lake again and take his bike to ride. We'll be heading back the first chance we get!