Nine Years.

What a journey, what a story. Yet, oddly, it doesn’t seem like we’ve been married for nine years. Of course, when I think of all the things we’ve done together, all the things we’ve faced, worked through, laughed about, and even conquered together, there’s no way we could have fit it into anything less than nine years. I guess it’s a good thing we have so much fun together, because time just seems to fly.

(Warning, picture heavy post ahead!)

For our anniversary, we went to the mountains… back to where Tony proposed to me… back to where we got married. Remember that? LINK We did our “wedding aisle” hike, I don’t know if you remember, but there is a bit of rock climbing at the end that. Despite having done this hike a few times in the last couple years, we’ve never felt comfortable completing the rock climbing part with William. We decided to try it this time, though, with William on me in the Tula.

Tony wore William in the Tula carrier on the way up. I wore him for the rock climbing portion, since the crevices were narrow. Tony went ahead of me and made suggestions on hand and foot holds, and William encouraged me with, “You’re doing good, mommy. You’re almost there! Keep going! You got this!” When I finally did the final jump across the rocks, William said, “You did it! Yay Mommy!”

The views were resplendent as ever, and we even had a visit from a chipmunk. We took a different trail down and it was a lot steeper. Since I wear William down the mountain (going down speedily is my strength ha), let’s just say we won’t be taking that trail again… my thighs are still feeling the burn 4 days later.

Highlights included, eating at our favorite restaurant, visiting our favorite candy shop, visiting their little zoo and going on a bicycle ride that was shortened by a flat tire, thankfully not too far from our cabin.

We also celebrated Tony’s birthday while we were up there. So, happy birthday and happy anniversary to my love. Still the same man I grew to love, only he seems to be even more kind, thoughtful and hilarious to hang out with than he was when I married him. That’s a good thing.

: Tony’s birthday pancake

: His truck with a load of jam.

: At the zoo.

: In front of the big kitty.

: What a big kitty

: Brown bears

: Pig, maybe a boar?

: Tony’s birthday dinner. Now that’s a load of guac.

: Love how he runs!

: Swinging at the park with his daddy.

: Swinging

: Climbed up a big ladder

: Swinging at the park with me.

: Jumping out of the swing made William laugh and laugh

: So I jumped again and again

: View from a top Castle Rock

: Once he got used to the wind, he loved it up there.

: Just enjoyed looking at the view

: Watching planes and the boats way, way down there.

: He crawled like a stink bug when he moved around haha

: Sitting next to his daddy.

: Starting our hike

: His daddy wearing him up

: We made it to the rock.

: One of the loveliest places we’ve nursed.

: Family selfie (at the top of Castle Rock)

: Just finished the rock climb

: Bald Eagle

: Our chipmunk visitor

: The end of our hike

: Cooling off our feet after our hike

: Sunset

: Walking our bikes due to a flat tire

: Sunflowers and pine tree

: He loved his happy meal box.

: Back to civilization

Next year, to celebrate a decade of wedded bliss, we’re thinking of doing a road trip with the goal of seeing Mt. Rushmore. Not sure how long that will take, or what else we’ll want to see, but I figure if anything can challenge a marriage, a road trip ought to do it. Thank the heavens above that we have GPS, because my map reading skills suck!