10 Year Anniversay!

Last week marked 10 years of marriage for us. It's crazy to think that we are still in our twenties, yet we've been married for so long. Weird. Here's the summary:

10 Years of Marriage
9 New Bikes and Scooters
8 States we've been to together (or so)
7 (and a half) years of school between the two of us
6 Callings for each of us (give or take a couple)
5 Amazing kids (almost...almost 5 not almost amazing)
4 Different addresses
3 Cars
2 Cats (who are no longer with us)
1 Wonderful life together!

We wanted to go somewhere to celebrate, but I didn't want to be 8 months pregnant when we went, so the trip ended up being at the beginning of June. We were able to leave our kids with my parents (thank you!) and fly to San Diego. Why San Diego? Good question. We had free flights, so we wanted to fly somewhere, but we didn't want to be flying forever either. We thought about going on a cruise out of California, but I realized that we could spend a lot less if we just flew to San Diego and stayed there. Maybe another year for the cruise.

Day 1
The first day, we flew in, rented a car and went to the San Diego temple. It is always good to go to the temple, and that one is so interesting and beautiful.

After that we drove out to La Jolla where we ate, walked along the beach and saw random seals laying on the rocks there. That was really cool to see.

 

 

Later that day we went to Old Town and went through the Mormon Battalion museum. It was actually really interesting to know the history there and it was pretty entertaining as well. I would recommend going there.

Afterwards, we stuffed ourselves at a Mexican restaurant and I got serenaded by a Mexican with a guitar.

You would think our day would have been over by then, but for some reason we ended up at the mall near our hotel and decided to watch a late movie. Somehow, Jared convinced me to see The Avengers and somehow, the seats didn't recline enough for me to get comfortable while I was sleeping through it. It was probably a pretty good movie, all things considered, but I was soooo tired and couldn't make it through. Jared enjoyed it anyway.

Day 2
The next morning we went to Sea World. We had a really good day there and saw every single show (besides one kid show). The shows really are entertaining and so worth it to see. We walked a lot, more than we would have if we had had our kids there. I'm sure they would have loved it, but was so nice to be without kids for a change.

 

For some reason, we had to try on hats (a tradition that started years ago at Disney World)

 The amazing animals! So entertaining.

 

 Jared went on the roller coaster Manta (he's somewhere on that ride)...

 

...while I looked at (and touched) these.

 

That night we ate fish tacos and became repeat customers at this awesome frozen yogurt place. Yummy!

Day 3
We spent a lot of the next day at Balboa Park. This place is an amazing conglomerate of museums, gardens and cultural experiences. We found out that our Thanksgiving Point memberships let us into certain other museums around the country, including here. We walked a lot trying to find the right museums and kept thinking we were at the right one, when we weren't. We eventually found the right ones and went through an art museum, a natural history museum and (our favorite) a science and technology museum. This one was so fun because it had these blocks to build with, really fun interactive displays and grossology, a room about all the gross things the human body does. I couldn't believe they actually had that display, but it definitely made us laugh.

At the museum making our towers

For lunch we met one of Jared's friends and his wife for lunch on the bay. I know, I didn't think Jared had any friends either, at least not good enough to call up and go to lunch with. I was impressed.  It was one of the guys at Motorola that was part of their lunch group back in the day. Good times.

That night we walked along the beach, but it was so cold that we didn't last long. Jared also ate the best cheeseburger he'd ever had at some shop near the beach. This is significant because he usually doesn't rave about food like that, like ever. Things are good, but food is mainly something that helps to keep him alive more than something to be talked about and thoroughly enjoyed like this was.

Since the beach was so cold, we soaked in the hot tub at our hotel instead, even me. I know they say not to go into hot tubs while pregnant and that my child may be deformed due to my belligerent behavior, but it sure felt good. It was more like taking a bath anyway.

Aug. 10
On our actual anniversary, we went out to eat and then painted pottery. It was really fun, but I tell you, it's harder than it looks to make something that looks really cool. I wanted to make the inside of my bowl fade from red to yellow, but it only sort of worked. The outside wasn't supposed to end up looking like the Wonder Bread package either, but it did. Oh well. I loved the way Jared's vase turned out. We just may have to go again some time.

Happy Anniversary Jared! I love you so much and wouldn't want to imagine my life without you. Side note:  when we first got married, we set goals for our life, short term as well as long term. We have actually accomplished just about everything we wanted to do (both of us going back to school, buying a house, having 2 boys and 2 girls, moving back to Utah, and getting a new cat--that one really was on the list. Instead of getting a new cat, we just got rid of the ones we had, close enough). The only thing was, we only went up to 10 years. It seemed so far distant back then. Now what? I guess it's time to think of some new ones, eh?