The Tale of our First Ten Anniversaries

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Time for another story! Last year was “The Tale of the Car,” chosen because we started the day by taking the van in for repairs. Would you believe another repair appointment is on the schedule for today?? However, I finally made progress on gathering notes from past anniversaries. Here are the first ten. Have fun learning about some of our previous celebrations, or lack thereof! 

Anniversary #1 – We didn’t even spend our first anniversary together! I was in California with family, taking advantage of my brother George’s missionary homecoming to introduce Weston to his great-grandparents.

Anniversary #2 – Our second anniversary came soon after our graduation from BYU. We left Weston with his grandparents and I accompanied Wayne on a trip to Los Angeles for a job interview. We celebrated (our anniversary, not a new job) with dinner at the Westin Bonaventure. As I recall, while the salad of green beans, mushrooms and scallops was delicious, other parts of the meal, including crunchy crabs and French pastries, were only so-so.

Anniversary #3 – I didn’t record how we celebrated on the Tuesday of our actual anniversary, but the Saturday before we went as a family to IOMEGA’s Lagoon Day. Here’s what I did record in my journal: “I feel I’ve been married forever, although I don’t feel old at all. It’s kind of unusual to already have two children, but I’m glad we do.”

Anniversary #4 – On the actual day of this weekday anniversary, we went to the temple. The Friday before we took the boys to spend some time with my sister and then enjoyed our staycation at the glamorous Flying J Motel. Well, maybe we enjoyed it; I wrote that Wayne got the flu so on Saturday he slept all day, while I helped with our ward’s booth at the stake fair. (Anyone remember those events??)

Anniversary #5 – This was a pretty typical celebration for us. We had a candle light dinner at home after the boys were in bed. A couple of weeks later we stayed at the Radisson Inn in Ogden. This was the year I felt so embarrassed when our credit card was declined at check-in. Wayne wasn’t too surprised, because it turns out he had bought me a new watch. Wasn’t that sweet? It also didn’t really compare to the “I love you” balloon bouquet I had gotten for him, but at least I stayed within budget!

Anniversary #6 – With the stress of preparing and leaving for a family vacation, we totally forgot about this anniversary until the day after. We spent the day with Wayne’s parents and Julie, playing, swimming and boating with our boys. I guess that’s a pretty good celebration.

Anniversary # 7 – This year our anniversary was on a Sunday, so we went to church (where there was a change in our bishopric: Bishop Cook – now a member of the Seventy – was released, and Bishop Cypers was sustained). After the boys were in bed we had a candlelight dinner of gazpacho and steak.

Anniversary #8 – At 8:12 on the morning of this Monday anniversary, I wrote in my journal that we hadn’t decided how to celebrate our anniversary yet. I never got back to the subject! I imagine we kept with our usual pattern of a late dinner. These were busy years with four little boys and a husband who was a part-time student with a full-time job.

Anniversary #9 – Ditto the year before. After no entries during the summer, all I wrote in the next entry is that “we spent the last part of August getting organized and ready for school.”

Anniversary #10 – Another repeat! Our summer was filled with a camping trip to Yellowstone, a road trip to New York, and a couple of family reunions in Utah. After a lengthy stretch between journal entries, I noted that we “spent the third week in August canning” and then we jumped into the new school year, which came with teaching piano and potty training the two-year-old and dealing with a sassy nine-year-old. I’m sure we went out to dinner at some point amidst all of that busyness, but I know we didn’t spend a week in Italy like our oldest son did for his tenth anniversary! However, that’s okay. While those early years, with limited resources of both time and money, were challenging, I wouldn’t trade them for anything. As we worked together to build a strong family, the love and unity in our relationship increased.

Life is certainly different with an empty nest! Not only do we get to spend lots of time together with just the two of us, we also have time to write about it. Today we went out for lunch, we’ll have a special dinner at home, and in a couple of weeks we’ll take our “anniversary staycation” in Palm Beach. Marriage is wonderful, and we’re looking forward to seeing what the next 37 years bring.