Our Anniversary!

Wow, it's hard to believe it's our six year anniversary! What's even harder to believe is that we've been together for ten years now. So much has happened and I wouldn't change any of it. We got married just three days after I turned 20. Chris was just 19. We felt like we were so grown up at the time. Now we look at people who are 19 and 20 and think how young they look. We've grown up, become parents, changed jobs, moved away from home. Just to name a few things that has happened in our time together. I have to say we have grown so much as a couple and as a family. We started out as two young kids without a care in the world. We started dating in high school. Chris was a sophomore and I was a junior. He went to McKinleyville High and I went to Eureka High. We had to have our parents drive us back and forth to eachothers houses since we didn't have our driver's licenses. We made it through high school.

We moved out after Chris graduated in 2001 into an apartment that his parents fixed up for us. It was great, we thought we were all grown up. We got our first pet Al the cat, Al got sick just a month after we got him and died. We thought we had lost a family member. We were so upset we got a cat and a dog.... yes they are still with us. We started college, we took an EMT class with my brother and his wife (was girlfriend at the time). On the way home from our EMT class one April evening, silly me I opened up the glove compartment and what do I find, a bag from a jewelry store, so I jokingly say "is this for me" thinking it was just mother's day gifts for our mom's. He says to me "well now you ruined it". Let me just tell you, that was the most ackward drive from then on. We made it to the beach. I was so nervous because I ruined the surprise, would he still ask, would he not. Well he did, he said "well since you already know what's coming, will you marry me". And of course I said yes without hesitation.

Next came the wedding planning... boy was that stressful. We settled on November 2nd 2002, since we had been together for four years on the 1st, it just sounded good. The wedding was amazing. All of our friends and family were there. Off to the honeymoon. Since we were too young to get a rental car in Hawaii, we drove to Los Angeles for a trip to Disneyland, Universal Studios, and to see our favorite show "That 70's show" being filmed. On the way down we stopped in San Jose to see the Winchester Mystery House and that evening we went to the car dealer (it was Chris' idea) and we ended up leaving with our first brand new car. We got back from our honeymoon. We were settling in as a married couple quite nicely.

Then we decided we needed to add to our house. So we had Brynn. She brought a whole new meaning to family. We were inseperable. Chris started building our first house when Brynn was a year and half. We moved into it just before her second birthday. All the while we were trying for baby #2. And along came Parker in January 2007. When Parker was born with all the issues it was a true test for our relationship. I have to say all the stress made our bond even stronger. We finally brought him home, it was so great to have our family complete.

Chris joined the CHP academy the following January which caused us to have to live separately for over six months. It was so stressful! Once he was done with that we all sighed with relief our lives would be normal again. We moved into a new house in an area that we have no family. Let me tell you, with no one around that can be a crutch you turn to one another a lot more. We have survived so many things that would split most couples but, our bond seems to just keep getting stronger with each hurdle we cross. I love Chris with all my heart and no one could ever change that. Happy 6th Anniversary to Us!!!