Happy Anniversary (a little late)

Mike and I had our 8 year anniversary on August 10th. Every year we take an over night trip (without any kids!) to celebrate. We were a little bit late this year. We left the kids with Aunt Rachel and took off Friday just after noon. We drove up to DC and had massages. Mike's only requirement is that he get his yearly massage! They felt great! We drove to the temple to walk around and take pictures and relax. Then we went into downtown DC for dinner at one of Mike's favorite restaurants - it's too bad (or maybe it's a good thing?) that they don't have a Bucca di Beppo in Richmond! We drove a half hour north to our hotel and undid our very relaxing afternoon by sleeping on a sack of rocks! OK - it wasn't really a sack of rocks, but you could've fooled me. I thought Hyatt's were decent hotels... We got up and drove to Gettysburg. The farmland in that part of Maryland is beautiful! It just felt so peaceful. We had borrowed a CD from my mom and so we did an auto tour of Gettysburg and had a great time. It was fascinating to drive everywhere and see everything and to hear the dialog and descriptions. We even did a little hike to the top of the Big Round Top. We grabbed lunch at Roy Rogers on the way out - just for fun because Mike ate there when he was little - and headed home. We made it home just in time to have dinner with the kids. They didn't seem to miss us too much, but I'm sure Rachel was glad to go home. It's so nice to have her close and we appreciate her help!

Mike and I had a great time. It's sad that we have to wait a whole year to go do it again!

In honor of our anniversary I've been thinking about everything we've done since getting married. It's not just about the numbers, but here are some fun numbers (8 of them!) -

we've had 4 kids in 5 years!

we've moved 6 times in just over 5 years

we've purchased 5 homes and sold 1

we own 3 businesses

we've driven across the country 1 time and flown across the country 12 times

we've purchased 4 vehicles together and sold 3 of them

we've had 5 different jobs between the two of us

we've been in 4 different wards or branches

A cool flower at the temple (Mike took lots of flower pictures and I was very patient!)

A picture of part of the temple in the reflection pool by the visitor's center (that is why it's upside down)

A cool veiw of the temple - it's such a grand and imposing structure!

Orignal cannon from the war - the barrell alone weighed 1100 pounds

A couple of Yankees at the train station being confronted by a confederate (now we know why the Yankees won - they had cell phones!)

cool reinactment - they shot their vintage guns and the smoke billowed up