Our 10th Anniversary

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have the sweetest husband in the world!  Our 10^th wedding anniversary was yesterday, on December 27^th.  In the past, each year for our anniversary we wouldn’t exchange gifts, we would usually just enjoy a nice dinner or an extra fun date, and Michael would often bring me flowers home.  

This year, ten days before our anniversary I was surprised when I woke up and found this big poster on the back of our bedroom door:

 (Michael said it took so much tape and it took him a while to hang the poster up quietly, in the dark, without waking me up in the morning).

Michael was so cute – he was so excited, mostly because it’s hard to surprise me and this was definitely a surprise.  Last year Michael and I had mentioned how fun it would be to take a cruise for our 10^th anniversary, but with preparing to buy a house soon a cruise just isn’t in the budget right now – so I had no idea we would do anything more than a fancy dinner and a nice date on our anniversary.  I had no idea what to expect. 

So the poster said that there would be a new surprise to look forward to on each of the 10 days leading up to our 10^th anniversary.  The first day’s surprise was the poster itself.  And on the 2^nd day Michael came home with some beautiful gerber daisies and lilies.  On the 3^rd day he brought home some extra botox from work (he had mentioned to me that they would let him bring in a family member to try it out at work sometime, so this was even easier than going to his office).  On the 4^th day he brought me a new CD by one of our favorites, The Piano Guys.  On the 5^th day it was 10 movie tickets.  And on the 6^th day it was a gift certificate from Restaurants.com.  On the 7^th day Michael gave me a coupon for a massage.  On the 8^th day, which happened to be Christmas, two of the gifts that I unwrapped from under the tree that morning were marked “Day 8,” and were cute sweatshirts.  On the 9^th day it was a gift certificate for a haircut and style with the girl who cut my hair last time (this was the only part of all this that wasn’t a total surprise – about a week before I had asked Michael if he would mind watching the kids for an hour or so one Saturday morning so I could go get my haircut because it really needed it, and Michael asked if I would mind waiting a week or so – and so I knew something was up, but I just figured it had something to do with Christmas, since I didn’t have any idea about his anniversary surprise plans at that time).  I guess Michael was able to get some good deals online on some of these things.  And I was glad that several of these gifts were also things that Michael could enjoy with me – like the movie tickets and the restaurant gift card for dates, and the CD that our whole family can enjoy together.  

And then the 10^th thing was these beautiful earrings:

Aren’t they so pretty?  Michael was a bit nervous, because he knows I’m so particular about the kind of jewelry I like.  In fact, I think this is the first time he’s ever picked out any jewelry for me on his own (I went with him to pick out the wedding ring), but I think he did a really great job picking them out!  They are so pretty, and will match most anything I wear.  (I’m just a bit nervous about the possibility of one accidentally falling out and getting lost, since they are so nice, but I’ll just have to be careful and hope that never happens).  Michael gave me the earrings late on the night before our anniversary, but it was officially our anniversary since it was after midnight.  And I gave him my gift too.  It wasn’t a very big gift compared to all the preparation he put into the surprises for me, but I think it was meaningful for him, and I think he liked it.  Plus I think I succeeded in surprising him too – he said he wasn’t expecting a gift other than using the restaurant gift card to go out to a nice dinner together.  

Since before we were married Michael has been reading and re-reading his favorite book series, The Wheel of Time.  There’s something like 13 books in the series, and these are not thin little books.  With work and life, and all the other reading Michael has had to do for school/training/work over the years, it seems to take him about a year to read through this long series, and then he starts over again.  I’ve teased him in the past about reading the same series over and over our entire marriage, but I’m glad he’s got this hobby that he enjoys so much.  Anyway, the author of the series actually passed away a few years ago, which was sad for all the fans of the series, since the series wasn’t complete.  But the author had left extensive notes and plans for the series, and the author’s wife chose a new author to take over and use the notes to complete the series.  The new author is actually LDS, and Michael has now read all of the books written by this new author, and follows his blog.  Michael is just getting through with reading the last of the books that is available right now, and has been really looking forward to the release of the final book in the series next month.  So, I decided to order him the final book.  I was a little disappointed when I went to Barnes and Noble to pre-order the book and found out that when you pre-order a book, you are basically just putting your name on the list, and they will call and tell you when it’s available for you to come pick up the book and pay for it.  I couldn’t even pay for it in advance and then tell Michael I had bought the book for him and he could go pick it up when it comes out in January.  I know it’s not really different, but it just didn’t seem like a great gift to tell him that I put his name on a list so next month he could go to a bookstore himself and pay for the book himself.  So, I changed plans, and looked on the author’s website and found out that the author is doing a book signing in San Diego in February.  You have to buy the book in January from the little bookstore where the signing will be, and when you buy the book you get a number, which will be your place in line for the book signing in February.  So, I was a little sneaky too – I called the book store to confirm how it works, and I’ll be calling back the morning the book is released to purchase the book and get a spot in line.  And I had to call Michael’s parents to make sure of the dates when they will be in town for Elijah’s baptism, which happens to be near the same date as the book signing, but it works out great because the book signing is the night before Michael’s parents get into town (it probably wouldn’t have worked to take off for a book signing when his parents were visiting).  And I talked to my mom, and we’re all set for her to babysit our boys so I can go with Michael to the book signing, and we can make a date of it.  So, that should be a lot of fun.  I think Michael’s excited for it.  He did say it felt just a little geeky to go to the book signing, because there would probably be some really enthusiastic fans there who will be dressed in costume as the book characters, but I reassured him that he doesn’t have to feel like that at all, as long as he doesn’t go in costume.  :)   Anyway, I think Michael enjoyed his gift too, and was surprised by it.  

So for our anniversary yesterday Michael took Kolby, Lijah, Camden, and Isaac to play on their skis at the bottom of the ski hill in the morning while I stayed home with Courtland, who wasn’t feeling up to going out in the cold after being sick earlier in the week (and I felt like I could use a day in too, after skiing with the 4 boys the previous day).  Lijah, Camden, and Isaac didn’t last long on the mountain at all, and I picked them up after about an hour, but Michael and Kolby were able to get some lift passes and spend the rest of the afternoon skiing together, just the two of them, and they had a great time.  After we returned some ski rentals, Michael and I got to go on our anniversary date.  And Mom, Matthew, and Aaron were so kind to watch the kids for us (and Jake & Michelle’s kids, as they went on a date that night too).  

Anyway, Michael and I went to Charthouse and had a great dinner.  We splurged for our anniversary, and had the calamari (the best calamari we’ve ever had is at Charthouse).  Then I had stuffed shrimp and Michael had lobster for the first time ever.  It was a very nice dinner. 

We then went to see the new Les Mis movie, and it was excellent.  I think they did a pretty good job of sticking to the original musical (other than adding an extra song in the middle, which I thought was just wrong – not because it was necessarily a bad song, but because it wasn’t true to the original which I grew up listening to the music of my entire life and have almost every word memorized, and it just felt wrong to add a new song), but other than that I really loved it.  It was emotional, and not only is all the music absolutely beautiful (and they did quite a good job of living up to the quality of the original music throughout most of the movie, in my opinion), but they didn’t leave out anything important or add anything radically different from the musical.  I found myself wanting to sing along (and I probably will, once the movie comes out and we buy it).  Although when we do buy it, I’ll be sure not to let the kids see the movie until they are older teenagers, just because the movie is more visual than the musical, and made the parts leading up to Fantine’s death too much for kids to watch (when I wouldn’t hesitate to take a 10 year old to see the musical – which I feel like is the greatest musical ever, and I saw when I was a kid).  The one thing that Michael and I both thought after the movie is that we need to play the CDs from the musical (and a few other musicals we like) more regularly in our house – both Michael and I grew up listening to the music of Les Mis, and I don’t think our kids would remember the last time we listened to it at our house, since it was several years ago.  I mean, other musicals like Phantom have cool music, but the story is a little different.  But with Les Mis the music is amazing, and then as you grow up you realize what a really amazing story it is too.  The other thing I was thinking was I should read the book.  I remember I was like 11 when I decided to read Les Miserables, but I was too immature at the time and I got through about half of the first chapter before I put it down and never picked it up again.  But I think I’ll read it now.  Anyway, I didn’t mean for this blog post to turn into a movie review.  But it was nice that the movie for our special anniversary date turned out to be a really memorable one.  It was a very nice night. 

And just think, ten years ago yesterday we got married in beautiful, sunny San Diego at the beautiful LDS temple.  We spent the first night of our honeymoon at a hotel in downtown San Diego, before driving to spend the rest of the week at my parents’ cabin in Mammoth.  And we had quite an adventure for the rest of our honeymoon.  To make a rather long story short, ten years ago tonight Michael and I spent the second night of our honeymoon sleeping in a car in a parking lot behind some store in a tiny town called Bishop because a blizzard had come in and the police wouldn’t allow cars through the pass up to Mammoth, and every hotel in the town of Bishop was entirely full.  Then we got up to the cabin the following day, and never got the heat system to work properly (the snow that got kicked into the door when we first arrived at the cabin remained un-melted the entire week).  Then a pipe froze and leaked water in the cabin, so a plumber had to come, and we went to see a movie (the 2^nd Lord of the Rings movie) while the plumber was at the house.  But half way through the movie the power went out in the town and we didn’t get to finish the rest of the movie until months later.  And then, to top it all off, we found out when we left that there was no film in my camera, so all our photos were lost except a couple taken on Michael’s little camera.  But with all of that, it was a pretty enjoyable anniversary too – we had some great skiing, built a snow cave in the deep snow in the front yard, and just had a good time together.  But we have always said that we’d like to have a second honeymoon in a warmer climate someday.  Who knows?  Maybe we’ll get in that cruise in another few years?  But it’s kind of funny that 10 years later we are back at the cabin in Mammoth again.  I guess not much has changed – except for the 5 kids.  :)   It really has been a great 10 years, we're so blessed to have each other!