Happy 15 Years!

Today my wife and I are celebrating our 15th anniversary, and in celebration of 15 amazing years, I thought I'd list out 15 memories from our 15th years.  Happy Anniversary Marcella!  I love you!

1. Our Wedding Day - it's when the whole adventure started!
2. Our First Apartment - the thing should have been condemned before we lived there, I can't believe it's still standing today.  To this day, it may be our favorite place we've lived - something about the simplicity of having nothing.
3. The first time we tried to hang window blinds together - we were only married 2 weeks... someone should have told us how dangerous it was to try such a task during the early phases of our marriage.  We survived the ordeal though and she learned how to use a level, I learned that she's always right, and together we decided we'd tackle future similar household tasks as individual ventures.
4. Marcy's pregnancy with Makela - 9 months of build-up to how life won't ever be the same, worrying about whether or not we'll be good parents, late night caramel ice cream sundae runs to McDonalds, and the stress of bed rest. Talk about a bonding experience.
5. Makela's birth - Look out world, the Princess has arrived! Want to bond with your new baby girl Dads? Be the one who delivers her! It was amazing!
6. My Apendectomy - to this day one of the funnier (in hindsight) stories of our relationship
7. Caleb's birth - it was as though God decided the world need a miniature version of Me. I remember being freaked out that I didn't think I'd be able to love another baby as much as I loved Makela.  This is the first real miracle I feel I was a part of because somehow when Caleb was born, my heart doubled in size.  He didn't take a part of my heart away from Makela, they both were able to immediately have that equal share.  11 years later I am still in awe of that moment.
8. Disneyland Vacation - what a disaster! No one ever wants to see back stage at Disney from the inside of an ambulance with your 3 month old on the way to the hospital.
9. Our First House - it was perfect for us at that point in our lives.  We couldn't have asked for a better starter home.
10. Caeden's birth - Our one and only brown eyed baby. Almost 8 years later and he still smiles through those eyes.
11. Kyron's birth - the night started with a statement from the doctor of "Well this could be disasterous!" and ended with a beautiful baby boy and a family that had grown to "Party Size."
12. Moving to Beaverton, OR - it seemed like it was so far from all our family...little did we know what the future would bring.
13. Family vacation in Hawaii - what a disaster! Quote of the trip from one of the kids: "I hate Hawaii, can we go home?"
14. Moving to Indiana - now that's far away.
15. Living 2300 miles away from family - it's forced us to bond as a family of 6 and to rely on each other more

Thirty

Thirty (30) is a significant number.

It's an age that many people look to as an important milestone in their lives.  Some look forward to it, others dread and try to avoid it.

It's how many pieces of silver it took for Judas to betray Jesus.

It used to be, you couldn't trust anyone over it - coincidental it's the minimum age to be a US Senator?

It's a lot of points to score in a basketball game.

It's a lot of home runs to hit in an entire baseball season.

It's too big, if it's how many miles per hour you're driving through my neighborhood.

It's too many students for any of my kids classes in school (IMO).

Thirty (30) is all these things (and many more), but it's also how many times we've been fortunate to have Marcy's dad LaDyle - or Bumpy as the kids call him - visit us in Indiana!  Retirement has its perks and the free time to be able to fly across the country has been one that our family has been thankful for.  The fact that Bumpy's willing and wanting to travel that often for my kids says a lot about his commitment to our family.  There are a lot of places He could go with his free time, but He chooses to come spend it with us.  That fact has made it easier to transition to a Hoosier way of life.  This fall/winter makes four years for us in Indiana and although we miss all our family in Oregon everyday, we're thankful each time one of them are able to come visit us.

I dropped Bumpy off at the airport this morning rounding out trip number thirty to Indiana. This good-bye was a little easier for the kids though because trip number thirty-one is just 3 weeks away.  You'd think with all this travel between Oregon and Indiana we could convince someone to put a direct flight in!