A Memory a Year

Today's theme, 10 ORNAMENTS ON YOUR TREE AND STORIES BEHIND THEM for Monday Listicles came to us from Kelly. Well, we don't have a tree or any ornaments since we don't really celebrate Christmas, BUT this last Friday was our 8-year wedding anniversary, so here are some favorite memories from our marriage - one from each year.

10 MEMORIES OR STORIES OF US 

1. We started dating in the beginning of Oct 2004. He invited me over to help him make Hamburger Helper. LOL. Decided things were moving too fast by the beginning of Nov, so we broke up. Our break-up lasted maybe three days before we decided to get engaged rather than break-up. :-) We were married six weeks later.


2. In 2005, we moved to Brooklyn, NY, but first we went for a short vacation to check it out. We were there for five days, I think, and ended up in Battery Park nearly every. single. day. Here's a conversation from one trip on the subway:
   
   

   Jeff: Check out this sign! It's written in seven different languages.
   Me: Wow! How cool!! Love the diversity of NYC.
   ***
   Me: Um, sweetie? Did you actually read the sign.
   Jeff: Nope. Why?
   Me: Well, it says that in order to get off at Battery Park, we need to be in one of the first three cars. Do you think we are?
   Jeff: No idea.
   
   

   So, we proceeded to walk through as many cars as we could, trying to get to the front of the train. We ended up getting off the train at the stop just after/before Battery Park, because we, in fact, were not in one of the first three cars. Oops!


3. In 2006 we moved from Brooklyn, NY to Dayton, OR just outside of Portland. A few weeks after moving, we made a trip back to MN for a visit. Via Amtrak. The trip out was 36 hours of hell. Ok, it wasn't really that bad, but it certainly wasn't all that comfortable. We upgraded to a suite for the return trip, and it was MUCH better. :) I actually got some sleep. ;-) Jeff, of course, loved every minute of the train trip.


4. 2007 brought us back to MN, and we moved into our first studio apartment. Now, when we first got married and were looking for an apartment, I was adament against living in a studio. What if we argued and I needed my own space. Just a few years later, I knew that our marriage would be able to survive living in a small space together. :-) Plus, it was a super nice studio. Barely a couple years old and the layout was just perfect. It even had a w/d in the unit. Yay! We really loved the location, too.


5. We moved twice in 2008 both in the Twin Cities, but the best thing to happen that year was adopting our cutie-patootie, Sallie Sue! We were staying with my parents between apartments, and they wanted to adopt another dog, so we went with them to the Animal Humane Society. Jeff immediately fell in love with Sallie, but I was unsure. We took her outside to play in the little dog run, and she promptly poo'ed. Right behind Jeff's foot. Which he then promptly stepped in. The smell was horrid!  I was pretty much done at that point. She was so expensive and her poo made me gag. Seemed like a lot of extra work. But somehow Jeff convinced me that we should adopt her. I'm thankful for this decision every single day. I really can't imagine my life without her cuteness in it.
   
   
   
   
   


6. In the summer of 2009, we took a massively long road trip 4600 miles to a nephews's graduation in WA. Instead of driving straight there, we went through SD, WY, UT, NV, CA to get to Yosemite, OR, and finally WA. We took the straight way back home. ;-) We got to see so much of the country, and it was so fun!


7. We wanted to do something special for our five year anniversary, and we had the whole month of January off from school, so we booked a trip to Water Island in Jan 2010. It's the smallest of the US Virgin Islands, just off St Thomas. We were there for a week, and we fell in love with ocean and the hot weather.
   
   
   
   
   


8. We wanted to make a January vacations our thing, so in Jan 2011, we headed to Costa Rica. We spent a few days at a volcano and then a week at the beach. We rented a car and drove across the country, which was an adventure in and of itself. Oh, the roads in Costa Rica! :)
   
   
   
   
   


9. After living nearly 2 years without a car, in May of 2012, we bought Liberty and headed off for our next adventure. Our destination was Belize, but as you probably know, we fell in love with Vegas and now call it home.
   
   
   
   
   


10. We have lots of great plans for adventure in 2013, but the main memory we hope to create in the next year is to do our first ocean dive together. We'd love to go somewhere exotic, like Belize, but that may take a little more saving, so we might settle for San Diego or Mexico. Stay tuned. =)

Thanks for tripping down memory lane with me today! If you're celebrating Christmas, may it be the merriest and brightest for you.
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