Six Sweet Years of Good

Last month, on the actual day…my dear hubby took me to listen to Mendelssohn being performed (he’s my favorite, you don’t take piano lessons for 11 years and not have a favorite!) and then we had dinner.  It was a divine evening. 

Because it’s fun to post wedding pictures…

I don’t mean the title to be deceiving.  I guess anyone who has been married for six years (well, even six months really) will know that marriage isn’t always the stuff of Hallmark cards and chic flicks.  I’m certainly not proud of words that have come out of my mouth or deeds that I have committed– they are evident of the desperate place that I’d be without Jesus.  But because of Jesus’ presence – they’ve been years of good.  Years where we’ve been drawn together, where we’ve fought for the other one when the other was tired, where we’ve labored together on our knees (thank you, D for encouraging us in this), where we’ve laughed…real hard.

It’s good to be nostalgic on the day.  I like that.  PS – the day was also doused in a TON of reality.  I acted like a punk and was just grumpy and insisted on silly rights…oh thankful for forgiveness and grace– the babies were needy and sick– and we were plain tired.  I’m so glad hubby kept pushing us to still go on our anniversary date.  Because at the end of the day, our perspective was made clear through grace and love.

Also, insanely thankful for grandparents who will watch sick babies.  Abi wanted to dress like me (melt a momma’s heart) – so we found a dress that had flowers on the bottom too – and each wore our pearls that D brought back for us from Asia.

Flash forward one month: another set of grandparents are in town and D and I get to head out of town for a quick few days to just be together.  We try and get away (even if it is just a weekend!) each year around our anniversary.  This is always our “advice” that we write to our friends who get married.  It is just so amazingly life-giving.

Inks Lake State Park

What is the most comical about this stop in our trip is that we realized on day two of our time here that we’d been here before.  We both have the exact same memory, just can’t place it.  Oh goodness, we are getting old.  We know it’s from college.  Friends de Aggie, anything??

There is just something good about waking up outdoors.  To the sound of rain.  Enough said.

These signs just made us laugh – beware of the wildlife.

On our morning hike…umm, yes please.  Morning hikes are life-giving too.

The fall color (for Texas!) was great and was uplifting to this native-to-fall-color girl’s soul.  We went kayaking (boo for no pictures), hiking some more, and general relishing in nature’s goodness.

You know we document our trips through our food.  It’s one of my most favorite parts of traveling.  These pictures tell a good amount of our story!

Can you pick out the camping contribution?  Hah.

Austin

Post camping, in my opinion, it is always good to head to somewhere nice (home will do, of course!) and take a really delightful shower.  Fun hotels are even better though.  So, after removing camping grime – we walked and walked (because we could!  no naps to be home for!) and then walked some more.  We tried Sandra Bullock’s restaurant Bess Bistro – and it was divine.  Would highly recommend their brunch.  It made our tummies quite happy.

Oh yes, there’s more…

So, Doons looks a bit creepy…but I’m making him pose with an Odwalla bottle.  He had to be a bit weird in the photo…

Because I am my father’s daughter…I really do enjoy history.  So, like the good Texans that we are, we visited the capitol.  Quite an awesome building, really!

More walking / trail running / eating / enjoying.  Thank you, Austin. 

Thank you six years for celebrated goodness.