8 Years

On April 6th Andrew and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary (the 7th was the 11th anniversary of our first date!). We had a big weekend, sans kids, planned. Of course, when you've got little guys, things don't always go as planned. We had it all arranged that the boys would go to Grandma and Grandpa B's on Friday night to be picked up Sunday, giving us a glorious, and much needed, break for the entire weekend. Unfortunately, Joshua's tummy had other plans. Friday morning he started saying that his tummy hurt. We chalked it up to excitement about going to Grandma and Grandpas and sent him off to school. Turns out it was more than excitement. He ended up throwing up twice that day. Darn it! So we decided to keep the boys home Friday night and see where we were Saturday morning. I was pretty bummed to not get the break I so longed for, but what can you do? Thankfully, Saturday morning Joshua was totally back to normal, so we kicked them out and shipped them off, very thankful that things turned around to give us some kid-free time.

We spent the day Saturday getting caught up on some housework that is so hard to do with the kiddos around. Andrew worked on replacing the wood trim on the chimney, and I worked at doing some much needed cleaning on the inside. It may not sound like much of a party, but it just feels good to actually get something accomplished!

The real fun began later. One of our favorite musicians, Derek Webb, was playing at a church in Gilbert, so after a yummy early dinner at Chino Bandito, we went to enjoy the show. And what an amazing show it was! It was open seating and we ended up in the second row! The concert was so different than any other show I've seen. It was all acoustic, and was only his voice and his guitar, which he can do some amazing things with. He's just outstanding. Because it was an intimate setting, he pretty much just had his song book and was letting people call out requests! It was so cool and he played most of our favorite songs. It was a great night!

Although it didn't start out exactly as planned, we ended up having a great time, and a wonderful anniversary. Hard to believe it's been 8 years!

Weekend Getaway

This past weekend Andrew and I were given the wonderful opportunity to have a weekend away, just the two of us. For parents of two busy boys, that is an unheard of treat! My boss has a beautiful home in a forest/golf course community in Flagstaff where he usually spends his weekends. This past weekend he was going out of town and offered to give us his house for the weekend. Of course we took him up on it! We dumped the boys off with Grandma and Grandpa for the weekend and headed up on Saturday morning.

The house was beautiful and in an awesome community. Here is the view from the deck on the back of the house.

We spent most of Saturday just walking around the community and hanging out on the deck soaking up the sun and the much cooler temperatures then we've felt in months!

At about 2:00 the clouds rolled in and the thunder started to rumble. We held out on the deck as long as we could, but when we felt the temperature suddenly drop about 5 degrees and could smell rain in the air, we figured it was time to head inside.

I must say the highlight of the trip was our dinner adventure on Saturday night. We went to the Mormon Lake Lodge east of Flagstaff. It's an old west style restaurant that serves steaks and various other meats. Andrew decided to be adventurous and ordered Elk ribs in a prickly pare marmalade. They must have been really good because he took them down! The food was so good, and we had a nice time without any children to tell to sit still and behave! When we left the restaurant it was dark outside. The restaurant was back in the woods so the 7 or so mile road leading to the restaurant was pitch black. The clouds had cleared so we had a clear view of the night sky. We decided to pull off the road and do a little star gazing. Holy cow! I'd never seen anything like it. It was like we could see every star that ever existed. We could even see the Milky Way. It was incredible. After we got back on the road, we were talking about catching glimpses of wildlife out on the side of the road. I had just finished telling Andrew that I never see anything, when there is bambi on the side of the road, ready to cross the road right in front of us! We even had to stop the car to let her cross. It was so exciting!

On Sunday we had breakfast at this great little local place called Mike & Ronda's The Place. The food was incredible, and SO big! After doing some more relaxing on the deck, and taking a little ride in the Gem Car...

We decided to start making our way home. Since the house was right off of the 89A, we decided to take that way through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona instead of just heading back down the 17. We stopped at a scenic overlook on the way. It was so beautiful. It's amazing to think thinks like this are only 2 hours away from home!

I just thought this sign was kinda funny...

We had a great weekend away, and are so grateful to my boss for opening his home to us.

Vegas!

Mommy and Daddy got to take a weekend getaway to Las Vegas this past weekend. The biggest reason for the trip was to get to meet this little one...

That's our newest little niece, Adria Lynn Jones. She's such a doll! It was the highlight of my weekend to be able to do this...

and this

Of course I did let Andrew hold her, at least for a few minutes.

After I had gotten my baby fix, and had a good visit with Kerri, we headed off to our hotel to begin the second part of our trip, celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary! My boss finagled us a free room at The Mirage, so we were living in style!

Our room was so cute

After resting up for a little bit, we got ready and headed downstairs to dinner at Samba Brazilian Steakhouse. It was definitely a unique dining experience. There are several waiters who walk around with different kinds of meat on giant skewers and slice you off pieces.

They'll keep coming until you indicate on your table you'd like to take a break. Everything was so good, and we got so stuffed! Here we are with our Plates O' Meat

After dinner we went out on the strip and walked around the various casinos. We played some slots at Caesar's Palace, but that was a big bust! I guess when you've limited yourself to $20, you're not planning on walking away with anything! But we did get our pictures taken with some gladiators

Since we didn't like to see our money disappearing so quickly on the $.25 slots, at the next casino, Paris, we opted for the penny slots. That's my kind of gambling! My first spin, I got this

yeah, it was only a dollar, but it sure was fun watching the credits rack up. And at least our $5 lasted about twenty minutes, instead of two! When we were done with the slots, we headed back to the room, as we were DONE fighting the crowds of the drunk and scantily clad. We ordered some apple pie from room service (that was some good apple pie... worth the $16 - no joke!) and hit the sack. That was a long day. I'm surprised we made it as late as we did!

The next morning we got up and tried a few spins at the Roulette table. That was a big bust, but fun anyway! Before heading home we had brunch with Kerri and Jonathon, and of course Adria too.

Jonathon had been working on Saturday, so we were happy to be able to see him, at least for a little bit. We ate at the Hash House a Go Go.

If you're ever in Vegas and looking for some good breakfast, you've GOT to try this place. It was so good, and the portions are unreal. After brunch we hopped on the road to head home and see our boys, who had spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandad.

I can't say that Vegas is our kind of town, but it was fun to get away for a couple days without kids and have some fun adult time. We'll be sure not to wait another 4 years before we do it again!

The obligatory self portrait!

Ten Years

Wow. It has been 10 years (and one day, since I wasn't able to post this yesterday) since Andrew and I met in person. I can't remember life without him... and I don't want to!

We had met online a few weeks before and had been chatting here and there, but most of the time we would seem to just miss each other. I would get the little ICQ "uh-oh!" from him right as I was ready to log off for the night. The the first time he paged me (yes, paged me... we're talking 10 years ago here, people!), I was on a date with someone else, so I didn't call him back. Thankfully for me he was persistent even though it seemed as though I was trying to blow him off. When we finally did connect on the phone, we decided to meet up at Jamaican Blue, a coffee house that I frequented in downtown Scottsdale. I had a picture of him, but he had no idea what he was walking into, since I didn't have a picture I could send him and all I would tell him was that I was "average". I think he was a little scared! But we found each other and talked for a bit, and then decided to try to find somewhere to eat dinner. He didn't want to take me to the Olive Garden, since he thought that would be super lame, but it was the thought in the back of his head in case we didn't find anything better along the way. Of course, we ended up at the Olive Garden.

Our waiter had a strange obsession with Romano Cheese, and offered some to us every time he came to our table... even when he brought us drinks. We had great conversation. I don't remember anything we talked about, but I remember laughing a lot... partly because I was "first-date nervous" and partly because I hadn't been desensitized to his brand of humor yet (I am now!). =) After dinner we went back to Jamaican Blue where my car was and decided to go walking around the Scottsdale Civic Center. While we were walking, I saw a swan that looked like it might be dead, so I wanted to throw a rock at it to see if it moved. But there was some strange dude lurking around us, so I didn't do it... I sure hope that swan was ok!

Afer a while we returned to our cars, and he gave me a hug goodbye. He will tell you the hug lasted a little longer than he was comfortable with, but I didn't hear any complaints at the time. =)

And that's what started it all. April 7, 1999 is definitely a day for the history books... the Maple history books anyway. One day short of 3 years later (April 6, 2002 for those of you keeping score at home) we were married.

So much has happened in the last 10 years, and there is no one else I would have wanted to share any of it with. Thank you, my love, for a wonderful decade. I look forward to many more together. I love you!

I Still Do!

Last night our church had a marriage recommitment ceremony. It was amazing. My friend Jennifer organized the event, and asked me to be a part of the planning team for it. For the last 6 weeks or so we've been planning this wedding for 40 couples, and it has been so much fun. It certainly turned into a grand affair. I'll have to let the pictures speak for themselves! I was given the honor of providing the musical accompaniment to communion, singing "I Will Be Here" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Everything turned out so beautiful. I spent the whole day at church helping to make bouquets of roses for the 40 brides. It was a great time of female bonding, and so much fun.

Of course the most important part of the evening was that Andrew and I got to reaffirm our marriage vows. I've heard people say the first seven years of marriage are the hardest. April will be our 7th wedding anniversary, so the timing was perfect. And it was wonderful to share that time with many from our church family, including some incredible friends. It was truly a night to remember!

Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage

We had the most wonderful opportunity to attend what is probably the BEST marriage building seminar at our church this weekend. It was called "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage". The speaker, Mark Gungor, is a pastor out of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and is so gifted in speaking on this topic. Oh, and did I mention he is absolutely hilarious. This seminar really helps you understand the opposite sex, which is probably the most effective step to making marriage all it can be! If you ever have a chance to watch his DVD's or see him speak, I would highly recommend it. It is definitely Christian based, but it is nowhere near preachy. I can guarantee you it is like nothing you have ever experienced before.

To top it all off, we were able to volunteer to help sell books, DVD's, etc. so we got into the conference for free, and our church even helped us out on babysitting. It doesn't hurt to be close friends with the director of the Family Life Ministry! Thank you, Jennifer, for providing us with this awesome opportunity to serve God through your ministry this weekend, and also for giving us the chance to attend this conference!