10 Years!

10 years ago, on the day before Thanksgiving, these two babies got married. How has it been a DECADE?!

Looking back now, 20 and 21 seems wayyyy too young to get married but I didn't feel young at all. I just knew I loved Landon and wanted to be with him always. Our love and friendship was something that just felt so right and natural from the beginning, so even though we had only dated for 9 months it felt like I'd known him for so much longer. He truly was, and is, my very best friend. Is there anything better than being married to your best friend? 

I love looking back on the past 10 years and thinking about some of our happiest memories and biggest moments. In no particular order here they are...

1. Graduating college together and moving to Oregon. It was so exciting to venture out on our own and be "real" adults. Landon started his career at Intel and I nannied the cutest kids. We spent 4 years in Oregon and grew so much because we really only had each other. I will always look back at our time in Oregon with such fondness. 

2. Becoming PARENTS. Oh man, this was obviously huge. It was the most amazing thing to meet Charlie and watch my cute Landon become "Dad." He is the sweetest with Charlie and I really think he's Charlie's favorite person. They are just buddies. I can't wait to see Landon become "Dad" again this week. Oh man, melt my heart into a puddle! There really isn't anything sweeter. 

3. Learning how to sail and buying our Hunter Legend, Viking. We had so many adventures on the Columbia and then sailing in the ocean for the first time. Some of those times were a little sketchy, but overall it was just the best experience. I can't wait until Charlie is a little older and we can take him out on the Hobie Cat. I've missed sailing so much! 

4. All of our cruises! We have been on EIGHT together: Carnival Cruise to Mexico, Princess Cruise to Alaska, Holland America Cruise repositioning in the Pacific Northwest, Norwegian Repositioning in the Pacific Northwest, Royal Caribbean Transatlantic from England to Spain to Florida, Disney Cruise to the Western Caribbean, Royal Caribbean to the Eastern Caribbean, and a Celebrity Cruise to Hawaii. Seriously, we have had the best time cruising around together. It's the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure. You get plenty of time to nap and rest and eat ALL the food, but every day you're in a new place that you get to explore. We are definitely big fans of cruises and have made so many fun memories!

5. Buying our homes. It was so scary to buy our first home in Oregon, but it ended up being our best decision ever! We bought during the crash so we were able to benefit a ton when the market went back up and pay off our student loans. When we moved to Utah, we bought our current house and then a few years later our first rental. Again, one of our best decisions ever. We have loved being landlords and have plans to buy another one this winter! We are really hopeful that are choices to buy homes will enable Landon to retire early!

6. Our first trip to Hawaii. I had been to Hawaii a handful of times, but Landon had never been and now he totally understands my obsession and he's obsessed too. I was pregnant at the time so it was our last trip just the two of us and will always be such a special memory for me. 

7. This isn't just one memory but something that has been so impactful on our marriage. I have loved 10 years of walking with you Landon! We go on a walk every single night. Rain or snow. Sunshine or freezing. It's so nice to have an hour every night just dedicated to talking to each other, no distractions. 

please notice our puppies :)

8. Flying together in Oregon was another huge adventure for us. It was soooo cool to finally see Landon in his element doing what he loves. I had never flown in a small airplane before, so I was definitely a little scared but overall I just loved getting to fly with my love. We would fly to the ocean, we flew to Utah TWICE, we flew to Seattle... It really was just an adventure! 

9. All of our road trips! I don't even know how many we've been on... so many! Our first road trip was to Texas to meet Landon's family. We had only been dating 1.5 months and we were already that serious, which is crazy to me but honestly we were just instant best friends. I love having all the time to talk and sing our songs and eat junk food. We've been to California a handful of times, St. George quite a few times, Texas a handful of times, Oregon to Utah and back a few times, Kennewick a few times, Yellowstone... I know I'm missing some but I've loved them all! 

10. Just every day life! Landon, I love our life together. Even just the simple, every day moments and days that we get to spend together. I just love being around you. You really are my best friend! 

We had big plans to go to Japan for our 10 year anniversary, but then I got pregnant and obviously can't travel at 38+ weeks pregnant... so we went to Cheesecake Factory on Saturday instead. Pretty exciting huh? :)

It's been a heck of a ride, and I can't wait to see what the next decade holds for us! We'll have a 13 and an almost 10 year old which is CRAZY to think about! I love you so much my Landon Dean! Thanks for choosing me and loving me. 

9 Years.

I can't believe 9 years ago these two BABIES made such a monumental, life-altering decision to be MARRIED. We had only been dating 9 months and we were only 20 and 21!!!! Even though it does seem absolutely crazy to marry someone you haven't known for a full year and when you're just a baby yourself... it truly was the best decision we have ever made.

We are both different people now, but luckily we have grown together. We have experienced so much joy and heartbreak and stress and pain and happiness together and because of all we've been through we are stronger and closer than ever. We truly are best friends and there's no one else in the whole world that I would want to experience this crazy ride with!

Landon has seen me in my absolute worst, temper-tantrum throwing state. He's seen me in my most vulnerable crying my eyes out laying on the floor devastated over the loss of our first baby or hearing horrible news about a family member. He's seen me change and evolve in my religious views, which has been more life-changing and altering than I think anyone who hasn't gone through this can really understand. He is always there to listen to my fears and my worries and even a revelation of something I held from him for a LONG time. Man, that was scary. But I TRUST him completely and his reaction of love and understanding was simply perfect. He is perfect, at least perfect to me.

We have our faults and we have our fights. I actually think I'd rather have a marriage where we fight than a marriage that is stale. Our marriage is full of passion--which includes some slammed doors and angry words. But on the flip side of that it's jumping into his arms when he gets home from work because I missed him SO much. Our marriage is full of ups and downs, but mostly ups and in the downs we work it out together and make it right. That's what matters.

Landon Dean, you are my whole world. You are EVERYTHING. I love you more now than I ever have and I'm so grateful for this beautiful life you have given me. Happy Anniversary, my love.

Hawaiian Cruise!

We did not have plans to go on another cruise this year, but we found an amazing deal for a cruise to Hawaii (and those are usually sooo expensive) so we basically HAD to go. :) We wanted to bring Charlie, but the only room available for 3 people was a balcony and it would have been over 2k extra to bring him. After we said goodbye to Charlie at the airport and we were both sobbing hysterically, we were totally regretting our decision... haha

But, we had an amazing time! The first five days were days at sea, which basically mean forced relaxation. We took so many naps, ate ALL the food, and just hung out. Landon worked two of the days at sea, which was kind of weird to work while on vacation but it didn't end up being too bad for him. We also bought an internet package so we Skyped with Charlie every day (twice a day most days!) It helped a lot to see him!

Leaving rainy Vancouver. Funny story, we boarded the boat at 3:45 and all aboard was 4!!!!  Our second flight was delayed!!! FREAKY.

I got soooooo seasick the first day! The boat was ROCKING. I was about to puke in this picture as I attempted to make a flower lei... we had to leave!

The most beautiful sunrise.

Our room was specified on the map, which we thought was pretty cool haha

Our first stop was Hilo (on the big island). We had originally planned to rent a car and drive over to Kona where my sister lives and do a night scuba dive with the manta rays (which apparently is one of the coolest dives EVER). And then we were going to spend the night at my sister's house, since we wouldn't get back to the boat in time. The boat moved from Hilo to Kona that night, so we would just get back on the boat until the next night. Well apparently there's a law called the "Jones Act" that you can google if you want but basically made it so we weren't able to spend the night off the boat... We were SOOOOO bummed!!!!! I even contacted the government to see if they would make an exception for us haha.

Anyway, we decided to do something else awesome since we were missing out on our manta ray dive--a helicopter tour! Sounds awesome right?! Well, the airport was only a few miles away so we decided to just walk there. We also wanted some of our favorite Hawaiian juice so we detoured to Walmart to pick some up. I swear I have never been so hot and sweaty in my whole life! IT WAS SO HOT and we ended up walking 5 miles...

my "swoobs" situation had to be documented hahahahaha TMI but seriously I have never been so sweaty!!!!

When we finally got to the airport I almost had a heart attack because it was an OUTDOOR airport. No AC. No fans. I thought I was going to die in real life. We had about an hour to wait before we could even check in... Anyway, we finally checked in and we were waiting in a room with about 30 other people when someone walked in and called 6 names, including ours. I knew it wasn't going to be good, especially as they took us out of the room away from the rest of the group. Apparently our helicopter had mechanical issues and they had to cancel our flight.... I instantly started tearing up and Landon had to walk away because he was so mad.

Now we had missed our night dive with the manta rays AND the helicopter ride AND all we did with our first day in Hawaii was walk to Walmart?!?! It was soooo depressing. The girl at the counter was so nice and tried to call around to other companies to see if anyone else had an opening. As she was running around seeing what she could do for us, they had a cancelation so we were able to go an hour later! PHEW!

All that black sand was the lava flow from the recent volcano eruption

All the steam coming up from the sand. This used to be a new housing development. SO sad.

Hi boat!

Rainbow falls.

It was just a crazy day and in hindsight we would definitely NOT have chosen to do the helicopter! It was definitely fun and an amazing experience, but the rest of the day was just horrible! We wish we would've just rented a car and explored on our own, but we didn't have a lot of time to plan since we had originally planned on scuba diving.

Luckily,  our next stop in Kona totally made up for our crappy day. My sister Ali, brother-in-law Dan, and their kids Sahalie and Bodhi live in Kona so they were there at the dock waiting to pick us up (well Sahalie was at school but we did get to see her later). It was sooo good to see them! We went back to their house, grabbed some paddleboards, and then went to Kaelakekua Bay. I have only paddle boarded one other time, so I'm not very good but it was SO much fun.

At one point, Landon and I were trying to be on the same paddle board, when we flipped off and in the process knocked the go pro off my wrist! Landon tried to swim down and get it, but it was going down way too fast. The water was so clear, so we could see it even though it was 30-40 feet down. Luckily, Dan saved the day and was able to swim down and get it his first try!!!

I just loved hanging out on that bay laughing and hanging out with family. It was THE BEST!

Little did I know that our day was about to get even better. We had more time before we had to get back to the boat so we went to a beach called "Two Step Beach" because there are sea urchins that are poisonous so you cannot touch the ground in the water and you have to dive off a rock to get in. When we pulled up to the beach, we could see dolphins pretty far out but we were dying to get in the water just in case they came closer...

Well, they did! It was seriously one of the top 5 best moments of MY LIFE. It was completely magical. I can't even describe it. There were at least 40 dolphins (P.S. they were mating haha) and they would come close enough to touch us! It was unreal. You could hear them clicking and watch them swim up to the surface and then do a little jump.... it was amazing!!!!!!

That's Landon with his "dol-friends"

We were soooo sad to leave Kona and hope we can go back again to visit them for a week or longer!!!

The next stop was Maui for two days (the boat stayed overnight). Our first day we took a bus an hour across the island to pick up our rental car and then we drove the road to Hana. Apparently I only took videos of the beautiful drive... so, no pictures to show!

But it was absolutely GORGEOUS! We stopped by this chocolate plantation (of course) and got the most delicious chocolate ever. It was a super fun and chill day!

The next day was our scuba diving day. I always get so nervous, but I felt pretty calm this time. We dove the Molokini Crater and Turtle Town. Molokini crater was beautiful!

The water was soooo clear and it was like swimming in an aquarium. The first thing we saw when we went down was a SHARK! We also saw a lot of cool different eels and just a million fish. It was awesome.

Our second dive was Turtle Town. We saw two turtles nestled back into the rock formations and one swimming around. It was really cool swimming through the rock cave thingies and we also got to hold really weird looking star fish.

After our dive we did some souvenir shopping and then went back to the boat for our last night. We LOVED the people who sat next to us at dinner and we also loved our waiters. It was sad to say goodbye!

Our last stop was Honolulu where we got off the boat and jumped in a rental car to hit up our favorite spots from our Babymoon. Our first stop was Electric Beach, where I couldn't swim last time because of my huge belly. Unfortunately, I couldn't swim this time either hahaha! I guess I'm a terrible swimmer because I could NOT swim against the current and it was really freaky. I was swimming with all of my might and not making any progress. I was exhausted and started panicking and told Landon I had to go back. I told him he didn't need to go with me, which was funny because I couldn't swim back to shore... ha! So he had to swim-me back to shore, as I held onto his shoulders. How could he swim against the current CARRYING someone and I couldn't make any progress?! Anyway, that was freaky!

After that fun adventure, Landon's finger was completely shut in the car door. The door clicked and everything!!! It was TERRIBLE. He was in so much pain... So that kind of put a damper on the day...

But we continued with our adventure and hit up Matsumotos (of course) for our favorite shave ice, Waimea Beach, Sunset Beach, and Hukilau Beach. Hukilau is probably my favorite beach in the world. I just love it! The sand is so soft and we had fun playing in the waves.

After that we drove down to eat at Teddy's Bigger Burgers before heading to the airport. Poor Landon's finger was throbbing this whole time... I felt so bad! Then we took the red-eye flight home and we were FINALLY reunited with our baby. We missed him SOOOO much!

HUGE shout out to Nini and Papa for taking such good care of our boy while we were gone. He had soooo much fun and didn't even miss us. We are sooo grateful for you!!! 

He went on a lot of bike rides with Nini! So fun!!!

pizza party!

We love Hawaii and seriously talk about moving there on a regular basis. I guess we'll just need to go back again soon, and this time we'll bring our baby! :) 

And if that post didn't explain our trip enough, here's a video!