Anniversary Celebration

This past week we spent 3 nights (4 days) in Christchurch with Marco's side of the family celebrating his parent's 40th wedding anniversary! Wow, 40 years... 

40 years is the same length of time that God had the Israelite's wander around in the desert before bringing them to the promised land. There are a few conclusions we can draw from this comparison.  

1) The Israelite's wore the same pair of shoes for those 40 years, surely I can keep the same spouse!

2) If I had to walk for 40 years, I'd probably be a lot skinnier. 

3) 40 years is a REALLY long time :)

So, we went down on Sunday morning and immediately my girls slotted in with their cousins, picking up where they'd left off 6 months ago (having a baby has meant we haven't gone down to see family as much as normal)

On the Monday, we all went to a wildlife center.  Morgan loved it! She got to feed the giraffes and while at first she was a bit timid, she warmed up quickly. 

 Unfortunately, Owen and Addison didn't get quite as close to the action as the others. This is them feeding the giraffes...

 Kelsey enjoyed herself if the animals stayed a safe distance and if Oma stayed close. Oma was very obliging!!

 Master Owen got quite the preferential treatment. This was his bed in our "house" for the week. There was a playpen for him to sleep in, but one of the sides didn't go up entirely and there was no mattress or blankets for it.. so.. the bed worked just as well.

 And of course, everyone had turns holding the newest family member, even if he did always have to have one eye on where his mama was. (Ok, I like it that he's a bit of a mama's boy. The girls have always preferred their daddy and now I finally have one that prefers me.)

 On Tuesday, the men folk took the older kids to the beach for the morning. Kelsey took a bit of an accidental swim! haha! But she was great about it and got up and started smiling right away. However, that ended that trip!! Meanwhile, the women & babies were having a lovely quiet time at one of the houses.. ahh, peace and quiet.

 We had 2 of our dinners catered while we were there so that it could be a holiday for all of us. Here's Kelsey chowing down on the dessert platter on the second night.. Mmmm!

We also taught the big kids a song to sing for Oma and Opa:

Congratulations on 40 years of marriage. May God bless you with many more.. 

Our 4th Wedding anniversary

This is copied from the old blog.. but now with pictures added :)

Well, yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary. 4 years.. when I look back, they've gone by awfully fast.. although it hasn't always felt like it at the time. In fact, we were reminiscing a bit about everything that's happened - over 12 cars, 4 moves, 3 cities, 2 kids, 2 bought houses, 3 trips to Canada (for me & Kels, 2 for Marco, and only 1 for Morgan).. that's a lot of going on in just 1461 days!! Wow.. we havne't even been married for 1500 days yet.. now that puts it in perspective!
So.. Marco had to work yesterday morning, and it was my turn to plan something for us to do. So, I had long ago arranged for the girls to go away for the night (their first sleep over without us!) but then of course, Kelsey started throwing up Wednesday afternoon (the day before our anniversary) and was up at 8pm, 10pm and midnight. This was NOT looking good for our date. But then the day of our anniversary dawned bright and sunny. Morgy was happy and lovely and Kelsey was only a wee bit not feeling well. We warned Beppe (their adopted grandparents from our church) that Kelsey was a bit sick, so it was up to her.. but she was fine with it -plus, by that point Kelsey  had stopped throwing up - so it was all good for the girls to go away.
In the morning, I tried to explain to Kelsey what today was - today is the day that mommy and daddy got married. She didn't get it (probably becuase she's never been to a wedding, and she's 2). She immediately said something about Morgan getting married. So, I put on the dvd of our wedding. She still didn't get it, but she thought it was spectacular seeing all the people she adores on tv. She stood inches from the tv shouting - Mommy, Daddy, Grandma.. etc. It was a bit annoying after 15 minutes! I was blown away by the rush of emotions that came back just by watching the dvd. Those same feelings of seeing Marco for the first time that day - the nervousness, the excitement, the anticipation.
I wish we could've held onto that for longer. I was saddened to see all the people in the congregation that have changed - the number of people that have died in the last 4 years.. it was just sad to look around and see all these people that we loved who are gone. But the little babies that are now 4 years old (and I've only seen once or twice since), the way the older kids have grown up, the people that are married since then... even just the hair styles that have changed since then! Lots of changes..
Anyway the girls left for Beppe's house around 4:30 and I busily made the rest of the preparations for the evening. The plan was a picnic on the seashore, then a walk along the beach. And, becuase it was my anniversary as well, I decided to get takeout for the beach. I picked up some gerber daisies and mad eup the same ceterpeices that we had at our reception. I brought candles, a blanket, a bottle of wine and some glasses. We picked up some thai takeaway and we were ready to go.

The things I did not anticipate: it was cold by the beach. It was probalby 25 degrees at our hosue, but add in a sea breeze and it was NOT 20 degrees by the beach. Good thing I brought jackets for us. Good things though - the seagulls didn't seem to notice us - that was nice. Thsi lady was walkign her dog nearby and asked us what we were celebrating and congratulated us. That was kind. Although we realised afterwards that we didn't specify it was our wedding anniversary - and we'd hate to have her think it was just our shacking up anniversary!

Anyway.. after our stroll along the beach, we realised it was only around 7ish.. and the whole date I'd planned was over (I'd imagined long talks, snuggles on the blanket, a long stroll until dusk - but when you're trying not to talk about work or the kids.. there's very little left to talk about!!) Anyway, so we decided to rent a movie yet. It was lovely!
In the morning we totally indulged and slept as long as we wanted. The night before, I'd guessed that I'd still be up by 8 (normal time) - but we both slept until 9am!! Unbelievable! The kids were being dropped off by 10am, so I got up put the coffee on and made breakfast. I found this recipe for strawberry blintzes - they're crepes filled with a ricotta-creamcheese mix and covered in a strawberry sauce. And we ate over candlelight. Overall, it was a fairly romantic little date we had. I'm pleased we did it. I was really pleased when the girls came home and Kelsey said, "Happy Wedding Birthday!!" with flowers and a card she'd made. And to hear that they'd done incredibly well - was music to my ears. Beppe even suggested that we go away for a weekend.. don't tempt me!