17 Years!

Ron and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary yesterday (June 13th)! It was a pretty normal Saturday filled with the usual errands, cleaning and shopping, excluding ball games though which is way off the norm. Ron had to perform a wedding for a couple. The groom's parents are in our ward. (That's the second wedding he's done since being Bishop.) He was trying to come up with some "great" advice to share with the newly weds. Since it fell on our anniversary it caused us to try and remember some of the counsel we were given. Raymond Malouf was the sealer who married us. The only advice I could remember he gave me was, "To not pick up the hoe when Ron's outside working. Just tell him he's doing a great job and bring him a cold glass of lemonade." I'm not sure the wisdom behind this admonishment. Quite ironically, we felt like our marriage is better because we practice the antithesis and share the work around home and there really isn't a division of "men's work" and "women's work." I frequently mow the lawn, plant and hoe the garden. Likewise, Ron folds laundry when it's sitting there waiting , changes dirty diapers, and does the dishes if there are some to be done. I think for us it's worked really great!

We were able to catch a movie in the evening and opted to see Star Trek. Both of us really liked it. Our first years of marriage, we enjoyed watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. I never really got into the old Star Trek, but that's what this movie is based on. So as not to ruin the story for any who are wishing to see it, I won't comment any more.

While we were away, the kids were busy preparing for a surprise welcome home. Jamie made a delicious 2-layer white cake iced with cool whip, and a thin layer of strawberry jam spread on the very top. Everyone helped with a very cute poster the said, "Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!...17th." It was way fun as we came through the door and our children yelled, "Happy Anniversary" and then proceeded to show us the neat little things they had done for us. They were super excited and so were we!