Happy 9th Anniversary Art & Shayna!

9 years!  What a ride it has been too!  Thanks to our friends Chipper and Kristen F. we got to go out to dinner on Tuesday night.  Art picked the place, researched the menu online, and did the prep, which in itself is enough of a gift for me!  Usually, we try to go on a little trip (at least an overnight) to celebrate our anniversary, in lieu of presents, but this year, we've decided to skip it.  Due to my advancing discomfort, it's just not that appealing.  This is the second time we've elected not to take a trip.  The first time was a last-minute issue.  I was pregnant with Wyatt, and uncomfortable of course, but we were still trying to make a go of it, and make a B&B reservation somewhere (we were living in Germany).  Unfortunately, Oma Holland passed away during that time.  Thankfully we had not made plans, as we went to Utrecht the weekend of our anniversary, to attend the funeral and support Art's parents who were there.  Our "anniversary outing" was a trip to a pub - beer for Art, hot chocolate for me - while Opa and Oma babysat Zach.

This year, though, opting for dinner out was lovely.  We went to an Italian place in Wilmette.  We each ordered an appetizer (bruchetta for me, something with bacon, ham and cheese for Art) and a small dish (salad for me, soup for Art) for dinner, then we EACH ordered a dessert too (lemon & raspberry torte for Art, a cheesecake type thing w/ chocolate syrup for me).  It was the perfect amount of food.  And so so good.  We ran into another couple there and found out they were celebrating their 14th wedding anniversary.  They had their 3 kids in tow (13, 10, 8 or so), and I wondered if that would be our future - bringing our kids to dinner with us.

Embarrassing confession.  My maternity pants are getting too small, and I had to unbutton, unzip, and pull down my pants just to get comfortable.  When it was time to go, I had to quickly put on my jacket so as not to flash the rest of the clientele.  Sad.

On our ACTUAL anniversary, tonight, it was Awana night, so the whole family went.  Zach went to Cubbies, Wyatt went into the nursery for Puggles class, and Art and I spent a lovely hour in Caribou Coffee chatting.  Felt like a double celebration.