Anniversary Thoughts and Celebrations

Nine years ago last Thursday, Jon and I stood at the front of the church before family and friends and promised to love, honor and cherish one another for the rest of our lives. It's hard to believe how much time has passed since then. The people in the pictures have definitely changed, both on the outside and the inside. The faces don't look quite so youthful anymore and maybe not so idealistic.

If we could go back to that young couple and give them some advice, what would we say? We'd tell them to be more patient with each other, to listen more, to go out of their way to do what the other person enjoys, even if it's not their favorite thing. We'd tell them to be each other's champion, to offer encouragement, to hang on to faith and trust in God when life doesn't turn out exactly like you thought it would.

We've learned a lot in nine years, but it makes me realize how much more we (and especially I) still need to learn. Just think about all the wisdom of couples who've been married for 40 years (my parents next year, Jon's in three) or those who even make 75?

On a less serious note, we had a hard time deciding what we should do to celebrate our anniversary. We definitely wanted to go on a date, but we wanted to do something different than dinner and a movie. And we weren't ready to do an overnight trip yet without Jeremiah, even though some family members had offered to watch him.

So, we opted for something different, something I've wanted to do for a long time. We took a cruise on the Fremont Dinner Train for one of the Murder Mystery Nights. In our car, we sat at a table with two other people (who were from Le Mars and Ireton, IA, no less, and the lady worked in Orange City). Throughout the meal, three actors from Omaha put on a play loosely based on The Maltese Falcon. All other actors were recruited from the audience, and even those of us who didn't act had some lines to shout out together. At the end, each table (or detective agency) marked on a piece of paper who they thought was the killer. Can you believe it--we were the only table who got it right! And we won tickets to a play in Omaha.

We ate. We laughed. We laughed some more. We wiped the tears from our eyes, we were laughing so much. In a word--it was fun. We're so glad we chose to do the Murder Mystery car rather than just riding the train and having dinner. I think that would have been rather boring. And while the food was good, it wasn't spectacular.

We didn't get home until after midnight, way after our bedtime. Jeremiah was, of course, asleep, and quite awake at 6:30 this morning. So, I'm a little bleary-eyed and have a nap as my top priority this afternoon!
P.S. The photos from the train were taken with Jon's phone (not a sentence I ever would have imagined writing nine years ago), so they're a little grainy.