Five Years Together

On April 28 we celebrated five years of marriage. Sometimes it feels like we were just married yesterday, and then we hear the baby screaming or our three year old runs up to ask us a question and we realize that in actuality, five years seems about right.

We wanted to make it a special occasion, so we took two days to celebrate. We went out to eat on our actual anniversay (Thursday night), then Ben fortuitously had the next day off (they were getting their cubicles replaced) so we went on a date that morning as well.

He brought home a dozen rozes- "Just like your wedding bouquet!" Good man.

Ben picked a restaurant that he had been to for a work dinner- a place called Recipe in Newberg, Oregon. It is in an old, remodeled house and has a minimal amount of dishes but an AMAZING chef. Everything is made by hand. I couldn't pronounce half the menu and had to have the waitress help me understand what was in each dish. I settled on mushroom gnocchi- I don't even like mushrooms and it was divine! Ben got the chicken and it was probably the best I had ever tasted. This is a great place to live if you have a lot of money to spend on food :)

 At dinner

That night we arrived home to a bottle of organic orange juice on our porch- courtesy of our friend Brittany Horner. She and I are visiting teaching companions and the last time she stopped by to chat she accidentally left her bottle of organic, delicious orange juice on our couch. When I texted to tell her that she left it, Ben joked to tell her that the next time she was going to leave orange juice at our house, to have the courtesy to not open it beforehand. And so she delivered us our own bottle to drink on our anniversary. We decided to drink it our of flutes and text her this picture:

Friday I had a college age girl in the ward come watch the kids and we went into the city to explore a few places we hadn't been. First stop? Powell's City of Books. It's an entire city block of bookstore. Very cool.

 See the books?

We perused but didn't buy anything except a hot chocolate and scone. We then drove up to the Pittock Mansion up in the West hills. I had been twice before but the only time I went inside I had both Teddy and Nayeli with me and I only saw half the house. I figured Ben and I should go without kids so we could enjoy it. It was wonderful- we saw every room and read every plaque and took our time.

The mansion has a great view of the city and Mt. Hood- but it was pretty overcast so the view wasn't fantastic. We still had a great time- of course. Hello, we were on a date without kids!

 

Although we had a great time seeing sights in the city, we realized (as we always do after we go into Portland) that we aren't metropolitan people. We don't like the traffic, the search for parking, the crowds, the dirty streets, etc. We are more suburban or country people at heart. It's a realization that we came to when we lived in Washington DC, right in the heart of Foggy Bottom. We felt claustrophobic but didn't realize it until we rented a car to drive to Tennessee and finally felt like we could breath! It's something we see eye to eye on and so I doubt we'll ever end up living in a big city. Not really our style.

That night Ben had to go camping with the scouts so I was happy that we had already celebrated before the weekend started. I'm so happy to be married to Ben and every day I discover more reasons to love him. He really is the most perfect man for me.

Here's to many more years together!