10 Years and 2 Kids Later

Happy Anniversary to us! :) Ten years ago yesterday, we got married! It's really (and I mean REALLY) hard to believe it's been ten years already. We were 24 years old when we got married. Ten years before that, we were 14! Yes, I know that's how math works, but it's weird... From 14 to 24 seemed like a lifetime. Twenty-four to 34 has flown by like it was only a couple of years.

David was so funny yesterday. We were cruising around Branson (we took a little mini-vacation, just the two of us), and he kept checking the time and telling me what we were doing at that moment ten years ago (like, at 12:30 we were getting ready for the ceremony to start. At 1:00, I was walking down the aisle. At 1:20, we were married (our ceremony only lasted about 17 minutes). :) We stayed at the Bradford Inn in Branson for our Honeymoon. We've gone back every year since, at least once a year. Here's a comparison from our honeymoon and this year:


When we visited last year, I found the entry I had written in the room journal on our wedding day. I don't think they do the journals anymore (too bad).
[Click on the "last year" link to see the post with the journal entry]

We had a fun time this week for our tenth anniversary. We dropped the boys off with Nanny and Paw Paw Tuesday afternoon. That night, we went down to the Branson Landing, which we've never done before. It was chilly, and I was really wishing I had brought a jacket. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack. It was just OK. If we ever go back, I will be sure to order the traditional steamed crab with no seasoning on it, and skip the shrimp (it was overcooked and chewy). The Dungeness crab was actually the best thing I ate, which surprised me a little since it's their cheapest crab variety (snow and king are the other two options).

Anyway, on Wednesday, we went to Silver Dollar City. It rained off and on all day, but we didn't mind too much. We weren't too interested in riding rides, and were mainly there to enjoy the Bluegrass Festival. We listened to about four different groups, and enjoyed them all. The best by far was "Balsam Range" out of Asheville, NC. They were great! The rainstorms continued through the night. We didn't get much sleep at all because the rain dripping on our air conditioning unit was extremely loud. David thought it was hailing (it wasn't), and I thought it sounded like popcorn popping. I think I finally fell asleep around 5 AM - after it stopped raining. YAWN!!!

Thursday turned out to be a beautiful day, even though the forcast said it would be stormy (which is why we went to SDC on Wednesday... oh, well). We did some shopping at the outlet malls, saw a new IMAX movie (Hubble - very good, but the Branson IMAX doesn't show it in 3D for some reason), ate lunch at Panera, took a nap, and then headed back to the Landing for dinner at Macaroni Grill. After dinner, we went to play mini golf at Dinosaur Canyon (we used to always go to Pirates Cove, which is down the street, but we've been going to Dinosaur Canyon ever since it opened a couple of years ago). It was beautiful all day until we got to about the 7th hole. Then, wouldn't you know, it started raining. We thought we would just play through it, but it got harder, so we ran (literally) back to the front and asked for a rain check. Thankfully, it was just an isolated shower, and we were able to enjoy a peaceful night's rest (with no rain/hail/popcorn popping).

Friday morning, we got up and decided to eat out for breakfast. We normally eat breakfast at the inn, but David was disappointed in his waffle on Thursday morning, and wanted to try a Belgian waffle restaurant on the strip. I think we learned our lesson. The food was not great, and it wasn't cheap either. We'll be sticking with the B&B breakfast from now on. After breakfast, we went back to Dinosaur Canyon to cash in our rain check. When we stopped playing Thursday night, I was in the lead. Well, I guess I left my game on the course because I really stank it up this morning. David beat me by about 6 strokes. Oh, well... It was fun!

We laughed ourselves silly trying to get a good picture of the two of us together in our room. Here are some of the outtakes:

David's "Chandler" face / David trying not to laugh.

David trying to figure out how to hold the camera and take a picture of us. / David laughing so hard he's almost crying and we're both trying to hold the camera.

Finally, a couple of decent ones: