20th Anniversary

September 13th was our 20th wedding anniversary! And as of September 26th, we have been together for 25 years. A quarter of a century! We didn't do anything special on our actual anniversary, since it landed in the middle of the week. We actually had to wait until just this past weekend, because that was the weekend that his parents were available to watch the kids for us.

For the first time in since the kids have been born, we had our first weekend sans kids. In fact, the last time we spent a weekend away was exactly 4 years ago, when we celebrated our anniversary at the coast, while I was pregnant with the twins.

4 years ago

Tony's parents took the kids to their house in Washington, where they had a blast playing with their cousins. We had debated spending our anniversary weekend in Portland, going out to a fancy dinner and going to a comedy club, but in the end, we opted for a more relaxing weekend at the coast. We stayed at the Inn at Spanish Head, which is a hotel I've driven by many times and always wanted to stay at but never actually thought we would. We had a wonderful ocean view room, and we kept the sliding glass door cracked open all weekend so we could hear the sound of the ocean and feel the cool breeze. We took a few nice long walks on the beach and watched the sunset both nights. The first night there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The weather was perfect, with barely any wind at all. If you've been to the Oregon coast before, you know that is rare!

We weren't sure we would actually be able to see the sunset on the second night, because there were definite storm clouds on the horizon, but the sun came down at just the right spot to peek through the clouds. We both agreed that the clouds made the sunset even more spectacular.

Just a short walk down the beach was a little bay that had well over a hundred harbor seals on the other side. We enjoyed watching them lounge along the shore line and take turns dipping into the water to go fishing. The kids would have LOVED to see the "silly seals." We took a picture for them instead :)

The seals

We played a million games of Yatzee in our room. It was not a good weekend for me, as luck was NOT on my side. At one point, I had only won one game to his eleven. eye roll. I did turn it around and win a few games before heading home though. As Tony always says, "you're only as good as your last game." A quote he annoyingly always says when it's to HIS advantage. another eye roll. He always comes up with some reason why that saying doesn't apply when it's anyone else that wins the last game. haha

We had a visitor on our balcony.

We took a trip down memory lane and found a miniature golf place that we had been to when we were dating many years ago. Way back then, they had all the visitors sign their names on the wall, but they have since painted over those walls. There were a few names still visible, but not many. We played a few rounds of mini golf and a few games of Ms. Pacman. For anyone keeping track, I won the first round of golf and he won the second. He needed to redeem himself, because it had been awhile since he'd beaten me at mini golf, lol. I used to be completely unbeatable at Ms. Pacman. I mean, I was ridiculously good and he could never beat me (one of very few games I was actually better at than him), when we were younger. Well, he managed to beat me our first game of Ms. Pacman, but I came back and dominated after that. We aren't competitive at all. wink, wink.

It was a fantastic, relaxing weekend of reconnecting and focusing just on US. Of course we missed the kids and thought of them a million times, but it was soooooo nice being able to just do what we wanted for a few days. We could go to bed when we wanted, wake up when we wanted, and eat when we wanted, without being responsible for the demands and needs of two little people. We used to play games together ALL. THE. TIME. We were able to eat at a restaurant without having to make a million trips to the bathroom. It was so nice to do all of that again.

As we were driving home to pick up the kids from their grandparents, Tony made the comment that he didn't want to wait another four years before doing this again. We need to make time for ourselves at least once a year, twice if we can afford it. Ahhhhhhhh.... I can't wait until next time!