10 Years of Wedded Bliss

Happy 10 year anniversary to us! Way to go Team Summers, 10 years covering the wedding (of course), a fabulous honeymoon, playing house for real, developing lots of great traditions, 4 moves, 4 apartments, 4 houses, 3 states, 2 countries, two careers in aviation, the transition into parenthood with the amazing blessing of our first son, the evolution into blessed stay-at-home momminess, another incredible blessing with the arrival of a second son... many wonderful memories and many more to come. Here's to 10 more, and 10 more after that, and 10 more after that, and 10 more after that, and... you get the picture!

We always planned on going on a fabulous second honeymoon at the 10 year mark... but we decided to put it off until 11 because Liam is still under a year and we are still getting settled here after our big move. But that didn't stop us from having a fabulous 10th anniversary and celebrating the whole weekend long.

We started out with a fancy, and quite delicious, dinner out at a great restaurant in Landsthul right beneath the ruins of a castle. We were accompanied by our little blessings, who although they were very well behaved, kept the evening interesting. Ben got his head stuck in the arm of the chair (you'd have to see it to understand), had to go to the bathroom a few times during dinner and obsessed about our after dinner plans to hike up to the castle bringing it up about every .3 seconds during the meal. Jaimee spent a large portion of dinner time coloring, playing with a fire fighter magnet board and making up stories of knights and dragons... while gazing lovingly into Marc's eyes. Marc spent a large portion of dinner playing keep-the-zwieback-from-hitting-the-ground, flying airplanes of mashed bannans into a tightly sealed, drool-covered, moving hanger, and wiping up all sorts of messes... while gazing lovingly into Jaimee's eyes. We're experts at eating one-handed and appreciate a meal at any temperature... so it was still delicious!

After dinner we did go on a hike around the Nanstein castle ruins and took a few pictures of the beautiful sunset.

We met a nice group of tourists who helped us finally get an anniversary picture with both of us in it!

But, as Ben can't hold Liam yet, we didn't bring a stroller, and I didn't want to hand my baby over to a stranger... the boys are in all the photos with us. They wouldn't have had it any other way :) Benjamin did tell us "happy anniversary", but I'm pretty sure that both he and Liam are quite comfortable in thinking that everything is about them :)

And lastly, here I am modeling my anniversary present... I affectionately refer to them as the twins :) One for my right ear lobe and one for the left! The traditional 10 year anniversary gift is tin or aluminum... but my Romeo went for the modern list. What a treat!

Marc didn't want any bling, so I stuck to a metal gift for him... a German bridal toasting cup. He loves a good toast, and our original toasting glasses from our wedding didn't make it through all the moves.

The rest of the weekend was just as fabulous... with lots of family fun and a trip to the Rhine river to watch the boat parade and fireworks for Rhine Aflame (which just happened to fall on the 4th of July this year).

Happy Anniversary to us!