10 Years Together

On Friday (yes, Friday the 13th), we marked our 10th anniversary.  It was a lovely day.  The next day was great too.  Don and Darlene very kindly offered to spend the day with the kiddos so we could go for a hike together.  We woke up to the sound of rain and it reminded me of a day almost 11 years ago.

On that day, I groggily answered the phone to hear Ryan on the other end asking if I wanted to go for a hike along the coast.  "Umm...it's raining?!"  Wrong answer.  He assured me he'd checked the weather.  It was sunny at the coast and he'd be by in 10 minutes with breakfast.  True to his word, he arrived on my doorstep a few minutes later with bacon and eggs wrapped in tin foil. 

On the drive across the Coast Range, he seemed especially nervous and he seemed to be getting worse the closer to the trail head we got.  I wasn't sure what the problem was and it wasn't until we reached the edge of Cascade Head and sat down to bask in the sun that it became apparent.  He fumbled in his pocket and produced a lovely watch and asked me to marry him.

"What?  Are you joking?"  I spluttered.  One look at his 'does it LOOK like I'm joking' facial expression and I quickly amended, "I mean YES!!!"  (I was expecting the question, it's just that I was expecting the question a week later when he brought me home to the farm for Thanksgiving.)

Here we are, newly engaged and no longer nervous.  Cascade Head, Oregon Coast - November 2001

And here we are, newly married in my parents' front yard - July 13, 2002.

On Saturday, we woke up to the sound of rain but instead of calling the whole thing off (it's not very often we get an entire day to be together by ourselves!), Ryan calmly added the rain gear to his backpack before heading out to here:

Roman Nose Lake.

Being out in the great outdoors brought smiles to both of our faces.  Hiking has been put on a back burner since the kids have come along.  It's probably been 6 years or more since I've laced up those hiking boots.
 

Lunchtime.  A five star view even if you don't consider ramen noodles 5-star dining - although everything always tastes better when hiking or camping.(:

The rain started up in earnest shortly after we finished up lunch.  We added a layer of rain gear and then continued on down the trail.  As we walked along, the observation was made that in another 10 years we'd have 2 teenagers and a pre-teen in our home.  We decided to not think about that just yet.  If how fast the past 10 years passed by is any indication, it'll be here soon enough!