Today marks my eleventh Valentines Day celebrated with Kevin, our ninth being married.
I love being married!
There is no one, NO one, I'd rather be with. Not even close. We're best friends, and our relationship has only grown over the past several years.
I pretty much knew when we started dating that we would get married.
When I look back on those days, I have such fond memories of joint trips to the grocery store, the occasional dinner out, walking downtown, laughing hysterically, seeing each other at church.
Now our days are spent raising kids and going to work, respectively, but we still do plenty of laughing. I thought it would be fun to re-visit each of our Valentines Days with a photo of us from that time period. It's always fun to look back!
2001. Our first Valentines Day that we were dating, Kevin surprised me by going in to my work long before I got there to leave me a pretty plant on my desk and scatter lots of chocolates around etc. He also bought and filled out an entire box of Winnie the Pooh valentine cards and scattered them all over my desk and my car too. That night he made me dinner and dessert, and sang me a sweet song he'd written for me. (This photo was taken a few months after VDay that year, but it's from the same era, so we'll call it good. :) Look how young! And how curly my hair was. Yes, it's naturally that way. No, I never really do it curly anymore. But I should. It's fun!)
2002. Our second shared Valentines Day is one I'll ALways remember. We were engaged, and two days BEFORE Valentines Day I got to my car after class to find Kevin standing there with a dozen red roses. I was so confused! Basically, he had class late ON Valentines Day so had thought we'd celebrate early. Hmmm, part of me didn't like that as much (who wants to sit home on the actual February 14th when you have an eligible date?) so we went out twice. Ha! Chinese food on February 12th (Golden China, to this day the best Chinese restaurant I've ever been to), and then an Italian restaurant (right next to the Palm Theater, can't remember the name) on V-Day. Again, above photo NOT taken on Valentines Day, it was from a couple of months before.
2003. Our third Valentines Day we were married, and Kevin got us reservations at The Harbor restaurant in Santa Barbara...yum!!! I ordered the macadamia nut-crusted halibut with the coconut cream sauce and felt super fancy. (Photo from our actual wedding day.)
2004. Our fourth Valentines Day we spent at HOME with our precious newborn little girl, born just four days earlier! I think we took a walk around the block, her first trip in the stroller. I remember being new parents and being paranoid that something was going to happen to our precious baby outside. That was our best Valentines Day yet, for sure. (This picture was taken a week before Anna was born, so a week or so before V-Day.)
2005. The fifth Valentines Day I don't remember as well. I am sure that we ordered food in and enjoyed a cozy night together at home, once we put the baby down. Love that. (This photo is from a cruise we took to Mexico around that time--well, technically seven months later, but who's counting? We were literally the only sober people on the ship. And my eyes were bright red because of all the cigarrette smoke. I guess we didn't get the memo that we were supposed to be partying like it's 1999.)
2006. Our sixth Valentines Day we were in Rome. Yes, Rome. Sitting in a re-fueling airplane. While Italian employees went up and down the aisles vacuuming and calling out "rubbish? rubbish?" I told Kevin as we sat on the runway that we'd always be able to say we spent Valentines Day 2006 in Rome, and we laughed. Then the plane took off again. We were headed to Ethiopia. To pick up our sons. Another incredibly memorable February 14th.
2007. The seventh Valentines Day I was quite pregnant with Kaitlyn, and I remember taking our three little kids over to the neighborhood park. I'm sure that night we did our standard take-out food after the kids' bedtime. One of our favorite dates for sure.
2008. Our eighth Valentines Day together we all got fast food. Simple, but that's how we roll sometimes. Oh okay, that's how we roll MOST of the time. :)
2009. The ninth Valentines Day Kevin bought me a pound of Sees Chocolates, YUM!, and we all went out to dinner as a family. Love. (I was actually pregnant in this photo, with the baby we lost.)
2010. Our tenth Valentines Day, last year, we went out for Chinese food after church and spent the day together, relaxing at home.
2011. This year, we're all still recovering from our nasty colds and so the day will be low key. But I get to spend it with my Valentine (well, once he gets home from work), and it doesn't get much better than that!
Happy Valentines Day to my special Valentine, Kevin! We've enjoyed some amazing years! I love you!
