Eleven

So last year was our big ten year anniversary and we celebrated with a trip to Maine. I thought I had blogged about it...but I didn't. There may have been a short post with a photo on another platform about our trip. It was a lot of fun.

We didn't plan a big trip for our anniversary this year as it's not a "milestone" anniversary, but we had a wonderful trip overseas as a family of four. I finally got to have another "dream come true." Growing up, I'd see my friends' family photos in their homes - the glamour shots taken overseas with the fancy clothes and makeup. I'd always wanted to get glamour shots done. Of course, my family had their issues, and in my eyes, was more dysfunctional than others. Since growing up and seeing the world through wiser eyes, I've come to see a lot of families with their own dysfunctional aspects. So in that, I was probably not alone, but it definitely felt like it for a long time. Regardless, we never took them.

Since getting married, we've never made a trip to Asia and I didn't have them done as a single person when I lived overseas...because, well, I wanted glamour shots with my family. Due to a number of reasons, 2025 was the year an overseas trip finally happened for us. And yes, we took glamour shots!

 

For our actual anniversary, we celebrated a day early, got a babysitter for the day and had lunch together. We didn't intend for it to be so reminiscent of our younger relationship days, but that's what it turned into. It was fun.

We went shopping together before lunch and were able to go to stores we wouldn't normally get to with children. It was so nice not to have to watch a child and make sure nobody was grabbing things or on the verge of breaking fragile items. We were able to wander at our pace and not worry about keeping track of where the children were. 

We went to an all you can eat sushi restaurant for lunch and we were pretty impressed. For the price we paid and the food we ate, I enjoyed the food. 12 years ago when we were still dating, we went to an all you can eat beef ribs restaurant for lunch. I ate 12 beef ribs for lunch that day and he had 13. We joke about that lunch being the moment he knew I was the one for him.  

 

We had a decent amount of sushi for lunch. Between the two of us, we ate:

- seaweed salad

- 4 pcs tuna nigiri

- 4 pcs red snapper nigiri

- 4 pcs smoked salmon nigiri

-14 pcs salmon nigiri

- 4 spicy tuna nigiri

- Rainbow roll

- Firecracker roll

- Mango delight

- Street Fire Roll

- 2 pcs shrimp tempura

- green tea ice cream

My approach to all you can eat places has changed drastically over the years. Yes, I'd like to get value in my meal, but I also don't want to leave the restaurant feeling horrible. I want to enjoy my meal and leave satisfied and happy, not uncomfortable and sick.

The last thing we did on our date together was go walk around the mall where I spent all of my teenage years at and where we spent the first year of our marriage strolling. I can't say enough how relaxing it is to get to hold hands with my husband instead of my children, use the restroom by myself, and spend as much time looking at items I want to look at without keeping track of where my children are and what they're about to do. 

I wore this dress 12 years ago when he picked me up at the airport when we first started dating. This was my first time wearing it again since getting pregnant and having two babies. Not everything fits the same, but this dress is pretty forgiving. 

We were very young when we got married. The older I get and longer we're married, the more the realization sinks in of how young we actually were. Our love looks different now. We look different now. But I can't imagine spending the last 11 years with anyone else. Fun fact: 2025 is the first year our anniversary has landed on a Saturday since the day we were married. 🥰