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. 🥰

Eight is Great!

We are celebrating anniversary number eight. Actually, we celebrated already a few days early. But wow, I'm still a bit in shock it's actually been eight years. Eight is my favorite number. It just worked out we got married in August which is month number eight. Golden anniversary? Let's just call it that, because two was...well, too early. I don't even remember anniversary number two, or the other seven for that fact. I do remember one was spent in an airport. I think that may have been number two....

We went big this year. we paid for a babysitter for the entire day, dropped our kids off, and went off on our adventure. 

No kids or car seats in the back 😱

We started off with lunch at Korean bbq. We've done Korean bbq once with children, and let me tell you, if it weren't for the other people we were at dinner with, it would not have been enjoyable at all. Constantly moving breakables and spillables away from tiny hands is a tiring task. This time, we got to do it without kids. Amazing!

I enjoy the meat a lot, but that's not my favorite. 😏

After stuffing our faces for nearly two hours and eating at least 4-5 pounds of food, we went downtown to see the DMA. I remember going to the DMA numerous times growing up as a child and teenager, but I never felt like I fully enjoyed it. There were exhibits I still remember to this day which were memorable, but for the most part, it just felt like walking through a giant building "observing."

I enjoyed our visit this time much more. I even came across a painting painted on our anniversary....just 95 years prior! The exhibit actually pointed out the date in the lower right hand corner. But I happened to see it in the painting itself first before reading the card. I'd like to attribute it to fate to discover this little gem, but in all honesty, I think it's because that's the corner of the painting which hit eye-level when I was standing relatively close to it. 😆

I enjoyed reading the descriptions of the artwork a lot more than I used to. Of course an important part of art involves simply looking at it, but the descriptions provide a nice framework which influences the way you look at it. I appreciate that particular aspect more now. It comes with age, go figure.

We stopped by again at the creative station at the museum. We first came across this section about five years ago when they provided some simple materials and let you construct your own sculpture. This time, we went again and created a few more masterpieces. Try guessing the names of our sculptures and who made which!

After we finished our time at the museum, we walked over to the restaurant for dinner. The last time we made this walk was February of 2017 with much nicer weather. Although a hot July day, it didn't feel terrible. Or I just had really good company which made me not notice the heat. But I did notice the naked mannequins at Stanley Korshak 

Love the color scheme artwork. Disappointed not to see more dresses.

We made it to Uchi for happy hour only to realize we didn't make a reservation and their waitlist was quite long since it was Saturday afternoon. Clearly it's been a really, really, REALLY long time since we've stepped into a fine-dining establishment. Oops. We figured we'd wait anyway since we were already at the restaurant, we didn't have other plans, and we had a babysitter so we could afford to sit around and wait without fussy children. We ended up waiting nearly 1.5 hours, ha. It actually didn't feel that long because they served us small appetizer samples and water, and we people-watched from the restaurant lobby. I was newly informed on the newest fashion trend in dresses because I saw about 6-8 women wearing the same style of dress. We watched countless people with no reservations leave after hearing how long the waitlist was going to be. And we watched a couple leave almost yelling at each other after they finished their meal. That was strange. I'm glad that wasn't us after hearing how long the wait was going to be. Don't sweat the small stuff. More on this tomorrow...

They ended up getting us seated right as happy hour was coming to an end, but the waiter let us order off the menu anyway. Really delicious, as we expected. 

This was our second time eating at the restaurant, the first being five and a half years ago. It was as enjoyable as we remembered it to be. Maybe we'll be back in another five years. 

I had a lot of fun spending an entire day with just one person, and an adult for that matter. I didn't grow up with the mentality that paying someone to watch your children while you go out and enjoy yourself and spend even more money was worthwhile. But you know, it really is. We won't be doing this every weekend by far, but every now and then, it's a worthy splurge for sanity and some fun. 

Cheers to more years! 🥂

Happy Six Years!

Today is our six-year anniversary. In these six years of marriage, we’ve broken six glasses, five bowls, and one cutting board. I wish I could blame it on the kids, but they’ve actually had no part in our broken kitchenware. Yet. There will be plenty of time for that. 

Our wedding day. Taken by Victoria Liu

It’s been a fun six years. Things haven’t always been rainbows and butterflies, and we’ve had our fair share of disagreements and conflicts, but we have a lot of fun. These are six ways we've been able to enjoy each other's company and continue to have fun with each other. 

1. Be goofy together. 

We have lots of inside jokes together such as flying juice boxes, "cheers" popsicles, and pregnant belly dance moves. These are what make the classic stories to pass down to generations to come.

2. Don't fight over chores. 

It's really silly to fight over something that takes 5-10 minutes to do. We don't do 50/50 in our house. I have both cooked and washed the dishes on many occasions. My husband has also cooked and cleaned, mostly during the months when I had morning sickness, which has now happened twice. Fighting about not wanting to do it would probably cost us up to an hour or more. Not fighting about it and just doing it would probably save us 30-45 minutes at least.

3. Go on adventures.

Adventures don't have to be glamorous trips involving flying across the world to visit exotic places.  We've had many adventures consisting of driving to Walmart and browsing the clearance section for 30 minutes. Unfortunately with the current health concerns, we may never view these adventures the same or be able to do them, but we thoroughly enjoyed them, especially during our pre-kids years. Hopefully someday, the art of shopping in stores can become a leisurely past time again instead of a necessity for food. 

4. Eat good food.

Whether it be going out for takeout or cooking at home, good food can't be beat. It's so satisfying to be able to enjoy a good meal together. 

5. Look at each other. Really. 

Take some time every now and then to look at each other. We see each other all the time, but how often are you intentionally looking at each other? 

6. Hold hands

We don't get to hold hands much anymore. Between pushing strollers, holding children, and carrying bags, there are no free hands left to hold unless they belong to tiny people. When we actually do get to hold hands now, it possesses a newness to it that's almost strange. It doesn't happen often. If you're not someone who likes to hold hands, then...don't, I guess.

I've really enjoyed this extra time during quarantine/staying at home that we've had with each other. Most of the time it just involves doing more of the everyday things together: cooking, cleaning, watching the kids, eating meals, etc.

And now, I'll leave you with six more fun facts about us/our relationship.

1. When J was younger, he wishfully wanted to marry someone who had a grand piano. This indeed came true!

2. J says I was somehow able to traverse the friend zone. I hope he's glad I did. 

3. I grew up with a last name of 3 letters. It got shorter after we got married.

4.  J liked penguins. I liked teddy bears. Now we both like penguins.

5.  I thought I'd leave Dallas after college, and I did for a year. But, I found a reason to come back and stay. 

6.  We both joke that we definitely wouldn't have dated each other if we had met earlier or grew up together.

Happy Anniversary to my favorite person.❤️

Two babies and many extra pounds later, we still fit our wedding attire!