Celebrating 25

On June 29th, the Good Doctor and I celebrated the survival of 25 years with the same person. Quite a feat. We spent a wonderful day celebrating with the kids and my parents. The Good Doctor insisted that we had to go somewhere to further celebrate this momentous occasion. I insisted that at our house, children can be found in trees, but money cannot. He had nothing to say to that seeing as the bank was also on my side. But, thanks to our favorite eldest, we were able to take not just one, but six fabulous anniversary vacations.

First, he asked the Good Doctor where he would have go if we could go anywhere. The Good Doctor said he wanted to be on a boat. Andrew obliged. It was as traumatic as I suspected a cruise would be. Unfortunately, the vacation suddenly ended early.

Then, to be fair and equal, he asked me where I would like to go to celebrate my silver anniversary. I said a missions trip. He said, "No, really." I said, "Yes, really."

Disclaimer: Andrew vehemently argued against this trip because "it's just wrong" but I forced him to send us on a missions trip since it was my dream to celebrate our anniversary serving somewhere. Everyone knows you can't give one parent his dream vacation without giving the other parent hers. That's not how parenting works.

2nd Disclaimer: This was the only time we actually smiled, dressed up, or stood still on this missions trip. The rest of the trip we were busy digging wells, building houses, worshiping with our new friends, and (of course) holding the most adorable babies.

Just because he had a little extra money in his wallet, Andrew then asked if we wanted to go anywhere else. The Good Doctor admitted that he had looked into a trip to Niagara. He said he found a very cheap hotel. Andrew said, "Why not?"

And since we were going the cheap and cheesy route, he decided a quick trip to Disney was in order. It would have been a great souvenir photo if it wasn't for that guy who walked right behind us.

With such good deals on the Niagara and Disney trips, he went for cheesy of all cheesy and sent us to the Poconos.  It was amazing, as soon as we arrived at the resort, we felt and looked years younger. In fact, we looked surprisingly like the cheesy advertisement that lured us there, even with the fake orange tans.

And since there was a special on flights to northern Indiana, he threw in one more trip to the Good Doctor's hometown to visit the egg, the solitary stoplight, and the King Memorial Home.

This was definitely an anniversary with experiences that brought us closer together and smiling all the way. I can't imagine how we will top this 25 years from now.