I remember picking our wedding date 8 years ago. I specifically chose a Saturday that was 2 weeks after SXSW so our guests wouldn’t get hit with inflated hotel and air costs, and we wouldn’t deal with Austin crowds.
I also remember thinking, “and that way, some day wayyyy in the future when we have kids and it’s harder to travel, and if we get too busy to celebrate our anniversary on the real day we can just do a spring break trip.”
Well, that day is today! We are officially way too tired and haggard to celebrate our anniversary on a Tuesday (blah! worst day for special occasions!) but we did get to take an adults-only trip to Mexico last week while my Dallas family watched the boys for us.
8 years into marriage. Officially too exhausted to celebrate our anniversary on the real day, but also very much in love right now.
What do I have to say about 8 years of marriage that’s different from 7? Well, since we just got a few days together without anyone else (no kids, no work, no home maintenance, no family, no friends…just us!) I really am reminded that he’s still my favorite person on this planet. I love love love living my life with my husband.
This might not come off the way I intend it to sound, but it’s easy to forget how much I like this guy I’m married to when we’re in the daily grind of life.
Haha! Do you know what I mean? I’m very aware that life ebbs and flows, and we’re in a particularly busy patch with a few new businesses getting off the ground (like our Airbnb!), a year of really rough sleep (I thought newborn stage was supposed to be the worst of it but I was wrong!!), and two kids who are no longer babies but also aren’t big kids yet and require all of our energy + more, there’s not a lot of time left to just think about and appreciate this guy in my life.
Which I think is why the trip was sooo special. There were just a hundred moments when I got to think back and reflect on our past year, as hard as it was, and realize how insanely grateful I am for Nate. He’s the absolute best, and I really mean it when I say he’s such an easy person to be married to. I’m very lucky.
A few marriage tidbits at 8 years in
It’s hard to separate “marriage” from “parenting” because they’re obviously so interconnected at this point in our lives, but here are a few things I might want to remember about us from 8 years of marriage:
Our favorite thing together is still food + drinks. We love researching it, talking about it, and exploring! We don’t get to dine out together as often as we used to, but checking out new restaurants, re-visiting some of our favorites (Dai Due! Emmer & Rye!) is still our favorite. That being said…
5:30 is our preferred dinner resy time. Lol. Nate and I love a geriatric dinner time. Why? Because if I’m paying a babysitter, I want them to handle baths/bedtime while I go out with my husband! None of this 7:30 dinner nonsense where I have to try to get myself dressed up and out the door while also trying to get my kids ready for bed.
We rarely drink wine or cocktails anymore. We’ve gone through cocktail stages in our marriage (omg and they were sooo fun!) but these days Nate and I mostly stick to beer that’s 5% ABV or below. Being a good and energetic parent early in the morning depends on it. Maybe we’ll get back into cocktails when we’re in our 50s? Who knows..
Our main love language these days is a text like this: “no rush getting home from work today – I’ll handle bedtime with the boys if you want to go to ABGB” or “I’m going to get the boys out of the house for a few hours on Saturday morning so you can read a book and recharge.” We’re both introverts who really appreciate solo time. Big, extravagant gifts aren’t our thing at this point in marriage, but giving one another little blips of time to recharge is a tangible way we show each other love on a daily basis.
I feel so optimistic about our marriage. I still live by the cheesy blog name I chose: “so much life to live.” I have to keep choosing to believe that there’s always more good stuff up ahead.
Last year on this anniversary post I wrote that I sometimes feel sadness at this point in our lives, because we used to just be SO fun and our relationship was so much easier in those early years! But this year…I don’t know…I think something has shifted and I’m mostly just feeling SO thankful for the present reality we’re in (as crazy as it is…) and also really, really excited about all of our years we’ll get to live together, God-willing. Spending those 6 days in Mexico was really good for us because it was yet another reminder that, “oh right, we’re still here! We’re still so in love and we’re really good at living life together and he’s still my favorite person in the world.”
We had one meal at the all-inclusive where we ended up being seated with another couple, and they were…eclectic, to say the least. And Nate and I both stood up at the same time to re-fill our plates and looked at each other and just burst into laughter. “Are you having SO much fun?” I asked him. “This is just absolutely hysterical and I’m loving talking to this very interesting couple and hearing their opinions on things.” And Nate just laughed and said, “we’re going to have some good stories.”
So here’s to 8 years of marriage and living a good story. I love you so much, Nate.
