12,775–that’s how many days Mark & I have been married (well, a few more now.) That is a lot of days! We just returned from a trip–some bucket list places–to commemorate 35 years. I’m not sure why a trip is necessary for an anniversary; maybe we need a justification to splurge. More than once we caught ourselves saying, “Heck, 35 years–let’s do it!“ Like upgrading to the convertible Camaro at the car rental place–woo hoo, top down! Then I nearly froze a few times, and we had trouble getting our luggage in, (discovered that fun and practical are not synonyms) but hey–35 years!! Made it all OK. And we could laugh at our newfound carefree mantra.

We asked ourselves multiple times what we have learned in 35 years.We are not the same people in many ways – hopefully for the better. We have spent years in school, had babies, lost one, had jobs, lost some, created a company, made money, lost money, made friends, drifted from others, wept and rejoiced over extended family dynamics. (EVERYONE has crazy in their family…trust me on this.) We have sobbed over beloved pets when they had to be put down, gazed in awe at the beauty of trees and mountains, rivers and fish, been betrayed by those we trusted, loved extravagantly when we needed it most, hated each other, loved each other. So much has transpired in those 12,775 days. We are incredibly grateful to be at a point in our lives where we can enjoy the culmination of years of
hard work–personally and professionally. I’ll be posting a series of reflections and insights from our trip. Top down…here we go!