On Marriage

Kyle and I celebrated our 14th anniversary a couple of weeks ago.  We tossed the to do lists aside and headed to Bend for a 24 hour retreat.  I am so glad we went!  Bend is beautiful.  The drive to Bend is beautiful.  Sleeping in a comfy hotel bed without kids is delightful.   And being with Kyle was so great.  Here's what we did:

• Play games in car on the drive (see below)
• Arrive in Bend, find hotel and check in.
• Go to dinner at swanky Asian fusion restaurant.  Try not to watch a couple who is clearly more in love than we are make out across the way.  Fail.
• See Men In Black 3 just because we can.  
• Play cards
• Sleep
• Wake up
• Exercise
• Eat the free (and above average) breakfast at the hotel
• Get ready (Kyle watched soccer and I read a book!)
• Check out
• Go shopping in the Old Mill district.  Spend loads of time in the spice shop.
• Go to downtown Bend for lunch.  Eat at the Deschutes Brewery.  Awesome meal.
• More shopping and exploring
• Drive home, stopping in Sisters for an ice cream and meandering along the highway - we even visited a fish hatchery!  Oregon has loads of fish hatcheries.  We saw hawks circling, trying to feed, and a heron.

See, awesome.  Makes me so excited to spend a week in Hawaii with Kyle in September.  We are also going to go back to Bend and take the kids with us.  The views of Mt. Bachelor and the Three Sisters mountains were incredible.

On the drive I made up a little conversational game to play.  I always like to take some time to reminisce around our anniversary, and I decided we could do this instead of doing cards and presents.  It was nice to say things out loud.  Just in case you want to play too, here are some of the questions we asked each other:

• What is the best part of being married?
• Where's your favorite place to be kissed?
• Name one regret you have about the past 14 years.
• What do you remember from our first years of marriage?
• Why did you choose to marry me?
• What was your favorite thing about our wedding day?
• What do you hope for me?
• How have you changed in the last 14 years?
• What do you like to do with me?
• What's one of the first things you noticed about me?
• Describe our life at age 60.
• What is one thing you'd improve about our relationship?

Finally, I want to link up Natalie's post about things she's learned in a decade of marriage.  I think it is excellent relationship advice for those who are married and those who aren't.  I've been doing the thank you thing quite regularly since I read the post and it is fun to do.

Here's to many, many, many more years with Kyle.  I am lucky.

Times Square 2009