15 Year Anniversary at the 1906 Lodge

15 years ago, we said, 'I do' in front of God, family, and our friends. In celebrating our anniversary we took a trip to Coronado in San Diego for a long weekend away. It went by way too fast.

The first thing we did when we arrived was go for a jog down the boardwalk at Mission Beach.

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I could never get tired of looking at God's beautiful creation.

On our jog back, we saw Slo-Mo - who we see every year during our family vacations to San Diego. Everyday you can see him go by in slow motion to music...we passed him! Oh how fuuny. He flashed Matt the peace sign.

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On our wedding night, we ordered pizza and had it delievered to the Four Seasons Hotel in Seattle where we were staying, so it was fitting we went for pizza on our special day. We went to Luigi's Pizza right on Mission beach. Tasty!

Here we are heading over the Coronado bridge. What a beautiful sight, seeing the island and sunny blue skies ahead.

Our room at the 1906 Lodge was cozy and warm. Perfect for a weekend get away.

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Waiting for us was a speical note that read:

We met a wonderful Christian couple, Marianne & Stephen Patterson, who were celebrating their 27th Anniversary which was the same day as ours, the 23rd. God is so good, He brings people into your lives at just the right time, and sometimes He takes people out. I am SO thankful that He brought them to the 1906 Lodge on Feb. 23rd, 2012, and it was for a reason! They were such a blessing to us, great conversation, and they prayed for us, for our family and Mia. Hugs!

Here we are waiting to catch the ferry to downtown San Diego.

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Talk about a kid in a candy store...Matt couldn't wait to board this aircraft carrier, the USS Midway. He's been wanting to do this forever!

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Matt barely fit...can you imagine a guy his size fitting in these bunks day after day?!

Finally, the flight deck. I thought this part was really cool, and Top Gun-ish.

Matt with his ear phones, cracks me up. It was great since it was a self guided tour and it told you every thing that happened. Matt loves history. It was the perfect thing to do.

My handsome husband...

Boss & Mini - haha!

Matt sitting in the Captian chair. He should of thought about joining the Navy...he sure looks good there.

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This statue is called: Unconditonal Surrender - it's a sculpture that sits on the San Diego waterfront right next tot he Midway. What a photo opportuinity.

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Oh yes we did! You know I had too. Plus, now we have it to look back on when we're old and it will be a great memory.

Matt listening in as Bob Hope gave a speech...

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Heading back after fish taco's at Buster's on the water front. This was a fun day!

'Excuse me, can you take our picture?' I just can't help but say those words, over and over again. Sorry honey, but one day you'll thank me.

We went for a jog down the other end of Coronado called the silver strand. Whew that is a long ways to go...

At least we did 3 miles...just in time to grab Starbucks and hit the beach.

This is my kind of vacation, relaxing doing absolutely nothing.

This trip has been my favorite!! We need to say a huge thank you to Matt's mom Pam for staying with our girls the whole time, and my friend Sharon who kept Ashley for me, Kim who drove Madison to pre-school, and my mom for the special surprise waiting for us! We so needed and appreciated this trip, and couldn't have done it without the help and support of family and friends!

We had such a good time, just re-connecting and being without kids...just spending quality time together.

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We do - again!

Ashley's Soccer Season

Soccer tryouts started Oct. 31, and lasted about a week. There are 3 teams, Varsity, JV-A, and JV-B. There sure were many freshman trying out, wow. What an exciting time to be a girl in high school!

These girls worked hard on sprints, drills, and plays. Not to mention in AZ it's pretty hot even when it's fall.

Ashley and all her friends made the JV-A team, yeah way to go girls!

Here are just some random photos of her playing soccer. Ashley is #24. Black jersey's are for away games and the white jersey's are for home games. She also had orange cleats which made it easy to spot her out on the field.

I love this picture...there's a Husky (Ashley) in the Puma Den. Huskies won, of course!

Ashley and some team mates atching the varsity game...brrr, it was freezing that night.

#24 - Ashley # 9 - Ashley

Thank goodness for her orange cleats otherwise they all look the same.

It was such a fun experience for her to play soccer for her high school. Matt and I were so thankful just for Ashley to be a part of the team. I know I will always remember watching her run up and down the field...I can't believe she used to be 4 years old just starting to play soccer.

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I'll always remember the days when 'dad' was her coach. She always got the 'smart player' award.

Then somehow, she grew up to be a teenager! Parents with small children who are reading this beware - it happens!!

No matter what, we'll always be Ashley's biggest fans...mom & dad sitting in the stands.

Ashley's hip had been hurting her almost half way through the season. She didn't want to go to the doctor about it because she didn't want to risk not playing. However, we should have took her in sooner to get an x-ray since her pelvic bone was in fact broken. Sigh...4-6 weeks of no playing, but at least the season is over with!

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The Ashley's with Coach Chris. They all look gorgeous in their soccer banquet dresses, but SO different than soccer shorts and cleats. What a fun memory.

This was the end of season soccer banquet. I'm so proud of these girls! Way to have an undefeated season. They sure had a a lot of fun together.

REAL Marriage Conference

We are huge Mark Driscoll fans, he is the Pastor at Mars Hill Church up in Seattle, around the same area where both Matt and I grew up. We heard about the new book on marriage from our small group, and bought tickets for this marriage conference as soon as tickets were available. HEre we are with our friends the McBurney's, Eric happens to be our small group leader, and he has a thing for Mark's sermons, lets just say he was extra excited.

There were actually a ton of people we knew there, since our church Redemption and the Mission Church where it was hosted, set up the conference. These are my sweet friends Jenn & Caitlyn. Their husbands came too.

We walk in and who is signing books?! Mark himself. How cool! I was so bummed that his wife Grace wasn't able to come, after all they have 5 kids so I completely understand, but it would have been really cool to hear some of the things she would have had to say since they wrote the book together on marriage.

Here we are waiting for the conference to start...exciting.

I took some random shots through out the conference - why? - because I have a blog.

Here is Pastor Mark showing a picture of his family.

This was really cool, as you can imagine, there are a lot of hurting marriages out in our world today. I'm sure there were tons sitting in this very same conference. Pastor Mark decided on a whim, to have men come forward who were ready to stand up and be a man, and put their faith in Jesus. It was a really cool moment, because at first no one went up...talk about being brave for the first guy to walk up there. It was pretty cool, you had to be there.

Of course we HAD to get a photo of this!!

My prayer is that God would always for now and forever, BLESS our marriage as only He can. I know I learned a lot at this conference, about how truly sinful I am, and how God designed marriage in the first place. What it was meant to be like from the begining. I wish I had learned this stuff when I first had been married, but I am so happy that through Mark and Grace Driscoll's struggles within their own marriage, they are using that time in their lives to help and bless other marriages. It's pretty amazing. Even if you can't make it to the conference, get the book which is on the New York #1 Best sellers list, because you're NEVER to old to learn something about you and your spouse.