Flashback Friday: Anniversary Sentiments

My anniversary is on Sunday, December 2.  18 loooooong hard wonderful years.  I was just a babe myself having just graduated high school and turned 18 years old a few months earlier.  I'm not sure what the heck I was thinking, other than I was madly in love with this man, but I jumped on for the ride and have never let go.

We have a busy weekend ahead of us so we are celebrating today.  Several months ago I had some big fun get away planned for us.  Then....well, crap life happens, so I downsized my plans.  Then more crap life happens again and the reality of free/get away time with 6 kids is hard to juggle. Even though today has not happened like I wanted/planned, I'm determined to still make the best of it.

Here we were 18 year ago:

Long story short, we didn't have a real wedding.  We just got married.  I don't even have any pictures of that day.  Well, not of us together.  We didn't know it, but the camera wasn't working too well.  I have a few dark shady images of my dad, my best friend & I.  But none of me, the bride & her groom.  Fast forward 16 years and my husband did give me an actual wedding full of all the things a girl dreams of.  We renewed our vows and had a great wedding which is this picture below:

On most days though this is a reality of our lives:

 

Two crazy parents hanging on for the ride of our life!

A lot of craziness, but full of a ton of love.  We are the farthest thing from a perfect couple.  We get mad and fight all the time.  We disagree & don't see eye to eye on many things.  We drive each other crazy with all our little habits.  But we love each other.  For better or worse.