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A Photo Journey of Eleven

On the ELEVENTH anniversary, the traditional gift given to celebrate is steel. Steel is valued for its durability and strength. Steel is a mixture of iron and carbon making it virtually resistant to corrosion and damage. Steel is tough... and so are we.

On this day eleven years ago, we stood in front of a congregation filled with family and friends and said "I do" to one another. We've come a long way in eleven years. We've grown up from these little babies that were wide eyed and bushy tailed ready to go out into the big world together to two people that know that making a marriage (or any relationship) work takes hard work, patience, forgiveness, and love. It's crazy to think that it was eleven years ago that we put on those fancy clothes and danced the night away. In honor of our 11th anniversary, I figured I would share eleven pictures of us through the years.

2006 - We stood in front of roughly 100 people to vow to love one another as long as we both shall live. Then... we partied!


2007 - We used to travel a lot more than we do now (though we will travel more frequently one day soon hopefully as the kids get bigger and when I eventually return to work so we have more funds coming into the house). We went to the Blue Ridge Parkway this year and stayed at my parents' cabin in the mountains of Tennessee. Side note: This selfie was taken old school when you had to use a point and shoot and hope you got your faces in the picture.


2008 - We started what would become an annual visit to the Keys. Although we haven't gone annually since the kids have been around, we are about to embark on our second visit with the kids and we hope in future years we make it annual thing again.



2009 - I graduated from my Ed.S. program at UCF. It was a long three year program that made it hard for us to spend any time together and strained our relationship at times but we made it through and life was better because of it. Steven and I stuck through all the difficult times during that period and came out on the other side ready to face any new challenges thrown our way.


2010 - We bought our house. We might have times that we feel like we have outgrown this home already, but this house is our home and the memories here are amazing.


2011 - We took our longest cruise to date and visited the Southern Caribbean for 10 days. It was ah-maze-ing. We are looking into our next cruises (both as a couple alone and with kids) and hope to take those within the next year or two. This picture is from our excursion in Aruba.


2012 - Our little firecracker made her way into the world. She came into the world in her own way and hasn't stopped letting us know that she is her own independent person since. Our first family photo as a family of three.


2013 - We made our way back to the Blue Ridge area and visited Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee. This added to our bucket list plans one day to visit not only every MLB stadium but also every NASCAR track in the country. (We might also add some bigger program college football stadiums to this list.) One day when the kids are out of the house, we might actually get that done. Until then we will add on a visit to a stadium or track whenever we can on a trip.


2014 - And then there were four. We added another to our brood. Will entered the world and officially completed our family of four. This (mostly) easy-going kid was the perfect part of our whole. (Someone has to help Steven balance out all the hyper, overly obsessed craziness in this house.


2015 - We became an official Disney family when we bought our annual passes to the happiest place on Earth. We LOVE visiting the House of Mouse and every time we go we love watching our kids experience all that is Disney.


2016 - We ended up not doing too much in the way of travel or anything but spent a lot of time coming up with new things to do closer to our own neck of the woods. We spent our summer completing items on a bucket list that we created including many, many trips to the beach. That is where you can likely find us most often in the summer and on our anniversary today, we will be back at the beach celebrating 11 years with each other and our children. Salt water runs through our veins.


2017 - And it's been 11 years. Although now we are more than just a couple, we are a family of four, I think we should end this how we started. After all, this family exists because 11 years ago we decided to embark on this crazy journey of life together. Our most recent selfie. <3


Here's to 11 years married (We've been together over 17) .. and here's to 11 (plus) more.

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