Your {Grace} is Enough: {Three} Years

Benny: "Were you excited to go on a date with me because: a) You wanted to go on a date, b) You wanted ice cream, or c) So you could take pictures and blog about it?" (I told him A, but I think we all know the real answer.. shh!)

May 22nd marked our third anniversary - so we're practically pros at this marriage thing, right? Yeah, no. We all know that marriage isn't always rainbows and butterflies, but it's not so bad when you are married to your best friend. We've been together almost 8 years now so we've had our share of ups and downs and we've both grown and changed a lot as individuals. Life is always changing and so are our relationships. So I'm not going to tell you that we always like each other or that I don't sometimes want to kick him in the shin (or that I sometimes do .. just kidding .. ). But I suppose if we did always like each other, life would be awfully boring.

This year was particularly exciting and challenging for us as our family dynamics completely changed -- bet you can't guess why! We welcomed Mr. Trice into the crazy mix and went from a family of 2 to 3. Not only that, but our entire lifestyle changed -- in an awesome way -- but still a change. Going to the store together happens a lot less often because it's so much easier for one of us to go and one to stay home with T. I sit in the back seat on long car rides which eliminates several hours of good conversation (like seeing who can name the most counties in Iowa). And we just don't get a whole lot of alone time. But the most challenging part has been the loss of sleep. I'm not talking like those parents who say they never get sleep because their baby sleeps from 9-5am and 5am is just so early. I'm talking we are up every hour on the hour for at least an hour with this little peanut (okay, slight exaggeration, but kind of not really). So you can imagine how much we feel like zombies. Night and day are kind of a continuous cycle in this house and since we don't like coffee or mountain dew, we pretty much rely on nothavinganyotherchoicebuttostayawake to get us through the days.

And we love it! We really do! But, of course, you sometimes miss those old times, too... and sleep. So for our third anniversary date -- we did some of the things we used to love doing pre-baby!

We spent our actual anniversary at the Cyclone tailgate tour - an event we enjoy every year. It was especially fun this year because Trice got to meet the coaches. Okay, so actually that was only fun for us and Trice could have cared less...

With all the weddings we had this summer, we JUST got around to having our anniversary date. We were giong to play tennis, but Benny injured his forearm (I find this slightly comical), so we decided to ride bikes instead. I haven't really exercised since before I got pregnant and I also haven't rode a bike for that long. I was a little nervous I might not be able to make it far, and then Benny decided we should ride bikes for our whole date -- to the burger joint, to the ice cream shoppe, and back! Nothing like easing into it slowly. We started off by parking by the bridge just so we could ride over it. We used to ride this path all the time when we first moved here and lived in a condo nearby.

Such a pretty place to live!!

Then we headed to one of our favorite summer burger joints -- Dukes -- which is no longer just a summer place. They now have a permanent location. I have mixed feelings. Happy they are open year-round. Sad that I don't get to buy a burger out of a trailor on the side of the road while I'm frolicking at Arnold's Park. And I'm not even sure if I really like the food as much as I just have an odd obsession with little burger joints. We decided to eat outside since the weather was beautiful!

Some gross burger no one else would order I'm sure..

Turkey Club with fries AND cheese balls (because they accidentally gave
me fries when I ordered cheese balls! Bonus!)

With full tummies, we biked down to Arnold's Park to the blue bunny shop. I spent most of my time last summer eating double dip cones from there - hey, Poppy liked ice cream! I hadn't been there post-baby yet, so I was pretty pumped. I settled for a single dip and I'm still a little disappointed in myself. I kept asking Benny - "Why does it taste so much better when someone else puts the ice cream in the cone for you?" About halfway through my cone, I said, "I kinda miss Trice." Benny laughed - we'd been gone for maybe 45 minutes at most. He told me that he was sure Trice was not missing us - I was certain he was.

When we got home, we decided we'd walk through the door at the same time, stand there, and see who Trice came to first. We had this all planned out and Benny made a big deal about me not being even a step ahead of him. (I am probably making it seem like this is the first time we've done this, but we actually play 'baby in the middle' a lot. I.always.win.) We got through the door, stood there, saw Trice peer up and over the chair and then come crawling toward us at warp speed ... only to stop a few feet from us to grab a toy. I.was.devastated. It took him probably 3 minutes before he FINALLY crawled over to us and came to ... ME .. duh. Once I picked him up, he gave me kisses and told me he loved me and missed me and I should never leave him again. Or maybe he said he had a really good time with g-pa because g-pa lets him do whatever he wants and that we should have date night once a week. I'm not sure which one because all I heard was "bah blah ba ga da ba ga"

Three Years in the Books .. 100 More to Go!!

First Anniversary in New Ulm, Mn
(When I went to rent a room at this place again I discovered the bed and breakfast burnt down just a few weeks after we stayed there and 3 members of the family as well as a guest were killed in the fire. I was heartbroken as we had spent a lot of time chatting with the family (one who was a 3 year old girl) and it was hard to believe that this tragic event had happened). Oh, and I still use that same purse.

Second Anniversary at Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD
Since I was 7 months pregnant for our anniversary last year, we decided we didn't want to do anything big to a)save money and b)not put me into labor. We've always loved Falls Park so we decided a day trip there was an awesome idea. After the park, we went shopping (yay more maternity clothes) and bought our smart phones -- which was an awesome anniversary gift I do believe. ;)