On The Eve Of 10

It all started in high school, my 16th birthday to be exact. The turnout for my surprise party was representative of a turnout you'd expect when 16 year olds are entrusted with anything that even remotely represents a detail. My mom let out a huge sigh of relief when the boy who had been driving me to/from ski practice for the few weeks prior showed up at the door with the ski wax he had promised to sell me. She BEGGED him to stay. That year I got ski wax for my birthday from the man who I'd one day be married to for 10 years. And counting...

We had custom leopard print outfits made for our senior prom. He left for college in MT and I stayed behind at a MN college for my Freshman year. We both got to know the 1,000 miles of Interstate 94 that separated us that year quite well. We became pros at driving it in 12.5 hours.

But then I joined him. And we spent our remaining college years in Bozeman, MT.

We started our travels together by hitting as much of the West as possible. We once drove to a Phish concert in Salt Lake City (6 hours from Bozeman) and then drove home when it finished at 1AM because we had to get back for class the next morning. Or to ski some fresh powder. The details are blurry.

Then we moved to Buenos Aires, Argentine to "study" for a semester. We arranged our class schedule so that our first class on Monday was at 11AM and last class Wednesday ended by 5PM. We spent every Wednesday night - Monday morning traveling around Argentina.

I hold our host family completely responsible for never being able to cook a meal without a glass of wine again, and for the incredible roasted chicken I now make as often as possible. One thing that surely doesn't suck is when you're a college student in a foreign country and they stick you with a host father who is both a wino and a chef.

And then we spent another 6 months traveling around South America.

Mostly Chile and Bolivia but we made quick stops in Brazil, Uruguay, and Peru as well.

And did I mention he proposed while we were living in Buenos Aires? In one of the plazas, with long stemmed roses lining a path to a violin player and my man on one knee.

And then we made our entire family drive the 1,000 miles from MN to MT so that we could have our dream wedding. At the base of Big Sky along the Gallatin River. We've made 3 perfect decisions in our life together. Deciding to spend the rest of our lives together was the first.

But that was just the beginning. Tomorrow, 10 years baby.