13

13 years.

Today Mike and I celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary.

In 13 years we've:

graduated Mike from college
gotten 1
dog
had two kids
bought two houses
bought 3 cars
taken 4 big vacations (Disney, San Francisco, New York, Toronto) and many smaller ones
started a tour of visiting all the ballparks in North America as our love for Ranger baseball grows
suffered a car wreck
suffered some broken bones, sprains, and other injuries
had 5 surgeries (4 for Donna, 1 for Mike)
run a half marathon and countless smaller races
been members of 2 different churches
made a ton of fabulous friends
5 job changes for Mike
3 position changes for Donna
experienced times when we didn't know if there'd be enough money to cover bills
experienced times of immense blessing
had our marriage tested
supported each other's dreams
shared each other's sorrows

There's probably so much more I'm forgetting, but those are the highlights.  13 years.  A LOT of life has happened in those 13 years and even knowing what I know now, I wouldn't change it.  Michael is still my best friend and the one with whom I want to grow old.

Marriage isn't easy, but when you put your spouse first and commit daily, the rewards are great.

The Lord only knows
what the next 13 years will hold for us.

Toronto Trip: Day 5: Toronto Island

On our final day in Toronto, we packed up, checked out of our hotel and had about 6 hours before we needed to leave for the airport.  So we decided to walk down to the lake and catch the ferry to Toronto Island.

We could have easily spent much more time here, but it was still great to walk around, get great views of the city, and just enjoy the outdoors.  We got rained on some, but the weather was cool and we knew we'd be heading back to Texas heat very soon.

We had a fantastic trip.  It was so wonderful to get away just us.  Neither of us realized how much we needed that time away until we took it.  Thanks so much to Graemma, Graempa, and Aunt Amy for watching our kids (and Cocoa Bean) while we were away.  It will probably be awhile before we do something like this again, but we had a blast and will have memories for a lifetime.

Toronto Trip: Day 4, Rangers V. Blue Jays

Mike and I decided we'd like to see all the ball parks in America.  Ideally, we want to see the Rangers play at all of them.  Some of them are unlikely given that they are NL and the Rangers are AL, but we'll give it our best shot.  So this goal is what sparked our search for a 10 year anniversary trip destination.  Looking at places where the Rangers would play this year, we decided Toronto would be fun.  So, Friday night of our vacation, we dressed in Rangers gear and headed to Rogers Stadium so see them play the Toronto Blue Jays.

We arrived very early to watch practice, snap some pictures, and walk around the stadium some.  When it came time for the game, to start, we enjoyed listening to both National Anthems, first American, then Canadian.  It was cool.

Wash at batting practice

our seats

 Rogers Stadium has a retractable roof, which they had open for the game.  It was neat to look up over the first base side and see the CN Tower high above us.

While the seats were a little more compact than we'd hope for, we enjoyed watching the game and were thrilled to see Yu Darvish pitch and get us the W.

 

 

Hello, Win Column!

Toronto Trip: Day 4, Distillery, etc

On Friday we got up and went to the Distillery District to look around and take pictures.  There are several pubs and stores but we really just wanted to get some pictures and walk around a little.  In fact, we got there early enough that many things weren't even open yet.  Mike enjoyed taking photos and made me his subject,  which I begrudgingly allowed.  I'm not one for having my photo taken, especially by myself.

signing "all done" because I just didn't want to be photographed anymore

After the Distillery, we went to the Allen Gardens Conservatory just to look around.  We were able to take a street car for part of that journey so as to participate in more of Toronto's public transit system.

We planned to eat lunch at Signs Restaurant - a fabulously unique place where all of the wait staff are deaf and encourage patrons to order their food using sign language.  Unfortunately, they had to push back their opening date and wouldn't be open until after we left.

So we got more food from St. Lawrence Market, worked out at the hotel, and relaxed a little to get ready for the baseball game that night.