Ten years!

A few weeks ago Aaron I celebrated ten years of togetherness with a kid free weekend. Since we have been together ten years here are the top ten reasons I’m still madly in love with my husband:

1. I think he is the funniest guy in the world; he really doesn’t take himself too seriously. No matter how furious we are at each other, in the midst of a world war three style argument, we will both look at each other, acknowledge the absurdity of our emotions and laugh until there are tears running down our faces.

2. He is the most loyal person I have ever met

3. I still think he is super hot

4. He is a really great dad. He loves spending time with the kids. He’ll take the boys out surfing and snorkeling. He plays music and reads to Amelia at bed time. He’s a really good role model for the kids

5. He makes me feel safe; he’s super responsible and predictable in the most unboring kind of way. He gets the bills paid, he goes to work, he gets what needs to be done. I love, respect, and appreciate him so much for that.

6. He’s a wealth of knowledge, sometimes too much knowledge, but for the most part enjoyable knowledge!

7. I love how when all 5 of us (Andrew, Jake, Amelia, Aaron, and I) are doing something really fun together he will bust out into a huge infectious grin. I love how he is happiest when we are all together. He is a total family guy!

8. He is inspirational. He has had a rough life and has used all of his negative experiences to learn and grow and to become the amazing person he is.

9. He knows how to cook and does it well

10. He’s super adventurous. He’s not at all afraid to try new things. I am a big chicken so to see him take risks is pretty awesome. It’s really inspirational to see him really live life to its fullest. It’s a quality that I can already see rubbing off on the kids and even a tiny bit on me.


I am very, very lucky to share my life with Aaron!

My favorite part of our kid free adventure weekend was the picnic dinner we shared together at a local tierrasanta park. It was really simplictic and totally our style. We watched the sunset and talked and talked for hours. We even saw a coyote!

Among a whole bunch of other things, we also went snorkeling. Oddly, snorkeling proved to be one of my other favorite moments. Since childhood I have had a border line psychotic phobia of fish or any type of marine life touching me. For me to put my face in the ocean and look at fish swimming in the general vicinity of my body was kind of huge, if not monumental. As soon as we set foot on the beach I started to panic a little. I managed to get all my gear on without a total melt down. Aaron lead me to the water were I nervously sat down and got accustomed to the freezing water. Slowly I edged myself in and stuck my face in the water. when I saw all the fish I totally freaked out. My reaction was so terrible you would think that there was a dead corpse in the water. Very loudly, in front of a snorkeling class of foreigners, I announced that I could not swim around with fish because they were the cockroaches of the sea. After nearly hyperventilating and insisting that we forgot about the whole crazy snorkeling plan; a little girl not much older then Andrew approached me. She very sweetly and serenely explained that she used to be afraid too but it’s not so bad, and actually really pretty once you get used it. Due to the humiliation from getting a pep talk from a 10 year old, and the somewhat sad/amused/patient look on Aaron's face I gave in. I managed to pull myself together enough to swim around with the sea roaches. Strangely, after about 15 minutes I became so relaxed that it was almost meditative. The sea grass moves in way that looks like prairie grass in the wind. It's really stunning. The fish look so graceful swimming about, although the sea bass look really grumpy. If I were fish I would not hang out with sea bass. They are what I like to refer to as the disgruntled philosphy teachers of the sea. Unlike the other fish, sea bass don't seem very carefree.

I really loved the whole experience. It was so different from what I expected. I would’ve stayed out for hours if it weren’t for a really large barking sea lion that at about a football field distance from me seemed to close for my comfort. I had to high tail it out of the water. I am so glad that I followed through because snorkeling proved to be really awesome. I am proud of myself despite the minor breakdown, pep talk form an adolescent, and the freak out over the sea lion. I actually went back out yesterday with the kids! I was super calm and didn’t panic when a sea lion swam near us.

All in all our weekend was terrific and I’m glad we had two uninterrupted days to ourselves! I hope we get to do it again sometime!

Aaron standing in front of the "do not molest the seals" sign. For some reason that sign always cracks me up!


even the birds enjoy the view of La Jolla Cove


Picnic food, crackers, stinky cheese, rasberries, wine, and chocolate


We spent Saturday at balboa park. We went to the art musuem which bored Aaron to tears (he did however get to see a photo of Georgia O'keefe's boob which made the visit almost worth it!). I really enjoyed it, not the boob, the musuem! We ate at the prado which was good but not as great as out little picnic


Everytime Aaron and I take a photo together I close my idiot eyes! I always end up looking rather stupid!



just me!