24 Years

Today was our happy Anniversary. Our celebrations were held over this past weekend by 1) going up to Wolfcreek Thursday night (with AN&K in tow), 2) skiing on Friday at Snowbasin (also with AN&K), 3) a date night dinner at Miyazaki, and 4) climbing yesterday morning. Today is the actual date, and we had all the kids home to enjoy our final celebration - our Family Anniversary Feast! Here are the kids after the meal when we were dancing in the front room -  

I meant to get a photo of just Corey and I, oops. We all missed Hyrum today. After dinner when we were watching the House, Peter was the first to say "I miss Hyrum!" and everyone else piped in as well, feeling bad about little things they used to argue over with him. I guess they are all growing up and getting along better, yay! He's almost home - he's 3/4 of the way done! The sisters that were in the MTC with him all went home this past week. He'll be back before we know it. 

So, this morning we got ready for early church (starts at 9 this year) and I was teaching/leading the class discussion today in our ward, so I got up early to try and do some final prep for that, then we went to church, came home and changed, and worked to get our fancy feast ready. We girls all got distracted from our cooking and cleaning tasks by adoring how cute Katharine's feet were as she climbed up a stair.

So, Sophi helped set the table, Abi made her famous pink mashed potatoes, I roasted veggies, made a citrus beet salad, and cooked salmon. I don't know what Ethan was doing, but he did come and grab bites of treats as we set up. Lily and Mel have been absent for the past few days, hiding in their room working on something that I can't see, since they would hurry and hide it from my view anytime I went into their room. So I originally had the thought that it's too bad that they are so busy working on whatever that was that they didn't help me clean, which is ALL I'VE WANTED for my birthday and Christmas and my whole life (sigh)... but then I thought "I guess they should be free to give gifts that they are excited about, not just what I want..." I texted Corey at 5 and said he could come back anytime. The  food was ready, we're just waiting for Joseph. Corey and the kids came back, Abi held a blanket to block off the kitchen from view, and they were ushered upstairs to get fancy! Pearls and lace and a pink bow!

Table all set with china, goblets, ribbons and flowers. Short video right before we ate.

Waiting patiently for the feast to begin. I bought Peter those suspenders yesterday just for fun.

Joseph's here! Mel and Lily came downstairs - 

Before we began, Mel and Lily gifted us what they've been working on for the past two days. They originally planned for it to be a Christmas present, but they didn't start it in time. And it wasn't all the way done, they said they still have a few things to finish, but wow o wow! They illustrated a little book about our relationship! Here's on example - a pretty accurate drawing of our first date (fourth pic)!  

It made Corey cry, so they knew it was a hit. We talked for a bit more, thanked God for our marriage and family, and then enjoyed our family feast.

I really like this tradition. I'm glad that we have this fun meal together. The kids say that it is one of their favorite things. And it's also good that it's not a national holiday that we need to share with the rest of the country. I guess it kinda goes along with Valentine's day, but this is really our thing and I love it. 

Oldest to youngest serving themselves (but I said they should let the little kids go first so that they can scoot into their seats on the far side of the table benches. 

After the meal, we watched our wedding video...

...then The House (we all let Ethan know that we're ready for the next episode)...

Katharine fell asleep on Mel, aww...

And then we had a dance in the front room, and took a group photo of the kids. It was a nice evening and it's one of my favorite traditions too. After cleaning up a bit and kids dilly dallied...

And now we're heading to bed at a fairly decent time and we're all going to go skiing tomorrow at Alta! Well, Joseph has to head back to Provo in the morning, but the rest of us will be skiing. Should be fun! I feel so grateful for Corey and for our life together, it has been wonderful. I give all the credit to Jesus Christ and his gospel, which has made Corey amazing as he strives to follow the Savior, and guided us along the way in the important decisions we've made regarding our family. The fruit of the gospel is wonderful. And with that another year is in the books.

1999 - Marriage - Honeymoon at the Homestead in Midway, Utah (Dinner at the Lion House)

2000 - 1 Year, went Blue Boar Inn in Midway, Utah (Dinner at the Roof and the Blue Boar Inn)

2001 - 2 years, went to the Worldmark resort at Wolf Creek in Eden, Ogden Canyon, Utah

2002 - 3 years - Pepperdine Weekend at Malibu, California (Corey was there being recruited for his MBA so we turned it into a trip)

2003 - 4 years - Wharton Visit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and trip to Washington DC

2004 - 5 years - Homestead in Midway, Utah (trying to relive that first night)

2005 - 6 years - Hotel Monaco at Salt Lake City, Utah (Dinner at the Roof)

2006 - 7 years - JW Marriott and Teotihuacan in Mexico City, Mexico

2007 - 8 years, Barao Geraldo Chacara in Campinas, Sao Paulo Brazil. We had just moved to Brazil for our first adventure and Corey spent the day looking for a car with a friend, and I spent it with his wife learning Portuguese. 

2008 - 2010 - undocumented here on the blog, so sad. We were living in Sandy in the Crosswood house at the time... him, I'll have to go break out the scrapbooks to remember what we did.

2011 - 12 years - in Chile, took little Abi to the ER after getting her finger slammed in a door by the wind in our windy apartment.

2012 - 13 years - Skiing and The Roof with baby Sophi

2013 - 14 years - a romantic dinner for 10, went to Park City, kids stayed with Corey's parents, bought red flower framed pictures.

2014 - 15 years - Skiing at Solitude

2015 - 16 years - Dinner at the Garden Restaurant, Night at Grand America

2016 - 17 years and a quote from the Proclamation on the Family, Corey and I took a little early anniversary trip to Hawaii, in Feb we had our anniversary family dinner

2017 - 18 years - I uploaded our wedding video to Youtube, went to San Diego and Tijuana

2018 - 19 years of family pictures, big snow storm on our anniversary

2019 - 20 years - Grand America with baby Peter and night skiing at Brighton. I made a list of 12 kids, 10 moves, 7 cars, 4 countries, and 2500+ blog posts

2020 - 21 years Bed and Breakfast fail, then Hotel Monaco, family breakfast feast, 21 years and a little trivia

2021 - 22 years Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee anniversary Ski Trip turned Family ski trip, Wasatch Broiler for lunch, Tuscany for dinner, family dinner

2022 - 23 years - Skiing at Brighton and dinner at LaCaille, 7th annual Anniversary feast

2023 - 24 years, Night at Wolfcreek, Skiing at Snowbasin, Dinner at Miyazaki, Climbing at Momentum, Illustrated book by Mel and Lily, anniversary feast.