Anniversary Number 15!

Today is our 15th Wedding Anniversary. 

In case you wanted to buy us a gift, the suggestion is Crystal.  It's probably not really necessary or practical because 1) we have too many kids and nowhere to put and or use crystal.  And 2) we have no other crystal items because we registered at Target and at the time they didn't have crystal. (maybe they still don't, I have no idea)

After our wedding Gabe had to return to the tuxes of his groomsmen who were too busy lazy to return them.  Upon dropping them off at the rental shop the salesman said "I always like to check the pockets to see if anything got left behind".  He holds up the pants, starts shaking them and "clink clink"....Gabe puts his hands into the pockets and pulls out....FOUR SPOONS.  Why on earth did they need 4 spoons from the reception?  I have no idea.  But, in our box of stuff leftover from our wedding, we have 4 spoons.  A nice memento I guess!

Here is a picture of Gabe and I early on in our relationship.  This picture was taken during a phase in my life when I only took pictures of myself.  Shockingly, this didn't turn out too bad.  But, WOW, were we young!  (I actually think we are in our 20's in this picture.)

Quit reading now if you don't want to read me getting sentimental...

15 years.  It feels like a bit of a milestone.  If I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now,  I would change many many things, but there's not a doubt in my mind that I would still say yes.  I feel like I uncovered some lucky penny somewhere that granted me this amazing wish.  We have no money, we are worn out from raising kids, we don't get to see each other enough; but if you asked me to dream up my perfect marriage, I wouldn't change a thing.

Silk and Linen

Today is our 12th Anniversary....Our Silk and Linen anniversary.

Below is a picture of us on our honeymoon. We are posing with at the Churros stand. It's a traditional honeymoon pose enjoyed buy newlyweds throughout time!!!

When Gabe and I got engaged we were in Disneyland. We experienced our first taste of Churros and fell in love...with Churros. We were already in love with each other! I'm pretty sure we ate nothing else but Churros during our trip. We felt like it was such a monumental part of our engagement that we decided we needed a picture on our honeymoon. The boy in the picture looked at us like we were insane when we asked to pose for a picture, but politely obliged!

Check out this picture! Look how young Gabe looks!

(I'm sure you'll notice that I, on the other hand, look petty much the same!)

We got engaged at Disneyland. Gabe and I went to Disneyland one evening and went to Sleeping Beauty's Castle. We looked over the water and Gabe said "I want to talk to you about something and I don't want you to talk until I'm done". He began by talking about our relationship and eventually said "We've been through some good times and some bad". Ignoring his original statement I broke in and said "Are you breaking up with me?". Exasperated Gabe asked me to be quiet and eventually asked me to marry him. He had put the ring in a zippered pocket in his coat and had some trouble getting it out, but eventually he did and we kissed and hugged and....

out of nowhere a woman came running over to us excitedly yelling "you just got engaged! Congratulations! Hey everyone they just got engaged!". She was crying and hugging us and telling us that she'd watched the whole thing. Gabe and I were both looking at each other trying to figure out who this crazy person was. She proceeded to blubber for another couple of minutes announcing to everyone that we were getting married and how excited she was and then she left. No one we told matched her level of excitement.

We celebrated by going out last night. In true Rutledge fashion we (and by we I mean Kristi) lost the invitation to the party we were invited to. After searching online for the address I found it and "thought" I remembered seeing that the party started at 4:00 pm. So, we decided to be fashionably late and arrive at 5:30 pm. We found the location and drove by only to see the hosts unloading stuff from their car and realized that we had the wrong time. We did a quick drive by turn around, short of ducking down below the dashboard and went out to dinner. We eventually went back to the party to say a quick hello before going back to relieve Grammie and Grandpa of their babysitting duties. On a positive note, Johnny enjoyed making a secret potion at Grass Lake with Grandpa! Don't tell him I said so, but his secret potion is kind of smelly!

Johnny has recently learned that he can't marry Maisy and he's pretty upset about it. He doesn't understand why he can't marry Maisy and have babies with her since he loves her so much. To see how much Johnny loves his sister makes me so happy. Even if in 5 years he'll deny this statement!

Happy Anniversary Gabe.

(maybe next year I'll share with you the conversation that occurred when Gabe asked my mom if he could marry me!)