Keep Moving Forward: The Best Two Years

So maybe the title isn't the most original...but it doesn't make it any less true. Two years ago yesterday, April 28th, 2012, I married my best friend and the most wonderful man I've ever met. Scott has helped me see the real me; something I struggled with coming out of high school. He loves me for my loud laugh, my goofy quirks, my imperfectness and my confidence. He loves me for all that makes me me and I couldn't be any luckier. The past two years of our marriage haven't been the easiest, that's for certain, but who can say they have a perfect track record with their spouse? A "perfect" marriage is the furthest thing from perfect in my opinion. Struggles strengthen couples. We have our disagreements, we have our struggles, but we always finish them as a team. It sometimes takes some time for us to find even ground, but it always happens.

What did we do to celebrate the wonderful marriage that we have? Well, we did something simple, but special. We found a coupon for the underground Crater at the Homestead Resort and we bought it. What it included was a 40 minute swim in this naturally heated water with snorkeling gear. There wasn't a lot to see in this 65 foot deep crater, but what we could see was simple beautiful. The walls are something else; the coloring was light, but really what made it beautiful was the way the rock had formed. It was layers upon layers of beautifully shaped rock; all different shades of browns and grays. I'm not the most eloquent, but I really hope you can understand the beauty of the rock. After the Crater, we had reservations at The Ol' Spaghetti Factory at the University Mall. We had been there once before together and remembered enjoying it. Plus, I'm a real sucker for pasta. Love me some pasta. Funny enough, as we walk in the door, we see Spencer Dunlop, or Dunlop as we call him. He is Scott's "son" from the mission; meaning he trained Dunlop. He greeted us with excitement and hugs and introduced us to his family. They were there celebrating his older sister's graduation from BYU. That was kind of fun. We talked a little bit about Melia, set up a day to see Dunlop before he leaves back home and then it was time to be seated. We sat, we ordered, we ate. We ordered the Sicilian Garlic Cheese bread....super delicious. Super...delicious. Seriously. I couldn't eat them fast enough. I scarfed them down. When our food came, I was very excited to dive right in. I ordered the Chicken Marsala and Scott ordered the Garlic Mitzrah Pasta. If I weren't breastfeeding, I probably would have ordered what Scott did, but Melia doesn't seem to like garlic all that much and since the appetizer had garlic, I refrained. I did, however, take a bite of his pasta. It was spaghetti with mitzrah and parmigiano cheeses with bacon and mushrooms. Oooooh it was good. My chicken marsala was a chicken breast with a white wine, mushroom sauce with a side of spaghetti with mitzrah and parmigiano cheeses. Mine was so delicious. The chicken was tender and succulent, the sauce was silky and sweet from the wine and earthy from the mushrooms. It was absolutely delicious; it was hard to not plow through it. After we had finished eating, I saw one of my friends, Candice Smith, walk in. That was kind of fun to run into her. We chatted and caught up a little bit and let her go to her table.

We got our bill, Scott got a box to put the rest of his (huuuuge) plate in to take home, and we were off to Alpine to pick Melia up from my parents. We came home to a pretty happy baby. I did need to feed her right away. Even though I had fed her only minutes before we left her with my parents and I had pumped just over seven ounces of milk for her, she guzzled through most of it only an hour or so after we left, meaning she had only about three ounces to last her the rest of the night as we didn't expect to be back until 8:00pm and we left around 2:45pm. Regardless of the massive stroke of hunger she experienced, she was great for my parents. Scott and I settled down and got ready for bed and called it a night. It was really a great celebration and I look forward to endless other anniversary dates as we Keep Moving Forward