Ten years of Marriage...

Jerimy and I celebrated Ten years of marriage on September 24th, 2015. Something we talked about doing on our road trip was taking family photos. Then I believe we started talking about how I might be able to fit in my wedding dress still and wouldn't it be fun to take "trash the dress" type pictures. One thing Jerimy's always good at is not laughing at me for silly ideas and, on occasion, actually making them happen. So that's what we did. We found a photographer who specializes in elopements and weddings out in Washington and Oregon. Then we set up a time we'd be in Oregon visiting my cousin. On the first Sunday of our road trip we drove to Wahclella Falls, put on my wedding dress, met the photographer and hiked a mile up the mountain. Not a super easy path, but we made it.

She took these photos for us while the boys patiently waited on a rock nearby.

It eventually started to downpour and Lucius was freaking out. Her camera was getting wet so we decided to start walk back to the car. Half way there, the rain slowed down. We stopped near another waterfall and took a few soaking wet family photos since Lucius had calmed down a little bit. We didn't get many photos taken before it started raining again.

The photographer was super nice and rescheduled the rest of our photo session for the following day. We went back to our cabin and dried EVERYTHING, so we could get up really early the next day and take our family photos. Here's just a  handful of the photos she took the next day at Rooster Rock.

I can't wait to see the rest!

Ten years ago I got married. We were "in love" then, but we've grown deeper in love with each passing year. He truly is my dearest/ bestest friend. One thing we've learned to do together is DREAM BIG. We can say any silly old thing and Jerimy somehow always makes it happen. In ten years we've had kids, quit jobs, moved to Italy, taken epic road trips and even pulled off a secret elopement!
Our vows said "I pledge to trust you and respect you, care for and protect you, comfort and encourage you, laugh with you and cry with you. I want to hold your hand gently and tenderly, loving you through good times and bad"

Thank you Jerimy for being an amazing husband. You are a fantastic encourager and (as sappy as it sounds) you make all my dreams come true. I love you!
{Our amazing elopement and family pics photographer was Jess Hunter - Photographer}

Road Trip Day 12 (last day)...

DAY 12: Whew- last day. We made it.

It started early, yet again. 7 am we were breakfasted and loaded into the car to drive from Gillette, WY to Deadwood, SD. Deadwood isn't much, but we parked the car and walked down the main street, stopping in a few gift shops.

 

 
Not finding a ton to interest us, we drove on through the Black Hills to Mount Rushmore. The boys were really excited to see it. We parked the car and really needed to find a bathroom. So we raced through the crowds to find one. Now we could enjoy the four giant heads carved into a rock. After taking a lot of typical stand in front of the mountain photos, we found a walkway to follow. I'd been here once before but didn't walk this path, so it was fun to share it with my family. Most of the walk Oliver and Lucius were heatedly talking about which president they'd be. Oliver again stopped to read the plaque's and learn about the presidents. Then he'd tell Lucius about them.

We walked the whole loop, then went into the gift shop to look around. By then we had seen enough to leave and move on. We drove up towards Rapid City.  Like I said, I'd been here once before and we had gone to this giant Maze place. I super wanted to take the boys to it- thankfully it was still there. Hooray! We bought our tickets, remembered to potty everyone and then we were off. It was a race (Jerimy and Lucius against Oliver and I). See who could finish the maze first. Oliver lead me around most of the time, I only remember helping a couple times. We all ended up at the towers around the same times so on the last tower (you have to get to all four towers and stamp your card) we decided to find the end altogether. We finished in 35 minutes. I for one had an awesome time!

 

It was getting to be about 2pm, so we stopped in Rapid City for lunch. Then we decided to power through the day and make it home super late. Of course we had to stop at Wall Drug...

 

 

AND the Corn Palace...

Before we drove and drove and drove the last leg of our epic road trip. We crossed the border into MN and stopped at a rest stop there. Got the boys into PJ's and curled them into the backseat to sleep. Jerimy and I had several hours to keep each other company. This is one of my favorite parts of road trips- talking to my love. We eventually made it home safe and sound at 1:15 am. It was a good trip, but we were glad to be home. It was very early Monday morning- labor day. We had the whole day to unpack, play, relax and get ready for school to start on Tuesday.