Eight years and counting...

Yesterday Esther and I celebrated our 8th anniversary... Eight years already!  Time flies when you're moving 4 times, changing jobs and having a child!  In honor of the anniversary we decided on our "new" annual tradition (i.e. this was the 2nd year in a row) of dinner at Sage in Alpharetta followed by a new-release movie.  Last year it was Transformers.  Yes, I realize that Transformers doesn't scream, "Happy Anniversary, honey!" but she enjoyed it... Honestly!  This year we debated between Wall-E and Hancock; since Wall-E was playing at the not-as-desirable UA theatre we chose Hancock at AMC.  Will Smith certainly "owns" July 4th flicks; Hancock was a laugh-out-loud funny movie, especially when you factor in the hilariousness of Jason Bateman.  Finally, we wrapped the night with a sundae and some coffee at Steak n' Shake, reliving some memories from early in our relationship.



Happy Anniversary, Esther - I love the life we've built for ourselves and Gabriel.



(Sage took great care of us... They asked if we were celebrating anything, so when we told them it was our 8th anniversary they decorated the oil plate and also gave us a delicious and complimentary crème brûlée, flight of champagne and a nice painted plate.) 

It's not what you do, it's who you do it with.

This weekend was marked by my niece’s first visit to Atlanta. After not seeing us since Christmas (and by us I mean Gabriel), my parents decided to make the trip to Atlanta and brought Gracyn with them. (My single-parent sister just started a new job- yea! – and couldn’t take the time off.) So they packed up for a few days and took a “Rocket Ship!” to the ATL.

When we first heard about their plans to come for the weekend we started thinking about all of the places we could take them. Coca-Cola! The Georgia Aquarium! The Children’s Museum! They were only really staying the weekend, flying in Friday afternoon and flying back to Chicago Monday morning, so we were looking at filling 2 days with kid-friendly activities. (Gracyn is 10 days older than Gabriel.) After much deliberation we decided on going to Alpharetta’s “Touch a Truck” event on Saturday, and took the kids to the barn where Esther boards her horse on Sunday.

We found out that we didn’t need major plans to have a good time after all. The kids had a great time climbing up into a fire truck, big-rig and Yellow Bus at our local event. And at the barn, although they both had a good time getting up on Esther’s horse with her, they were also happy running through the fields and playing in the dirt. In fact, we might have been able to stay at the house the entire weekend, since they were also content playing in the backyard, or, as Gracyn calls it, “Gabriel’s Park.”

They had a blast. So did we. It was a great visit, and I’m bummed the kids don’t get to see more of each other.