17 Years is a Long Time!

Every time Jason and I have had a big anniversary it seems like something has gotten in the way for celebrating.  The weekend of our first anniversary he took the MCAT (medical school entrance exam.)  On our 5th anniversary Jason had just started his 3rd year (the busiest and most challenging year) of medical school.  Our tenth anniversary fell just after Jason had finally graduated from residency and we were in the middle of moving and starting a new job.  Our 15th was right after Skyler was born so with a new baby that wasn't much of a celebration.  So 17 isn't a huge milestone year but I decided Skyler was old enough we should plan a trip and get away somewhere.  I was thinking of surprising Jason with a trip to Cedar City, where we met.  Then a couple months ago Jason said to me, "We should go to Cedar City for our anniversary."  So it wasn't a surprise anymore but it was nice to finally have a getaway even though it wasn't very far or long.  We drove down to Cedar City Wednesday morning.  It was nice to just sit for a few hours in the car and talk without kids arguing, or asking for movies and snacks.  After we got checked in at our hotel we headed up Cedar Canyon to dinner at a steak house.  The food was good but I was a little overdressed and remembered that Cedar City isn't quite the place for fine dining.  I was also having a hard time eating too much.  The morning before, I had been out for my run and inhaled a yellow jacket and got stung in the mouth.  My whole mouth and throat was sore and swollen.  So dinner wasn't exactly what I wanted but we still just enjoyed being together.

After dinner we headed over to campus to where the Shakespeare Festival was going on.  Walking on campus brought back hundreds of memories from so long ago.  We enjoyed the Green Show and reminisced about lots of hours spent on the upper quad in ultimate frisbee games and other activities.  We went to see Sense and Sensibility.  It was a fun stage adaptation of the Jane Austin book.  I thought it might bore Jason, but the acting was wonderful and it made for a fun stage play.

Old Main at Southern Utah University

The play went late and the next morning we had to drag ourselves out of bed to get a workout in.  Earlier in the week our coach had asked us what our plans were for Thursday.  When we said it was our anniversary he laughed and said he was about to ruin our anniversary.  Our workout was one that required two runs for the day, a total of 18 miles, with 8 of those miles fast.  So we skipped out on the breakfast at the hotel and instead threw on our running clothes and headed over to the track.  We finished the workout and ran into our old college coach, Eric Houle, and enjoyed catching up with him.  After finally getting a bite to eat we had a little time to wander around campus before heading back over to catch a Shakespeare play, Comedy of Errors.  The play was hilarious and had us laughing the whole way through.  It would have been nice after the play to enjoy a relaxing afternoon together but instead we pulled out our running gear again and headed out to repeat the workout we had done that morning.

We were reminded how the wind picks up in the afternoon in Cedar City.  After a quick selfie at the track when we were done it was already time to go home.  By the time we arrived home the kids were all in bed.  I was tired and ready for a hot shower before bed: really not a great time to find out the water heater had gone out while we were gone...

It may not have been the perfect trip I had planned but that's really what marriage is all about.  It's crazy to think back about everything we have experienced the last 17 years.  All the good and all the bad, but I'm so glad I chose Jason to take this journey with!