I interrupt the expected continued stories of our Colorado vacation to say Happy 8th Wedding Anniversary to my wife, Kelley aka Going Mom! Note: the font color is the official html code for Bronze, the traditional 8 year wedding anniversary material.

We don’t have anything special planned for the day. After just getting back from our family trip and frantically trying to restore order back home by grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, getting new smartphones (Wow, the Samsung Galaxy S6 is cool!), and picking up our neighbor’s cool play house with swing set, I don’t know how we’d fit anything in anyway.

Don’t worry, we have a fun camping trip planned for October with just the two of us while G-Ma stays at our house with Avery. I still need to get sleeping bags and several other camping essentials first. Any pointers/suggestions?

Oh yeah, and we had to make sure a get 21 month pics of Avery on the 15th to carry on tradition. Same chair, same bear, and same, but constantly changing/growing, little girl.

We only have so much time before she just gets irritated that we’re making her sit in the chair. We consider it a win if we get one smiling pic, so, YAY! #Winning

Although we have a future anniversary celebration trip planned, I always have to find something traditional to give. Since bronze is the traditional material for 8 years, I found a really cool compass which fits in perfectly for our first of many camping trips together.

On the outside of the box, I made a quote saying:

No matter where life takes us,

may we always go together.

I didn’t get it from somewhere else, otherwise I’d give credit where credit is due, so please let me know if it’s been used before. I also gave a 30 pound kettlebell. It’s not bronze, but she’s been wanting something heavier than the 25 pound she currently uses. Plus I left a cool handmade note I put together with glue and construction paper; go me!

Aside from the personal note on the homemade card, I wrote a quick poem in true corny dad/husband style..

7 is done, wasn’t it fun?

Now we’re at 8, ain’t that great?

Next up is 9, I’m so glad you’re mine!

And then shared 8 (because 8 years, duh) quotes about marriage I felt were appropriate.

·       Never go to bed mad.  Stay up and fight.  ~Phyllis Diller, Phyllis Diller’s Housekeeping Hints, 1966

·       It’s so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.  ~Rita Rudner

·       A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.  ~Mignon McLaughlin

·       True love stories never have endings.  ~Richard Bach

·       We’re all a little weird.  And life is a little weird.  And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness – and call it love – true love.  ~Robert Fulghum, True Love

·       A happy marriage is a long conversation that always seems too short.  ~Andre Maurois

·       We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. ~W. Somerset Maugham

·       More marriages might survive if the partners realized that sometimes the better comes after the worse. ~Doug Larson

That’s about it for today. I’ll get back to sharing our trip soon, but I have a play house I need to figure out how to get level in our slanted back yard first. I’m open to your thoughts. Oh yeah, and I haven’t forgotten about my monthly memories post, but still need to find 21 things…hmmmm.

Do you enjoy keeping with traditional items for wedding anniversaries?

Any cool anniversary gifts of your own you’d like share?