Seven

Seven years. First house (in the 'hood). One dog. First son. One law degree. Second son. Loss of one parent. Second house. Loss of one dog. Third son. Three-quarters of a renovated kitchen (more on that in another post). There have been many numbers in our first seven years of marriage, interspersed with love, laughter, tears, and so, so much joy. I never fathomed life could be so rich and full, yet I find myself here, living this life, and I feel so lucky to be where I'm at.

This year, we didn't hire a babysitter to go out and catch a small glimpse of life before kids. Instead, Sam and I celebrated the close of our seventh year of marriage over a lovely sushi dinner with the three people that mean everything to us--Jackson, Alex, and Kenyon (and it wasn't because we couldn't find a babysitter, I swear!). While we held the kids captive in the car on the way to the restaurant, we told them story of the day we got married.

Jackson is our sushi pro, boldly eating piece upon piece of nigiri sushi. We started him young--as a baby he'd go out with us for sushi, get some miso soup in a sippy cup and a bowl of steamed rice and he'd be good to go. When he started talking, we'd ask him what his favorite dinner was and he'd say, "Misosoupsushirice". Alex goes for the seaweed salad, miso soup, and rice but doesn't partake in actual sushi ingestion. Kenyon stuck with the miso soup and rice, and as always, just liked being included in whatever was going on.

Here's to many more years just like these, Sam. We make a good team, and I'm glad we're in this together.