17 Years

And what a great way to spend those 17 years - and even better, what a wonderful person to spend them with! (Two big aging events in 2 days - yeah, I'm feeling a little old.) I would do it all over again. (Except maybe minus the stress of "the summer".) I am grateful every day for having Shawn in my life. He is a wonderful husband, father and friend, and makes me a better and happier person.

Still can't believe how young we were - or at least how young we looked.

We aren't the only ones who have gotten older. (Ahem. Hopefully, I won't offend anyone with that statement.) I pulled out pictures from our wedding dinner and reception just to look at. Here we are with Shawn's parents: (Pretty sure that's a smudge on the picture and not some big clip in my hair.) I think Cathy and Quincy were only 5 and 6 years older than Shawn is now. Whoa.
Me with 5 of my brothers. Jake was just a little widget, and I have absolutely no memory of Matthew being as tall as I was at that point. Rob still had his pony tail. (He kept it for the wedding just to make my Mom mad, I'm sure, because he cut it off shortly afterward. Also funny because nowadays, he can't stand to have his hair longer than about 1/2 an inch.)
My Mom and Dad had a bit less gray hair. (I guess that means we can attribute most of their gray hair to Rich, Matt and Jake. It certainly couldn't be because of me.)
Amazing to see how we have all grown and changed over the years. There are 3 more spouses and 15 kids added to that bunch in the past 17 years.

Here's to many more! Happy Anniversary, Shawn!