5 years

Earlier this month, James and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage.  In five years we've had 2 kids, lived in 2 countries on 2 continents and in 3 homes...one of which was completely gutted and 80+ years old when we bought it.  We hosted at least 15 students, but the Saudi guys made me lose count. Combined, we've had at least 7 jobs.  We've welcomed 3 nephews.  We driven the stretch of I-40 between OKC and Amarillo more times than I care to count up. 

Some other highlights were hosting international students in our home, moving here to China, being debt-free (exclusive of our mortgage), a Christmas trip to Wyoming, our honeymoon in St. Maarten, an anniversary trip to Arkansas, being involved in our house church in Oklahoma, and of course, having Catherine and Ann! And James just read over my shoulder and said I should add "buying a trike" to our list of highlights. 

We were able to celebrate by getting "away" for about 24 hours.  We just went to a hotel a couple blocks from our house, but we enjoyed being removed from our normal life even if just for a bit.  A local friend watched the girls for us and did a fabulous job!  It was our first time away from Ann for more than 3ish hours EVER so it was nice to know we could get home quickly if we needed.  But, our local friend was amazing and the girls were good for her. 

Here's us pulling out of our complex.

 Some views of the hotel room.  Not bad for $48, right?  There's another area to the left of the chair I didn't get a picture of and another seating area and a small kitchen area. 

The first place we tried to eat dinner didn't exist.  Rumors.....grrrrrrr.

This is us at the second place we tried to eat dinner at.  We couldn't eat dinner because some tour group had the whole restaurant for the evening.  Then I had to use the restroom and it was bad enough for me to try to find an online complaint form.  It wasn't just bad for a 4/5 star hotel, it was bad for China.  :( 

 So we opted for a third location.  At least we weren't dragging the girls around from place to place with us and having time out and about in the city together was nice.  Although I wish I could say everything went smoothly at the third location, that's not exactly accurate.  Some of the things we wanted to order weren't available and we had to send some things back that weren't done; however, they were open, let us eat, had clean bathrooms, and resolved our issues well.  And we so enjoyed sitting and eating a meal uninterrupted by feeding little mouths or diaper changes. 

After dinner we stopped at a bakery for two pieces of cake. 

 James and I have kept almost every card, note, or letter we've written each other.  I had hoped to get them all compiled in to a binder or organized in some fashion.  At least I know have the project started.  It's just that the kind of task that involves spreading papers out across a surface is the very kind of task I can't do with the "helping" hands and feet roaming about.

Enjoying some last moments of rest before we return to reality. 

 Some views of our city from the hotel room.  16 floors up and floor to ceiling windows along two walls.