Two Years Down, Forever to Go

Matt and I celebrated two years of marriage last week. I still can’t get over how fast those two years have gone. Thinking back to the anticipation of my wedding day during our 16 months engagement--those 16 months took forever! Now that I have my best friend by my side everyday… life is simply better and going much faster.

It’s amazing what marriage can do. Not only is it an amazing support system full of honesty and ‘realness’, but it also changes you as a person. I am a new person because of Matt. I have always said that he makes me a better verse of myself, but it was not until recently that I realized just what I meant by that. I am a more confident and life loving person. I feel like life is thoroughly more lived with Matt helping to navigate the way. And since Matt is a bit more adventurous that I am… I have gained an incredible amount of confidence in just picking up and going. I think too much, I worry too much and I let the brain get in the way of truly living. With Matt by my side pushing, encouraging and leading the way… I’m living a life I was meant to live.

This 2^nd year of marriage would have been a test of any aged marriage. We moved four hours from home to fulfill a goal of Matt obtaining a master’s degree. Everything was super uncertain. Money hardly existed, family was far away, we both experienced culture shock, and we desperately desired comforts of ‘home’.

But we did it. We survived. Sometimes I think I barely survived, but here I am on the other side of that year—contemplating how thankful I am for Matt, for my faith, for my family… for everything.

During the past year of marriage:

We moved four hours away.

We both left jobs we really enjoyed.

I watched Matt excel as a graduate student (something we weren’t so sure about).

We lived on one measly graduate assistant stipend.

I got extremely ill.

We patiently waited results concerning thyroid cancer.

We watched Matt pull off a 3.9 GPA!

We started craving children.

It was a crazy year, and one I am so thankful for. I still wonder at times how and why Matt sticks around. Sometimes it’s my mood and other times it’s my health… and yet there he is—standing strong. He may not always know what to say, but he sure knows how to love through doing and being. I love this husband of mine.

Here’s to two years of being the Thomson’s.

Matt and I stuck close to home to celebrate our anniversary. The night before we went to our favorite sushi place, Nagoya. We enjoyed a delicious selection of sushi and left pretty darn full. We had plans to watch fireworks nearby but the wind canceled the show. Boo. So we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed home to watch some TV. So romantic, haha. But it was perfect.

This sushi roll is amazing... I dream of this roll often....

The next day, on our actual anniversary, Matt hung out with Ali and I all day. It is so nice to have a job where Matt can tag along if he wants. He is also awesome with Ali and is really helpful as well. Ali also really enjoys Matt and most recently picked him over me when asked who she favors… eek! I think it’s a crush. After Ali went home Matt and I took advantage of the sunshine and sat outside with a drinky drink before we got ready for our date night.

That evening we headed over to Sandusky (yes, the home of Cedar Point). We both have been so interested in trying Pho and with a new Vietnamese restaurant opening we thought it was the perfect chance to indulge. And it was good. We didn’t love it, but it was good, and we look forward to trying it again somewhere else and comparing.

 After our Pho we found ourselves on a nice little bay sunset cruise of Lake Erie. The cruise offered live music, drinks and pizza. Yes pizza! Pizza is hard to not love. We had a great time, took lots of pictures and witnessed an amazing sunset.  Matt’s favorite part of the evening was watching and taking photos of the seagulls. The ferry stirs up the waters and allows easier fishing for the birds. Because of this, there were quite a few seagulls following us and made for some pretty great photos. I’m just not sure what I am going to do with 200 some pictures of the same birds doing the same thing. Love you Matt.

A perfect anniversary meal!

A couple shots of Cedar Point...

Birds, birds and more birds.
 

Since we forgot to bring enough cash for the ‘cash only’ boat experience, we left the boat kind of hungry. So just like any great celebration… Matt ended our night with food from none other than Taco Bell. Some people just love a good bellyache. (I actually really enjoy Taco Bell, but just not at 10 at night).

Overall it could not have been better. I think I might come back sometime this week and recap our honeymoon and our 1^st anniversary, both of which had very comical events take place. I was teasing Matt that something was surly to go wrong on our 2^nd anniversary because it had to, and yet I was proven wrong—it was perfect.