10th Anniversary

In March we celebrated our 10th Anniversary!  We thought about sneaking away for a long weekend just the two of us, but decided to go on a big family cruise in the summer instead.  Unfortunately on our actual anniversary there was a snow storm and Tim had a horrible cold.  We exchanged gifts at home and ventured out long enough to have a nice dinner at Clyde's.  (Which is also where we celebrated our 1 Year dating Anniversary on August 28, 1998)  The traditional gift for the 10th anniversary is Tin.  Tim got me a beautiful tin bracelet with 10 hearts stamped into it, along with flowers and a small cake from Heidelberg Bakery, where our wedding cake was from.  I made Tim a collage of our first 10 years, with a tin ornament with our names and 10th Anniversary engraved in it, attached to the canvas.

Here are the pictures that made the collage.

Our Wedding Day

1st Anniversary - Tim planned a day in DC that included an art museum and ice skating.

2nd Anniversary - Mid-way through our Europe trip, in Paris, we had dinner on the Eiffel Tower that night, followed by a river boat cruise down the Seine.  It was unbelievably romantic!

3rd Anniversary - I was 6 months pregnant; we enjoyed dinner at the Melting Pot. 

Timmy's Birth Day!

4th Anniversary - We spent the day at the Baltimore Aquarium, this is in the Rainforest area.

5th Anniversary - On a Cruise!

6th Anniversary - I was 7 months pregnant, we went to L'auberge Chez Francois for an amazing 6 course meal, which came with extra courses of dessert because it was our anniversary!  I was so full that I had to lay the seat down in the car to go home!

Tyler's Birth Day!

7th Anniversary - We spent the day in DC again, with dinner at McCormick and Schmick's and a date at Comedy Club, no picture though, so the next picture of both of us was at Disney for Spring Break!

8th Anniversary - We were in the process of moving on our 8th anniversary so we just grabbed a late dinner, putting off celebrations for our Spring Break trip to Florida again.

9th Anniversary - We took a long weekend to Chicago to celebrate and had a great trip!

10 Years!

Even just these few snapshots from the last 10 years have me counting my blessings!  It hasn't always been picture perfect, but there are far more good times then bad to look back on.  Looking forward to the many years ahead of us!

Timmy's 1st Season of Basketball

Last winter Timmy played his first season of Basketball, and Tim coached.  They played for the Herndon league and there were try outs to start the season, so *most* of the teams were pretty evenly matched, with one shot maker each.  Timmy had a few buddies on the team and made some new friends too.  It was so fun to watch the kids improve over the season, with most of them getting at least one basket by the end of the season.  Timmy was not an offensive threat, but he did really grasp the defensive side of the game, making lots of rebounds, bringing the ball up the court for his team, and even setting picks!  In fact, he may have been the only kid in his age group setting picks!

Several of the kids were blondies, so look for #4, in black shorts and gray shoes.  These pictures are from several different games throughout the season.

More Snowy Fun

Last winter most of the snow waited to fall until January, with fairly big snow falls in each of January, February, and March!  We took advantage, sending the kids out back to play, and going to the neighborhood sledding hill every chance we had!  The boys both LOVE sledding, Timmy races up and down the hill, probably sledding 3x to the rest of our 1x down the hill.  In January Tyler was leary of sledding with anyone besides Mom or Dad, he wouldn't even go with Uncle Chris!

In February the snow stayed on the ground for what seemed like forever, these pictures range from the 17th to the 26th.  Tyler finally agreed to sled with Timmy.  This was very exciting for everyone, until Tyler needed to get back up the hill...  we would usually at least hold his hand and pull him up the hill, if not carry him or put him in the sled and drag him.  I about fell over when I saw Tyler climb back into the sled and Timmy try to pull him up the hill!  I had to go half way down and help!

Tyler loved playing in the back yard and could entertain himself for hours out there, just wandering around making footprints.  I love how he cracked himself up throwing snow balls at me too.  He is always cracking himself up!

Later in the week the Pavlus' joined us for sledding, and the boys discovered the joy of sledding over a bump!

This one is Tyler and Ms. Suzanne flying down the hill

In March we were back at the sledding hill, but I only took pictures of Tyler and Stella swinging in the snow.  The next day Timmy climbed the biggest snow mountain he'd ever seen in a parking lot.

Tubing with friends

Timmy and I didn't make it skiing last winter, but we did have an awesome day of tubing with neighborhood friends on a teacher work day!  There were lots of laughs and it was a LOT of exercise, those tubes are heavier then they look!  We had a group of about 15 people, mom's and mostly boys!  And there was only one family there that wasn't part of our group, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves!

Redskins Combine

For Christmas last year I gave Tim and his fellow Redskins enthusiasts, Timmy, Tyler, Tim Sr, and Chris, an experience at the Redskins indoor training facility.  They called it a combine, because they got to compete in a lot of the activities that they do during the combine, followed by a game of two hand touch.

Along with the on-field activities they also got to eat lunch in the Redskins cafeteria, meet some past and present players, Morgan Moses, Darrel Young, and Logan Paulson, and Tim won an autographed football with his trivia knowledge.  One of the big highlights was getting to see, and pose with, the Super Bowl Trophies.