Wake Me Up When October Descends

A Wedding Anniversary Like No Other.

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The current state of my driveway.

Yesterday marked something pretty spectacular in my realm, I have officially been married for twenty years! It really doesn't seem like that long ago that I ran away to the county court house, clad in purple polyester bell bottoms and eloped with a man eighteen years my senior. Someday I will probably chronicle that saga, as it contains no small amount of drama including an entire town persecuting my husband and I for having the audacity to get married, but that is a tale for another day, today I am talking about celebration not past narration!

We awoke yesterday morning, Saturday, September 28th, to a blizzard. I'm not gonna lie, even though I am used to the snow as I live in a snow belt, September is a touch early for the white stuff, at least to me it is. If I could have stayed inside clad in fleece wear and snuggled up next to the fire, the snow's arrival wouldn't have been too unbearable. Instead, we had to go out into the northeastern wind blowing snow fest and attend my son's football game in Post Falls, Idaho. Boo.

I mean, my poor animals haven't even had a chance to grow their winter coats yet, so after dumping out an obscene amount of food for the beasts, we hopped into Rufus and headed to the football field. After watching the forecast all week, I was prepared for what awaited me as a good mom-tator. I had on under armor, a hat and a hood, my winter jacket, a scarf, gloves and no less than three blankets packed. For a small amount of time I considered wearing one of our military sleeping bags, but then thought that it might be awkward.

The not small creature kicking the pig skin into the snowstorm is my 12 year old son, the Bobo.

Two lip blue-ing hours later we escaped the football field with one very frozen and exhausted child. I was actually kinda happy that my boy plays iron man football because at least he was able to keep moving the entire time. The rest of us were not so fortunate and huddled under a popup clad in all manner of wraps whilst the blizzard pounded down upon us. The joy of watching my baby gorilla crush people was the only warmth to be felt on that field.

Later, after we had tossed our kids out at the house, we found ourselves barreling up the highway towards Newport, Washington. Our destination was The Inn At The Lakeon Diamond Lake. After getting our butts kicked this year by Life, the hubs and I didn't really feel like traveling anywhere. What we really wanted was a little bit of an escape, a quiet little retreat complete with Chinese food and a jacuzzi tub.

We found exactly what we were looking for at the Inn. Jody, the establishment's proprietress, was the most welcoming, amazing person ever. She led us to our "Mountain Romance" suite on the top floor of the Mediterranean style villa and my frozen form started warming as I took in the canopy bed covered in rose petals, the giant two person jetted tub, the private terrace with a view of the lake, and the complete and unrelenting privacy that was to be ours.

Jody took one look at my frozen red nose and blue tinged lips and walked me right into the bathroom. "You get in that tub right now, here's the bath salts!" she admonished. In that moment I told her that I loved her and that I would probably never leave. She smiled and gave me a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie.

My hubs and I picked up enough Chinese take out to feed at least two teenagers and after a carcass warming bath, we sat down at our little iron bistro table and chairs and enjoyed a twentieth anniversary feast of house chow mein, Szechaun prawns, and crispy, spicy chicken. It's nice because even after twenty years we still kind of like each other:)

Oh, and during our stay it kept snowing, and snowing, and snowing.

This is what I awoke to this morning:

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I also awoke to a fantastic breakfast of huckleberry, blackberry, blueberry crossaint cream cheese stuffed bread pudding, bacon, melon, and fresh squeezed mango juice. It still hurts my soul that I left the Inn.

The aftermath. That berry pudding stuff was so awesome that you only get a picture of its picked over carcass.

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But, leave we did. The snow wasn't relenting, and we figured we better get back to the homestead and check on the kids and the animals. All in all, yesterday was the perfect day to celebrate twenty years of wedded bliss, for the blizzard, combined with parenting, combined with the all out enjoyment of each other really was a perfect representation of my time with my big Hawaiian. I can't wait to see what the next twenty will bring!

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And as almost always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's still probably shivering and strongly considering snowbirding iPhone.

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