High Five! Our 5th Anniversary

We celebrated our FIFTH wedding anniversary on Aug 25!! It's pretty amazing to be married that long.  At the time, Tanner was only two months old, so we had to celebrate a little differently than anniversaries in the past.

The day began with a special message on the mirror from Jeremy. Later, I received an email from him stating that I had a special assignment. I had to study 8 different pieces of artwork and make up my own description/caption of them. The assignment had to be completed before that evening, but I had no idea why.

For our special dinner, Jeremy brought home Thai food, and I surprised him with a unique Thai setting at the dinner table, complete with Buddha, candles, Thai silk, real dishes and real silverware! (we usually eat with paper plates and forks since we don't have a dishwasher). Jeremy checked my "homework" and said I passed with flying colors. Then, Taryn came to babysit Tanner while Jeremy took me to a surprise event...

The Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach is an art show where actors recreate famous paintings in a life-size exhibit. (Hence the homework assignment, which included paintings at the pageant). The actors are dressed in clothes and body make-up that make them look exactly like the original painting. Then, with sets, props, and lighting, the actors stand as still as possible to create a live, but completely still- image of the original work. It was amazing!! Each "piece" looked completely authentic! The show included recreations of over 20 works, and also had narration, pyrotechnics and music by a live orchestra. We also enjoyed art exhibits by local artists. We had so much fun that we only took one picture:

It turns out that every blog post I've made on our anniversary has included a list. So here's a list for this year.
9 Ways that Having a Baby Affects Your Marriage:

1. Instead of going to bed together at 1:30am, you wake up together at 3:30am 
2. Instead of gazing forever into your spouse's eyes, you spend forever trying to get the baby to gaze into your eyes
3. Instead of arguing about who will take out the trash, now you argue about who will change the diaper
4. Instead of acting like a natural athlete or musician to impress your spouse, you now try to act like a natural parent to impress your spouse
5. Instead of criticizing poops, burps, and farts, you are praising poops, burps and farts  
6. Instead of competing with ESPN for your spouse's love, you are now competing with your spouse for your baby's love
7. Instead of wanting to improve your marriage for your own sake, you want to improve it for your baby's sake
8. Instead of just kissing the best looking adult ever, you also get to kiss the best looking baby ever!
9. Instead of participating in sophisticated conversations with your spouse, you both participate in nonsensical conversations with your baby.