Lucky Number 13

Tyler and I have been married 13 years now. Not too shabby, if you ask me. But we have a major problem...

Our silly anniversary falls in December, just a few days before Christmas. (Yes, I know we could have planned that a bit better. We have only ourselves to blame.) Every year we have stuff going on, and we try to squeeze our anniversary in amongst last minute shopping, parties, and family activities. It is a bit hectic. But we still love each other and try to make it a priority.

In fact, this year (well, last year technically), Tyler had some fantastic plans for our anniversary, but things didn't quite fall into place. And it got bumped back. It made us reevaluate yet again the inconvenience of the placement of our anniversary. So, we are going to try something new. We are going to celebrate on the day we got engaged, in the middle of October. I think it will be swell, and much less cold and crowded and everything else. (And we can still drink hot chocolate if we want. And sing Christmas carols, although that might be a bit weird. And we don't normally sing carols on our anniversary anyway.) I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can be in love any day of the year. 

So, we celebrated our anniversary in January. Close enough right? A little late, but in the future, we'll be celebrating a little early. And once again, I don't mind in the least when Tyler plans it out. I am one of the lucky ones in that regard. When he puts his mind to it, he can be quite the romantic.

He wouldn't give me ANY hints before the day of the anniversary. I knew we were going to play laser tag, but that was already planned and not directly related to the other plans of the evening.

I woke in the morning to find this mysterious message from 'Jack Finch.'

This was just a pleasant reminder that if I wanted the house clean for company, I'd better get to work. So that is what I did all morning....cleaned. Not the best gift, but necessary in this case.

After school, Grandma Cazier arrived and took over the kids. My Stallion in shining car arrived to escort me on our adventure, and I found another note conveniently placed in a glass bottle.

This was in reference to our epic laser tag battle. I was very surprised that I did so well. And my gun was glitchy. There was some sort of short in the wiring. If I lifted it up over my head, it wouldn't work, but at normal body height, it worked just fine. Of course, I didn't figure that out until 5 minutes before the end of the game. Previously, it just seemed that my gun worked 75% of the time. Clearly it didn't hurt my end result, so I'm not really complaining.

After slaughtering the competition, I found another bottle waiting for me with this message:

Nothing speaks to me quite like a nice dinner out on the town. I love to cook, but even more, I love it when someone cooks for me. And not having to do dishes is a bonus.

Somehow another bottle ended up at our table with these instructions: (S2G is actually SLC in case you can't read the pirate scrawl.)

This clever map accompanied it. (It actually wasn't very detailed since someone didn't want me to know the end location.)

Best be careful. The life of a pirate can be treacherous.

I was happy to follow my guide who only got lost once. We arrived at our final destination of the Anniversary Inn. We have always talked about going there, but it can be a bit spendy. But apparently I am worth it. Oh, and there was one more message for me.

Ahhh, I picked a good man.

We didn't think to take any pictures until the next morning and we had left our camera in the car. It was a fairly chilly evening, so the camera was not happy with the temperature change and remained fogged up for a while the next morning. We took a picture of our foggy breakfast because I wasn't willing to wait to eat. But perhaps that makes it feel more authentic. After all, we were in the Treasure Island room, which is outfitted like a sailing ship. You are bound to have some foggy mornings.

The room was full of fun details.

Love my roses. (Those came home with me.)

I think it is funny that Tyler strewed clothes along the stairs, much like you would see in the movies. (I have a strict rule about not leaving stuff on the stairs. People can get hurt.)

There was even a night sky over the bed, so you could look up and see the stars.

I think we still make a pretty handsome couple. (Ha, that just sounds funny to me...pretty handsome.)

Tyler was captain of course. It seemed he steered our anniversary in the right direction.

He tried to take a picture of me by the rigging, but he couldn't seem to focus. That often happens when I am around.

There was a notebook that many couples had left a message in. Some were there for one year anniversaries and another came for a 30 year anniversary. (Very cool.) Some entries were funnier than others, but I think Tyler's was quite apropos:

Captain's Log. Arrgh, arrived with buxom wench deep in the evening of the 18th. 

The Jolly Roger was flying at full mast when we entered the straights. But, with 

me trusty map, laid anchor and searched for booty. Aye, the treasure's here me 

harties [sic]! Me sole complaint is the weather—can't decide if me beard be scorchin, 

or me bones be chillin. 

—Captain Jack Finch & His Buxom First Mate. (The Cazier's)

Our only complaint probably was the thermostat. It was cold when we walked in and set low, so we turned it up a notch. But all the heat was focused in the crow's nest. It quickly turned into a sauna. And there was no happy medium. Either really cold, or blistering heat. Interesting, but the seas can often be stormy.

So chalk up another year of marriage bliss. It was a great anniversary, and I am married to a great guy. Some might even say we are MFEO.