This year as March approached – I began to try and wrap my head around the idea of 5 years.
Five. Years.
It seems like such milestone, and at the same time like such a small amount of time in the course of things. Part of me feels like James has always been in my life, and part of me feels like I just met him months ago…. and both are good things to feel I think.
Either way, I find it hard to believe that tomorrow marks 5 years since I first met James at a dive bar in Chicago. It’s kind of crazy to think of all the things we’ve been through since that craaaazy night in March 2007… back when I had no idea I was meeting a man who would change the course of my life forever.
So for my own memory’s sake – I thought I’d do a little trip down memory lane, in photos of course – because that’s how my brain works. 🙂 (Please excuse the crazy point & shoot pics!)
March 31, 2007: The night we met (you can read the full story here). This is one of the photos from that night – a random one of us within feet of each other… not knowing a thing about the other… and pretending we aren’t interested. 🙂 ha ha So. Weird!
April, 2007: A few weeks after we met… We look so different!
May, 2007: “Officially” dating – at James’ 29th birthday party – 1 month after meeting…
May, 2007: Memorial Day celebration at the lake. How cute is he?!
September 2007: My 26th birthday (5.5 months in). He was already saying things that I had to give him a sideways glance about… 😉
November 2007: Our first Packer game at Lambeau! (And my first go around with food poisoning later that night… I found out James was a keeper that day!)
May 2008: Celebrating J’s big 3-0 the following May…
May 2008: James enjoying his first Miller Park experience with my family! (I later found out this was the day he asked for my dad’s blessing to propose to me… Awww.)
July 2008: Seconds before James proposed… and I had no idea!
Now I know!!
October 2008: Moved into our first place together! Cheers-ing with my new roommie! 🙂
Christmas 2008: On our way to see Wicked!
May 2009: Wedding Rehearsing! Eeps! 🙂
May 23, 2009: Sealing the deal!
May/June 2009: Mini-mooning (& forcing James into what would be the beginning of a lifetime of self-timer photos)!
Summer 2009: Trying out James’ new rollerblades on the lakefront path!
Christmas 2009: James refusing to take a nice photos at our first Christmas… ha ha 🙂
February 2010: Our ‘real’ honeymoon in Puerto Vallarta!! Ahhh-mazing!!
August 2010: We took a little cross country trip to San Francisco & Houston for weddings and squeezed in some sight seeing!
September 2010: James threw me a surprise party back home for my 29th birthday!
December 2010: James 2nd shot his first wedding with me (and gave me the stink eye for taking photos of him while doing so… haha)!
December 2010: Christmas back in Wisconsin with our little family!
May 2011: We headed to St. Louis to shoot a wedding and did cheesy tourist things during our long weekend there… naturally.
Summer 2011: We lost Phoenix that summer and spent some much-needed family time up in Madison afterwards.
September 2011: We celebrated quitting my day job/going full-time with my photography business & my 30th birthday! 🙂
Late September 2011: We can’t be dog-less for long… so we adopted an adorable puppy (that we had no idea would turn out to be completely CRAZY – ha ha)!
November 2011: We rocked out as Snow White and Sleepy the Dwarf at our annual cousin’s Thanksgiving Theme Party! 🙂
January 2012: We enjoyed our first winter in our new place with Chloe.
March 2012: 5 years later… I still think he is the most handsome, generous, loyal, loving, hard-working, and honest person I know… and I couldn’t even fathom what my life would look like right now had I never met him. If there is one thing I’m certain of – it’s that from the moment I met him in that dimly-lit hotel bar back on March 31, 2007 – my life changed for the better.
I love you James! Here’s to many, many more years together – filled with laughter (always!) and love! xoxo! 🙂
