How lucky are we?! 24 years of love. It's a gift I will never take for granted. We're not only still in love, we're still in like too. I think it's important to really like your spouse. We're best friends, play mates, and goof balls. I wouldn't have it any other way.
We normally like to plan something special for each anniversary.
But...the pandemic. If living in a pandemic has taught us anything, it's
been to stay flexible, things can change in an instant. We were supposed
spend a long weekend in Crested Butte, Colorado. We'd never been there
and heard it was beautiful. But we just didn't feel right about it. So
we cancelled our plans. That freed up the money we would have spent for
our midnight drive to North Dakota to check on our boy. See, it all
works out.
Then we thought maybe we'd go hiking on the day of our anniversary...that is until the Cameron Peak fire, 50 miles from us spewed fire and smoke 40,000 feet into the atmosphere. This picture was taken at 3pm. It gets weirder every day. So, hiking was out of the question. The last thing we want to do is drive toward the fire. It's hard enough to breathe down here. It's literally raining ashes.
But leave it to Chuck to save the day. He found an incredible Asian Restaurant in Denver. And the smoke hadn't quite invaded Denver as badly as it has Fort Collins. so we headed to Denver for a fun-filled day outside.
This restaurant is famous for their dumplings. They did not disappoint. I'm counting down the days till we can return again. This food just made us so happy!
It especially made our date-buddy happy. Chloe got to share in the festivities of being married for 24 years. Lucky her. She was cool with it because she scored free Asian food and undivided attention from the both of us (which she gets in spades nowadays since she's the only one of the kids left at home).
From there we went to the Denver Botanical Garden
In our 3 years here, we've never been there before.
It was lovely to be outside, in a sparsely populated area, taking in beauty. However, as the weather heated up and the day progressed, so did the smoke. We had to cut our time at the Gardens short because it was getting hard to breathe. But it was just enough time outside to fill us up.
Our twenty fourth year together has ushered us into a new phase of life. We're super close to an empty nest (oftentimes it feels already empty since Chloe is rarely around). But we're embracing all the joy and sorrow together that this new transition brings. Our sorrows are lighter and our joys are sweeter when shared together.
