TWELVE

"When endurance becomes enough to overcome there is no better feeling than that of standing,waking, dreaming and hoping together at the end of the day with the one you said, "I do!" to. Sometimes it seems it may never work out or it may seem too hard but there is a beauty in triumphing over trials together." 

est. Jan. 15, 2000

My best friend Ma'afu--who wrote this on my Facebook page the day of my anniversary--has seen me through the entire 12 years of ENDURANCE; the good, the bad and the ugly. For him to say such a thing, "at the end of the day" is not just for flattery's sake. My marriage really has seen better days lately, which has been so beneficial not just for me and Bo, but especially our kids. So this weekend, instead of retreating to SLC alone (where said best friend works @ Homewood Suites), we went with kids in tow. 

Our first night at the hotel was spent watching tv, facebooking, making pizza and saimini and just enjoying our relax time. I didn't want to get up the next morning, and the free breakfast wasn't enough to keep me out of my comfortable bed for very long. Lole and her Dad were gone the whole morning, and when they got back, surprised me with some balloons and flowers. It is the 2nd year that Lole has helped her Dad pick out something for me, and she always gets so excited! That morning, she must have hugged and wished us Happy Anniversary 10 times, meanwhile, Laila kept wishing us Happy Birthday, lol!

Luckily for us, our sitters happened to be in SLC too, so they stayed with the kids while Bo and I spent the WHOLE day together. It was so good to be away from Utah county, feeling "touristy" in this metropolitan Sabbath-observing town, with little traffic...just my style! We found Gateway Mall a few blocks up and cruised around for lunch. We came across an Asian (fusion) place called Thai Foon, (totally misleading name) where we ate (junk) sushi, (yummy) miso soup, some (alright) duck and (bomb) Seafood curry. We did a little shopping, driving around town and even visited Temple Sq. 

As soon as we got back to the hotel to get ready for the night, we find our oldest laying in bed, crying. She had a migraine and was throwing up everywhere. Some ibuprofen and rest did the trick, but this ended her night quickly. Hours later, Bo and I set on the town only to be disappointed that nothing was really going on. Some restaurants were closed or closing early, and there wasn't much that the average out-of-towner could do. We settled on a random Sports Bar & grill, where Bo got acquainted with some hillarious truckers from Missouri. Picture Dale and Boomhauer from  "King of the Hill"...it was classic, so I had to get a pic. lol.    

I convinced hubby to take us to WVC where some friends were visiting from Hawaii. That was fun, being in the company of hometown peoples, kanikapila'ing for the gods. It made me homesick to hear Vika, uke in hand, serenading us like she would in Laie, those lonely nights I would frequent kava circles. Isaac, her classmate, also dedicated "Mrs Jones" to us for our annivesary, lol. The next day, we cleaned up, checked out and we were on the road again to our little valley. The snow was so pretty on our drive home. 

All in all it was a good weekend and I have the scar to remind me of the time well spent. (see above) Bo and I both know that we are farrrrr from perfect. We reflect daily on our victories as well as our defeats. We know we have tons more to work on, and now that we are beginning to taste the sweet again, we are more focused on how to keep it that way. Having my kids see the importance of celebrating our marriage...that is what I appreciated the most. Happy TWELVE, Love!