Tasha's Chat'N'Chew: six years come and gone

Happy six-year anniversary!

Let me start by raving about my husband. I am one lucky wife! Billy is a hardworking, caring, loving, giving, great listening, adventure seeking, advice giving, sense talking, money handling, care taking, God fearing husband, and the most fun, loving, teaching father a wife could ever wish for. I am so happy to have spent the last 11-years knowing and loving Billy--six of which, we have been happily married.

God definitely brought us together in college, as I knew who he was, but we didn't really know each other--and we didn't share any of the same core group of friends.

One Sunday afternoon as I walked through the Chat to order some lunch, I spotted my dear friend, Lindy, sitting at the smoothie bar. I ordered my lunch, and I sat down with her to see what she was up to. She was just talking to Billy who was making her a smoothie. She told me that Billy was going to be working at Broken Arrow Ranch that summer. I said, "MY camp?" (Insert explanation here: See ... I went to that camp my whole life ... as a camper, pathfinder campouts ... my Dad helped to build cabins there ... church meetings, and of course, I worked there for 5 summers. It felt like my personal camp. My family even worked there ... and my cousin met her husband there, too. We have close ties to BAR.) So, I met Billy. Told him I was working there, too. And thought to myself ... "Hmmmm ... I should fix my friend, Lindy, up with that guy. They would be a cute couple!"

Cut to summer 2001. I was the Programming Director, and Billy worked at the waterfront. I hung out most of that summer with the friends I had made the previous two summers that I had worked there. He hung out with some of the new crowd of staff members. We were friendly, but I wouldn't say "friends". About mid-summer, Billy drove up to Canada to go to his sister's (Brenda) high school graduation and to bring her back down to camp--as she would be working there for the second half of the summer. After his return, we started hanging out after campfire playing card games in the lodge. The more we hung out ... the more I realized that I didn't want this guy to go to Cambodia as a student missionary the coming school year! By the end of the summer, I was very sad that he was leaving. We had hung out quite a bit by then, and I really liked him.

That next school year, I was busy as the Social VP for ASB, and Billy was busy teaching English and gaining new adventures in Cambodia. We wrote letters ... emailed ... sometimes we talked on MSN Messenger ... once he even called me--on my 21st birthday. God really brought us together when he came to visit the next summer at camp when he got home from Cambodia. He drove all of the way from Arizona to Manhattan, KS ... and this, folks, was the beginning of a decade-long relationship that has had it's ups and downs, but God has guided the whole way through.

I feel very lucky and blessed to have Billy as my husband and the father of my children. I wouldn't have wanted it to happen any other way.

For our anniversary, it was my year to plan (according to Billy), so I booked a hotel room for Friday night (before our actual anniversary). We packed up, took the kids, and drove out to the beach. It was nice getting to stay until sunset! The kids love the beach and so do we. It made for a relaxing and fun evening. We picked up Olive Garden for dinner ... it made it kind of special! Ha, ha! Having kids with you in one hotel room isn't too special, but we love OG and our kids ... so it worked.

I captured this mid-standing up for Billy ... so it's an odd looking picture, but it was super cute before he stood up. In the waves with his kiddos!

Billy with Khloe

Giving little girl a kiss.

Gorgeous view.

Hanging out at the beach.

Building drip castles with Koki.

It wasn't long after this that she started eating sand.

Gorgeous sunset!

Off to chase the birds!

Running to find some to feed.

There they are!

Colton has stirred them up!

Sunset

Baby girl

Always gnawing on something!

Found the remote--her favorite!

Colton and Daddy playing jump and dive on the bed pillows!

Blurry, but this is me with Khloe hanging out.

Our anniversary meal!

On Sabbath, we went back to the beach. We saw 7 rays! They were swimming between the sand bar and the beach. They looked as if they were trying to escape back to the ocean, but they couldn't figure out how to get over the sand bar. We watched them for a while. They just swam around us--harmless but fascinating creatures to watch.

On Monday (our actual anniversary), our friend, Brian, came over once the kids went to bed, and he stayed at our house while we went to a movie. We saw 'Savages' by Oliver Stone. It was fun being at a movie by ourselves! That doesn't happen very often anymore. I made us one of Billy's favorite meals, vegan chicken noodle soup with homemade biscuits and dutch apple pie. It was delish!