Today is our five year wedding anniversary. What an amazing 5 years it's been! It seems like it's gone by so quickly, but then again, we have done so much in the 5 years that it also feels longer.
Our
wedding day was so beautiful- and fun! At that time we were living in Seattle, and thewedding was ina beautiful little town called Fall City, about 30 minutes from Seattle. Ron and I had been together for 7 years before getting married. We have never been really affectionate in public, we'd been fairly private with our feelings until that day. It was really great to be surrounded by our family and friends and publicly share our vows- which we wrote ourselves. I don't think either of us had ever been happier than we were on our wedding day!
Our
honeymoon was 8 weeks of backpacking through Europe. What an incredible experience! We went to Belgium, England, Ireland, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Wales, and France. We definately caught the travel bug and have been wanting to go back ever since!
When we got back, Ron applied to grad school. When he was accepted to UCDavis Graduate School of Management, we moved down to California. We made some great friends through the GSM.
I quickly got involved in the
Sacramento Valley chapter of
RID, and served on the board for 3 of the 4 years we were there. I was so fortunate to not only be involved in the interpreting community, but also to make such wonderful friends!
During these 5 years Ron and I took trips to Texas to visit the cousins and their kids
...
to Colorado for me to take the RID certification tests and visit with family
and my friend Lauren
...
and spent a week in Martha's Vineyard for Dave and Chaos' wedding.
Ron graduated after 2 years, and got a job with HP (where he had interned the year before). Before he started full time work, we decided to take another trip and spent
5 weeks in SE Asia.
A few days in Hong Kong, a quick jaunt to Cambodia, and most of our time in Thailand. We went to 2 Schools for the Deaf, one in Cambodia, the other in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We had several lazy days on the beach, adventures in moped riding, and crazy tuk tuk rides. We came back with a new outlook on life- seeing true poverty in a foreigh country- especially Cambodia where the prior development that the country had was destroyed by the Pol Pot regime. It was like being in a third world country- and the people were so nice, we really learned a lot.
When we came back we moved to Rocklin to be closer to HP. A year later we decided to try to start a family. We got pregnant right away, and started thinking seriously about where we wanted to raise a child. At that time, my parents were ready to move as well. They wanted to be closer to us, now that a grandchild was on the way! Ron and I missed the Northwest, and my dad has always wanted to move back to Oregon (where he went to school) so we decided to head on up here and relocate the family. It didn't hurt that the housing costs up here were so much lower than in California! Also, we wanted to becloser to Rons parents so they could watch Max grow up. We got Gramaw (spelled that way on purpose- that's how my brother and I thought it was spelled growing up- it stuck!) to move up here, too. It felt like a caravan- the Brooks/Purvis family migration!
When we arrived we set out to buy our first home. 10 days after moving in, Max was born! Many people buy homes and start a family much younger than us (we're both 32) but we decided to take our time and travel a bit before settling down. We are so glad we did, what great adventures we've had! That's not to say we aren't going to travel now with kids, but the mortgage payment hinders things a bit! We are already thinking about when our kid(s?) will be old enough for us to head abroad again.
So here we are, five years later and in our own house with a cool little baby, and as mushy as it sounds, each adventure, from travel to baby, makes us learn new things about each other, and find new things to love about each other. Happy Anniversary to us!
Sunday we had some friends over for games. We had a great time! Nadine and Mahlon came over with their two kids, Naia (3 years old) and Josephine (1 month old), Bauer came over with Adam (10 years old... I think) and Chaos and Dave came down from Seattle with Fiona (6 months old) and their dog Jezabel to stay the night. It was a fun group! Games go a lot slower with all the breaks to change diapers, help toddlers, etc!
And here's a picture of Ron and Max out in the backyard. Have I mentioned that Ron is already obsessed with lawn care? Gotta keep up with the Joneses, I guess! So Ron was checking out the seeds that he put down last week, and shoing Max the importance of fertilization
What a perfect day!
Settling down...
Is that a grin?
No doubt about it! 
How could you not just fall in love with that face!
