On this day thirteen years ago (egad), in the company of family and dear chosen family on a spectacular autumn day, I married my best friend.

Thirteen years later, we have not only owned our house for two years, complete with HRH-directed and -tailored renos (how do I love my office? let me count the ways!), but we have two absolutely wonderful children who remind us daily that life is spectacular in so many ways.

Today also marks the fourteenth anniversary of HRH and I doing our first road trip together, one of the joys I have continued to experience with him throughout our marriage. Doing them with not one but two children has stretched the associated definition of “joy,” but it will only get better again!

For the first time that I can really remember, we are actually marking our anniversary in some way. My mother is in town for a couple of days, and she is watching the children so that we can go out for dinner together at the bistro she and my dad enjoy eating at when they visit us (dinner is a gift, as well). I am so excited that it is kind of embarrassing. I hear the escargots are really yummy. I may have only appetizers and then dessert.

I love you, HRH. You are very hard on yourself, but I want you to know that you are one of the most giving and supportive people that I am fortunate to be acquainted with. You enrich my life daily, and I am thankful to be sharing this path with you.

(I need a new family icon. This one is rather out of date, yes?)