An Anniversary Get-Away

Monday was our 18th wedding anniversary. I'd do it over again in a heartbeat. (Although I tend to be grateful I don't have to go back and relive some of that stuff, particularly the immaturity.) I was 18 years old when R & I met, so he has known me over 1/2 of my lifetime now. A comfortable feeling. Largely disconcerting that my oldest child is less than 2 years away from that age though.

Each year we go on a mission to find unique lodging for an anniversary get-away. We've talked about this location before, but for some reason this year it struck our fancy. In it's former life it was silos for the Quaker Oats company, holding 1.5 million bushels of grain. The rooms are round, but it was nigh to impossible to take a photo that portrays the spherical shapes. There was a lot of Quaker brand memorabilia, including these large paintings on the lobby walls.



This hotel is located in a college section of downtown; in fact, is owned by the university now. So we were a bit out of our element surrounded by college kids. The breakfast buffet included with our accommodations also serves as meal plan for students. Based on our unscientific observations, wearing a hoodie will substitute for combing one's hair before going to breakfast, and iPods are mandatory. Naturally, Quaker oatmeal was available every morning.

After some hassle we rounded up the technology needed to work through a parenting curriculum about RAD. Interesting stuff. Oh to be as brilliant & unflappable as Mrs. Thomas! I also enjoyed an excursion to Pat Catans, and we had a delicious meal at Olive Gardens.
I love Olive Gardens, but here's my soapbox schpiel about restaurants these days- 1. the booths are designed for fat people. Those of us who do not fall into that category have to scoot front on the bench and eat w/o back support or fully extend our arms to reach our plate. A nuisance. 2. the serving portions are determined with large people in mind. Those of us with normal-sized appetites can rarely consume the whole serving (a quandary for us good lil' Mennonites who were taught all our lives to clean our plate). But the real dilemma is dessert. Having been taught you must eat "hot food" before you can have dessert, and further more must eat everything put on your plate, one such as myself can never indulge w/o guilt in those delicacies on the dessert menu. However, once a year my wonderful man decides I need to live a little. Case in point: Monday evening -we ordered not only a luscious slice of Black Tie [chocolate] cake, but also tiramisu! Our friendly waitress did not realize 'take-out' meant to a hotel, not home, thus she did not include forks. We subscribed to the "fingers were made before forks" theory and feasted Winnie-the-Pooh style.

Once again we heard the "You don't look old enough to be married that long" compliment. No, we did not get married at 15. I had attained the ripe old age of 20 :) and R was 24. I don't take satisfaction in the compliment because I don't believe it. (I earned every one of my gray hairs, thank you very much!) Personally I'd say it's not a compliment of our youthful looks, but rather that 18 years sounds like a long time. The tragedy of our society. Many other folks our age could be married this long -or longer- if they had remained in their first marriage like us.

We tip our hat to R's sister W, who went the 2nd mile to be guardian of our children while we were away. She's got a servant's heart and we're lucky to have her for a sister!