6 years after "I do"

Happy anniversary to us!

Six years ago today Kendra and I were married only a few miles from where we are spending time right now. I'm sure every couple says, "I can't believe it's been that long" no matter which anniversary is celebrated. However, the significance and reflection this year is more extraordinary than all of the previous years combined. So much has changed in just one, short year that I can't even begin to put the details in a single blog. Here's our engagement photo as a starting point for comparisons sake of how we've "matured" over the course of the six year journey.


and here we are at Kendra's cousin's wedding over the weekend:


Easton and Layla made it through the first 4 minutes of the wedding and then had to be taken a few feet away because apparently they haven't figured out there is a volume control for voices. Luckily it was an outdoor wedding so Kendra and Oma took the twins a few feet away and were able to still watch the whole thing. The view was amazing and it was an outdoor wedding The babies were cute and cuddly as always, and we were able to get in one short swing dance before driving back home. Last night we went out on a date by ourselves (thanks to Oma and Opa and GG for watching our babies) to celebrate our anniversary. We started our date at Mikuni's sushi where I ate a boatload of raw tuna. The ironic part is that my dad hates tuna as much as I love it! Kendra had some deep fried shrimp rolls and we left contently full. After that we took a drive to downtown Sacramento where we spent a few hours walking around. We had plenty of odd, bizarre people to watch... after all, this is California!

On an interesting side note, as we walked past a newsstand of free stuff, i reached in and grabbed a copy of the "Sacramento Parent" magazine. Hey, it was free! I guess that's a real view into what's important to us right now. The oddest part about last night's "evening out" for us wasn't the freak show of dreadlocked urban hippies, but the fact that we were just a normal couple. No strangers stopped to comment on our babies or smiled at us or asked us the same routine questions about being parents of twins. We were just "us two" for a change and although I enjoyed having 100% of Kendra's attention for a change, it felt like a part of us was missing... two peices to be exact. :) After wondering around for a while we stopped by Rick's Dessert Diner where they have about 30 pies and cakes on display (no exaggeration) and you can buy individual slices of whatever you like. We ate ourselves into a state of chocolate sedation and then went home. On a side note, this diner is where her parents and my parents first spent time getting to know each other back when we were first dating:

People say marriage changes you and I agree it should. However, I'm proof that you can go a long time (stubbornly) without becoming what your wife needs. Our first few years would have been much more enjoyable and successful if I had done a better job of making the transition from single life to married life. I thought Kendra was the one who needed to change, but in retrospect it was me. I'm no marriage counselor, but either both people in a marriage figure that out and accept it or the marriage struggles. I'm very thankful Kendra was willing not only to stay with me, but help me figure that part out together.

Just when I thought we turned the corner and had our marriage on the right path, Easton and Layla showed up! I've heard dozens of situations where having a baby tears apart a marriage and now that I'm in the middle of this thing called "married with children" it's easy see how a husband and wife relationship can disintegrate. Since I didn't do so well with the initial transition to husbandry maybe I'm overcompensating for my current transformation to husband and father? Only time will tell... I realized even before the twins were born that I don't have 5 years to figure this out and become what my family needs. Nobody's perfect, but Kendra and I are doing the best we possibly can.

Anyway, enough of my pondering and on to the excitement of the past few days. We packed the Honda Pilot with the 4 Webbs plus Oma Burgess and Casey and made the trip to Morgan Hill. Everything went well and introducing the twins to the Burgess side of the family was tons of fun. Kendra's grandma is recovering from hip surgery from a month earlier and we were relieved to see she was doing so well. We've been waiting for them to meet the twins and this was the first occasion to get everyone together. Here's Easton and Layla with their Great Grandparents from the Burgess side of the family:



Layla looks like a little princess and Easton looks like a miniature man (except his shirt is untucked and he has no shoes or socks on). Layla is officially crawling now! She gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth feverishly. then she lunges forward like a frog and does it all over again. Here's a picture of her up on all fours as she moves glacially slow towards a dryer ball. Yep, we have 35 different toys on the ground and she fixes her sights on the dryer ball. Hey, whatever motivation works, right?



We dressed up the twins in their denim outfits for breakfast at the waffle barn (yes, that's the real name of the restaurant and it was surprisingly tasty). This was the first time we put Layla in her pants, but apparently that will be the last time also because we couldn't keep the top snap button together... and that was on the way INTO the waffle barn so you know she was too big to fit in those are nibbling on mommy's waffles. Anyhow, the pictures turned out well and shows Easton's ear folded forward as his head is raised up off of the head support thing. I merge the two separate pics together and it turned out like this:


Today has been an interesting day as our official anniversary filled with olympics, taking care of babies, and spending time with family. Tomorrow is back to work for me and Oma and Opa's official summer vacation from school is over. I keep asking Kendra every day how the trip is going and what her plans are for how long she wants to be here. So far our plans for staying the whole month are still on par because the weather is so awesome, time with family and friends is no where even close to getting boring and GG's house is more than accommodating for us.

Have a great start to your week!