I just love those cheesy montages in romantic comedies of fun moments and images all set to moving music designed to pull your heart strings and get you emotionally involved in the plight of the two characters.

In honor of our 13th anniversary last Monday, I wanted to do my own montage, minus the music, unfortunately, though maybe you could just be humming “I Will Be Here” to yourself as you read.

From the very beginning, travelling was something both of us really liked to do and we made it a priority to try to get away for our anniversary. Throughout the 13 years, things like March babies and a job as a teacher have managed to get in the way, but for the most part, we have succeeded.

Going W-A-Y back to the week that started it all, I present our very own cheesy anniversary montage…

 

Our Honeymoon {2000)…

Cancun Mexico. We tried to reminisce things about this trip that stuck out to us this week. I remember seeing my first movie in the theater, Chris getting a cold and trying to find him cold meds with descriptions written in Spanish, bus drivers who didn’t speak English which meant getting stranded on the side of the road on our way to Wet n Wild, all you can eat anytime,  and a hotel filled with college spring breakers.

 

Year ONE {2001}...

Myrtle Beach.  This was my first trip, believe it or not. Aren’t we lovely in our paper crowns?

 

Year TWO {2002}…

Sapphire Valley, NC. This was our first vacation using our timeshare. Definitely one of the reasons we’ve been able to travel as much as we have.

How sad is it that this is the only picture of us this trip. Apparently we were trying our hand at some serious gaming.

 

Year THREE {2003}…

Bradenton/Orlando, FL. This ended up being a family trip with my family the beginning of March that we sort of replaced our anniversary trip with.

This was our last anniversary as a two-some. It was just about 2 months before Haylee arrived on the scene!

 

Year FOUR {2004}…

No trip this year. My college had a reunion Bible Conference the week of our anniversary that we decided to stay in town for.

I couldn’t find any pictures of just us this month, but this is one of the big clan, sears style.

 

Year FIVE {2005}…

Las Vegas, baby! This was such a fun trip. We loved going somewhere different and seeing this famous city. We would love to go back sometime in the future.

 

Year SIX {2006}…

No trip. Spent the night in Charlotte and saw a play.

I had no picture of this month, but this was 2 months later when Chris graduated…

 

Year SEVEN {2007}…

Pigeon Forge, TN. This was the year that we crashed Sam & Heather’s honeymoon. I was their wedding planner, what can I say? I take my planning seriously, ha!

Actually, it was just a crazy coincidence that we had previously scheduled our trip in Pigeon Forge, and they got married 3/17 and had their honeymoon in Gatlinburg.  :)

 

Year EIGHT {2008}…

No trip. Wade was born March 1st so we were deep in newborn land. We did get to spend the evening at dinner and a movie which was much enjoyed!

{this was from a night out a few weeks later}

 

Year NINE {2009}…

Myrtle Beach Weekend. I was teaching this year, but we did manage a long but quick weekend away.

 

Year TEN {2010}...

Ten Year Cruise! This was the infamous cruise in which I ended up 13 weeks preggo by the time we sailed.

We had a great time, but realized that we are probably not cruise people. We were happy to get back to land.  :)

 

Year ELEVEN {2011}…

Pigeon Forge Waterpark… This was definitely a different year since it ended up being a family trip… including my mother in law! Davis was five months old and still nursing so we had to take him along. Then when we booked the water park that we knew the kids would go nuts for, we decided to bring them all along. My amazing mother in law came with us for a night or two so we could enjoy at least one dinner out alone, and she watched Davis while we took the kids to enjoy the waterpark.

 

Year TWELVE {2012}…

Williamsburg, VA. This year we really wanted to branch out from our normal mountains or beach destination. We don’t have a lot of options without hopping on a plane, but this wasn’t too far away for us.

 

Year THIRTEEN {2013}…

Lake Lure, NC & Nashville, TN. We are splitting our trip in two this year cuz we’re crazy like that. My spring break isn’t until April, so we booked 4 nights to Nashville for that week. Then I got to thinking that I really would like to take the day off for our actual anniversary {on a Monday} so we decided to take 3 nights and do a long weekend for our actual anniversary. Weird and complicated? Uh, yes, but such is the life of a teacher bound to the school calendar.  :) 

This was us at the top of Chimney Rock! The elevator was out of commission which forced us to climb the 500 steps up to the flag. My legs are still feeling those steps, but it was fun! We are looking forward to the second half of our celebration coming up soon!

*Ahem*  We’ve come a long way, baby!