5 Years Ago

On a Sunday at the very end of December, five years ago, John (aka Bacon Papa) and I went out on our very first date! It had been a long time coming and when we finally saw each other I felt so blessed, because I knew in just a few moments that I had made the right decision in dating him. We started by going to Mass with my family, then grabbed a Starbucks (John ordered a skinny Vanilla Latte and asked me not to judge him for ordering a girly drink) and then went out for Mexican food. Then we went back to my parent's house and played board games with my brothers! Quite the first date if you ask me...because guess what...it didn't end there. We were having such a great time that John also joined us for dinner at a family friend's house, and after a 12 hour first date, he finally headed home. Here's my favorite part: as he left, he gave me a hug. No kiss. Guess who he did kiss though (on the cheek)? My mom!!! What?! I remember coming inside and being slightly disappointed (I really liked him!) and I said to my mom, "I think he likes me, but he's such a gentleman...he just gave me a hug goodbye. Not even a kiss on the cheek." She of course laughed her little butt off. :)

Lest this blog post become too mushy, and since our wedding anniversary is coming up in just 10 days and I will probably write more about how much I love my husband then, I thought I would just share some awesome throwback pictures of the two of us over the past five years. It's amazing/crazy how much has happened in this relatively short amount of time!

This is from the weekend we got engaged - John's romantic engagement plan was foiled by the 12 inches of snow that (surprisingly) covered Dallas, so he ended up proposing to me in my dinky college apartment the night he arrived (after having his flight delayed for hours). It wasn't until the next day that we could even go anywhere attractive to take some "engagement" pictures! This is us in downtown Dallas. Our photographer was a random passerby. He/she (I can't remember) did an adequate job capturing our love, right?

When we first started dating we did fun stuff like go dancing at the world's largest honky tonk, Billy Bob's Texas! John is a great dancer so we had so much fun. He came out to visit me in Dallas so many times and I'm so glad we got to explore the great state of Texas together.

When we first started dating we also did corny things like dance all by ourselves. This was at my graduation lunch (a Mexican restaurant) - since there was music playing, John grabbed my hand and pulled me up to dance with him. I remember being embarrassed at the moment but now I look back at this picture  and I love him for being so romantic!

Once I moved back to CA (we had previously been dating/engaged long distance for six months while I finished college) we got to spend our weekends together which we loved. This night we went out with John's sisters and played darts. You may notice that in this picture I am wearing stylish high-waisted shorts...long before I had two children, I had a slender waist. It was great.

The two of us at our engagement party - we had so much fun celebrating with family and friends and hearing some great toasts! One of my favorite things about John actually is his ability to give a great toast. In just a few words, or sometimes quite a few words, he shares how much he cares about a person and it is so special. And pretty rare nowadays - not everyone can do it with a big smile on their face like John can. :)

Johnny & I in Nebraska for a friend's wedding - this was the second big trip we took together after getting married. The first was our honeymoon! I love traveling with John. He has such a great sense of adventure, and he is so easygoing that he doesn't get bothered by delays or inconveniences. He also has a great sense of direction so he makes sure we never get lost!

The next big trip we took together was our babymoon (while I was pregnant with Jack) to San Diego. We had such a great five days and since we went out to dinner every night, and went to the movies, the zoo, and for long walks on the beach, it definitely felt like we were dating again!

As I was writing this post and I reflected on the fact that five years ago we went on our first date, I was thinking about how John shows me that he loves me today (five years later). He no longer showers me with red roses, or dinner out, on a weekly basis (mostly because I am much more frugal now!) but instead, he does things that are so much more important to me. Things like changing the air filters in our house. Or replacing the batteries in all of the smoke alarms. Or bathing our dog, who was really, really smelly and really, really annoying me because of his doggy stench. And guess what? I feel so much more blessed to be loved by him today than I did back then.

(Correction: it was only four years ago!!! Oops. We counted wrong. I could edit this whole post accordingly but that would be such a bummer. I guess it just goes to show how quickly the years have flown by...so quickly that four seemed like five! :))