Four-Year Anniversary

Last week my wife Josie and I celebrated our four-year anniversary.  We went up to Door County and had an absolute blast hiking, relaxing, eating out...etc.  The best part was just getting away with the chance to focus on one another.  

We have developed a tradition for the night of our anniversary.  We always go out to eat at a fancy place and discuss three things: (1) Highlights from the past year.  We tend to focus on fun things we have done together, challenges we tackled together, how God has worked in our relationship, and so on.  (2) Things we most look forward to the following year.  We obviously can't predict the future.  But it is fun to build anticipation for more life together.  (3)  Areas that can improve.  This is not so much a time to discuss unresolved issues, but rather, to get centered on what God is calling us to in our life together.

Each time Josie and I get to celebrate an anniversary I realize that marriage is something that needs to be constantly and consistently celebrated.  It's not something we should celebrate on a mere annual basis.  It is to be consistently celebrated on a daily basis.  And I think this is best achieved by prioritizing life together with your spouse and surrounding yourself with other people that place a premium on cultivating healthy marriages.  

Here are some pics from Door County:   

 Here we are at the restaurant "Sage" in Sturgeon Bay.

This is at a Swedish restaurant called "Al Johnson's" in Sister Bay.  Those are goats on their grass roof!  Pretty sweet!  I recommend the Swedish pancakes.  Delightful.

This is a view we had while hiking at Peninsula State Park.