5

2004- I got back on Sunday afternoon from a weeks vacation in Las Vegas with my friends. I slept like 10 hours I was so tired when my friend Heather called she INSISTED I get up and get ready to go out with her, later I found out she was secretly hoping for a set up. Well, she got it. We met at a bar in Oakdale,WI on a Sunday night in March. Cheesy story. But the moment I walked into that bar Jason and I never stopped talking. Then we played shuffleboard and I of course lost so the bet was we go on a date and loser pays (me), the rest is history as they say.

 After a long term relationship in my early twenties I stopped dating for a while, I just dove into this world of freedom and living with my friends, we went to Germany, Sweden and Paris, Las Vegas, among a million road trips, I wasn't looking for a boyfriend at all. During a deep discussion, I'll never forget something my dear friend Joe said to me "I don't know what your looking for but I hope you find it someday" I think everyone thought I had given up on relationships or something but I didn't I was just finding myself....and then he showed up.

 9 years together,5 years married. Seems like 3-ish. I don't have to repeat the old cliche that time flies but it's too true. We are still in the process of building a wonderful life together. We disagree very little and compromise a lot. We are both the oldest of 5 and both Type A personality so it's unusual we get along so well. But it works for us. He's my home.


This year we decided to go away for a weekend. My first weekend away from my baby and probably only the second weekend away from my 2 3/4 year old. I wanted to do something special for our 5 year anniversary (memorable) and that's how we got to one of my now favorite places Stillwater, MN.

I love this place, small, artsy. I think there's a festival like every weekend, we were lucky enough to come the weekend of the art and music festival which was awesome. We shopped these art vendors and listened to local music (very us). We came home with a christmas gift for Jason's mom and some cool pottery for our kitchen.

This was my favorite shop

We drank too much wine at all these fun wine bars, ate in a cave some delicious pasta. Laughed entirely too loud at this restaurant/bar that we renamed "Sprockets" because we were certain everyone should have on black turtlenecks and greased hair.

I did bring my camera along because thats what I do but the best part was I had so much fun I didn't even really care to take it out or take the time to get good photos. I think sometimes vacations turn into a full photoshoot and you missed the whole purpose of being together, so glad I didn't miss this weekend.

Our first ever Bed and Breakfast stay, it was really cool.

Now for what brought us to Stillwater, Miss Emily Steffen She is amazing, inspiring and totally silly photographer (just love her and her work) who posted mini-sessions just in time for me to puzzle together this little weekend. It was meant to be and these photos are a treasure to me. They are us, 5 years in this crazy married/parental life we're living. I am so glad we did this, I am so glad to have these on the walls in our home and we can look back and think that was us. I hope to do this again at 10, 15 and 20 years, god willing. The following photos are all credited to the very talented Emily.

On the way home to our babies we both agreed, we needed more weekend away to ourselves to remember who we were before we became Teag and Cooper's mom and dad. We were two kids in love. It's hard to remember that during the day to day hustle and bustle. One of our New Years goals was to have more date nights and go away for a weekend every 6 months. If you have any getaway spots-let me know!