Wood

Did you know that your 5th wedding anniversary is your wood anniversary? Neither did we, until Aaron and I were driving out to Maine for a long weekend without the kiddos, and one of his friends mentioned it. Although we never make a big deal about exchanging gifts for our anniversary, we just happened to be planning to buy the rest of the cedar siding for our house. Not the most romantic anniversary gift, but when you think about it, wood can be an interesting metaphor for marriage. Solid. Strong. Beautiful. If you take care of it, it will weather the passing years beautifully. If you neglect it, it begins to rot and fall apart. Every so often Aaron and I take a long weekend to get away by ourselves, to have some grown-up fun and remember what it is like to just be together, without worrying about the dirty house, piles of laundry, or the 10,000 other things we never seem to get done. It's hard to find the time, but it's important to us. We're taking care of our relationship now, so it will be able to weather the many years to come. In the grand scheme of things, 5 years isn't a long time, but to me it seems like a milestone. A good solid start. Let's see where it takes us.

Our trip out to Maine was short and sweet, we left on a Thursday afternoon and drove through Canada to New York state, then slept amazingly comfortably in the back of the truck. I, having never slept in a truck before, thought it was pretty funny. I love road trips and it had been a while since I had been on one. I kept having these fits of giddy giggling, which Aaron didn't quite understand. But he is on the road a whole lot more than I am. Give me a break, I don't get out much ;) The next day we finished the drive through the never-ending state of New York (almost as bad as Ohio) and through a gorgeous part of northern Massachusetts, then up into southern Maine. That night we had dinner in Portsmouth, NH, then fell alseep, exhausted, at around 10 p.m. It is amazing how tired you can get from doing absolutely nothing except sitting in a car! The next morning we woke up, thinking it was 7 or 8, but a check of a clock told us we had slept in until 10:30! Neither one of us could remember the last time we slept that late, it had to have been in the pre-twin era!
Saturday was kind of a blur, we got the siding for our house, (Thanks Bob!) Aaron decided to whip out some bookshelves for the boys in his dad's shop, then it was off to lobster dinner, a must on a trip to Maine. I have to say I love the idea of lobster, but the whole process of de-shelling it and scraping all the green gunky lobster poo off of my food just doesn't do it for me. I had a lobster wrap instead. Let some poor schmo in the kitchen deal with all that lobster poo, not me!
We had drinks with our Bostonian friend, Lauren, who moved from Kalamazoo about 5 years ago, then called it a night, because I had talked Aaron into driving into the White Mountains of NH to attempt to hike up Mt. Washington.
The hike was amazing. the trail was rocky and steep and nothing like a trail you would see in Michigan. Just when your thighs are burning and you don't think you can keep going, you look behind you and are rewarded with the most amazing views. Which is good, because it gives you frequent excuses to stop and catch your breath—I mean, take pictures.
We hiked up Tuckerman's Ravine, which in the winter is a famous backcountry ski spot. It was crazy steep, there's no way I would ski that thing! After you get to the top of the ravine, you see this giant pile of rocks stretching up into the clouds and then you realize those tiny colored things up there are actually people.
You still have a long way to go. We scrambled from boulder to boulder and over little patches of snow (yes! it was cold up there!) until we got to the top, where you are rewarded for all your efforts with the sight of — cars, lots of them. Breaking the peace and serenity of nature are familes with whining kids eating pizza from the snack bar at the visitor's center.
We knew there was an auto road to the top, but it is stll awfully disconcerting to have spent 4 hours hiking through the woods and then end up at a crowded tourist attraction. We hiked back down by another trail with more amazing views, and ended up back at the car 8 hours after we started. We were tired and sore, but I can't wait to do it again. We drove back to Aaron's dad's house, barely awake, and crashed.
Monday we got up at 4 a.m. and started the long trek back to Michigan. We did the drive all in one day, which I don't recommend. Next time I will ask for more time off!
Here are some pics from our trip: