4 years of marriage!

4 years ago today, Ryan and I stood hand in hand on the beach and said our vows.  That evening had a bit in common with this evening.  On both nights, we had delicious steak dinners, plenty of laughter, the company of our favourite people... and cake.  

Of course, the evenings had their differences. Tonight, instead of sitting at a fancy head table in the sand, we sat at our kitchen table listening to our demanding 2 year old and our baby who has recently discovered squealing.  Rather than laughing at the speeches and dance moves of our guests, we laughed at our children playing in the living room. Oh, and speaking of favourite people?  We don't love our wedding guests any less than we did 4 years ago, but 2 new people have entered our world since then and have taken over the coveted "favourite" spots.  Our cake was a McCain Deep and Delicious rather than a fancy wedding cake, but if we are being honest, I'd take that chocolate bliss over a wedding cake any day.  

The day is over and it might not have been anything exciting, but it was an accurate portrayal of marriage and real life... the life that I'm so fortunate to call my own.  The kids are in bed. My husband is asleep and snoring on the couch. We won't dance the Macarena on a light up dance floor or go swimming in our wedding attire, but that's okay.  I'm still so thankful for our marriage and for the family that we've created.  I get to live with my best friend and together we get to raise 2 amazing little girls!  

That's not to say that we didn't celebrate this anniversary. If you know Ryan and I, you know that we celebrate everything. We spent the past weekend in Canmore and Banff with Briley while Aaralee stayed with Grandma and Grandpa.  The weather was perfect, and we took advantage of it.

On Friday we had the crazy idea to rent bikes for the day to bike the Banff Legacy Trail.  It is a 26 kilometre path that goes from Canmore to Banff. We rented bikes and a trailer for Briley and off we went! 

I should probably mention that I don't bike. At all. I sold my bike about 8 years ago and haven't touched one since. My husband was once an avid biker, but that was many years and about 50 pounds ago.  It was a long journey to Banff.  Turns out that there is quite an elevation gain in that direction, which made for quite a struggle when combined with the headwind. We did make it though! Our bums were sore from the rock hard bike seats and we briefly contemplated walking the entire way back to our hotel in Canmore.  We ate lunch and set off for our dreaded return journey.  Much to our surprise (and relief) the other direction was a breeze. Downhill, a nice tailwind, and 19 degrees.  We got back to Canmore happy to have conquered the Legacy Trail, but confident that we'll probably never do it again. 

The next day was our real "celebration" day.  We started off at the Fairmont Banff Springs for afternoon tea.  This was obviously more for me than for Ryan, but he was a good sport.  There isn't much better than sipping tea and eating a tower of desserts with one of my absolute favourite views. 

Once we'd stuffed ourselves with cake we drove to Lake Louise.  When we got there, Ryan stayed in the parking lot to do some car fixing stuff (we'll just leave it at that because I'm admitedly clueless about all things car maintenance) so Briley and I wandered to the lake for a little walk.  Last anniversary it was snowing so much that we couldn't even see the lake. This year it was so warm that I could have been wearing a t-shirt.  It was a beautiful, sunny, busy day! 

Once the car was good to go and we'd finished taking the same photos that we take every visit, we drove back to Banff. We had dinner reservations at a restaurant that we'd tried last year.  We were going to indulge in a tower of seafood or steak and lobster... something fancy and delicious. I'm not really sure how it happened, but the suggestion to go for hot wings instead came up and we both were onboard with the idea.  Fancy dinners are nice, but sometimes you just want chicken wings.  We cancelled our reservation for our romantic dinner and instead ate wings, spinach dip, and calamari.  It was so typical of us, and thus a perfect way to celebrate 4 years of marriage.  

When Sunday rolled around we were sad to return to reality and flat land, but excited to pick up Aaralee!  It was the perfect little getaway to celebrate our anniversary. Short, but sweet and jam packed with fun and food.  

Happy Anniversary Ryan! Here's to another year of fun and adventures!