ten (long) years

Today Ryan and I celebrate our tenth anniversary. I could sit back and write a gushy, lovey post about how the last ten years have been the most amazing and most wonderful years of our lives and how we wouldn't change a thing. But when I asked Ryan how he'd sum up the last ten years, he simply said, "long."

And honestly, I was thinking the very same word. 

Not that long is bad. But the last ten years have turned out a little differently than the 21 and 22 year old versions of ourselves could have ever imagined. 

We've lived in three states (almost four), moved five times (almost six), spent three summer internships apart, doubled the size of our family and earned two (almost three) collegiate degrees. We've traveled all over the United States and to China, Canada, England, France and Switzerland. We've trained for a marathon together. We've been through tragedies and triumphs of our own as well as those of our families and friends. 

It has been ten years of some rocky ups and really steep downs, incredibly good goods and horrifically bad bads, really high highs and super low lows. Ten years of learning and growing and stretching and becoming. And, though I know we're not done yet, I know, having made it through the first ten, that we can do it together. 

Eternity is a long time. But we're in it for the long haul. 

Happy ten years, Mr. Layton. 

P.S. For the record books: Ryan took me to Simon Pearce, a restaurant on my "Tucket List" (seriously, more on that soon) and got me white tulips. He knows me well. I gifted him a painting of the Bountiful Temple, where we were sealed, painted by our dear friend Laura.