25 Years and 6 Kids Later

This is, hands down, the longest I've ever worked on a blog post!

Maybe it's only fitting, since it spans 25 years. But it really took longer than it should have because of my lack of organization. Isn't that what being disorganized does? It makes life harder.  Ugh! When will I ever learn?

During this entire laborious process, I kept thinking about Sue Roweton, and her amazing organizational skills. She would never have this problem. Her pictures are all dated and organized - not stuffed into a box in the bowels of the basement. In my defense, when I did stuff them in those boxes, I thought I had them in some kind of order. But the occasional scramble to find a certain picture for a certain occasion, wreaked havoc with that system years ago. All you born in the digital age have no idea how great you have it!

And this week, because Lou and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, I wanted to find a picture from every year of our life together - preferably taken around August 1st of each year. How I wish I had purposely taken a picture every anniversary - actually wrote the date on a chalkboard or piece of paper and held it in front of us - like I did with our kids every month during their first year of life.
Hindsight...and resolve.

Resolved: I will organize and label all future pictures as I load them!

It's ironic that I even wanted to do this little 25th anniversary blog. I have told more than one friend how I don't love the pictures in the paper where it shows a couple on their wedding day and then one from a 25th anniversary or 50th anniversary. They always look so old - and that would be me one day. Yep, one day is here.  That is now me.

But the funny thing is, that now that I'm there - or here - I don't mind it. We do look older, no doubt about that. But we look older together. And by the grace of God we've known many happy days. Also by the grace of God, we've known our share of hard days. Looking at these pictures reminds me that I have been incredibly blessed and that...

God has been faithful through them all.

Another plus to this post - I figure I've made it easy on my kids when they want to put together some kind of slideshow for our 50th...

So, here we go...Lou and Shelley through the years.

And, you might notice that we like to hike.

1988: My pack was bulkier. His pack was heavier.

1989 - One picture that year w/o Luke;)

1990: @ Glacier National Park...and what is my hair doing?!?

1991: Luke -2, Hannah - 5 months

1992: Definitely a bad hair year.

1993: David Elliot joined our tribe 5 days after our 6th anniversary

1994: Hello Marea Faith!

Yay! A picture with a date!

1996

1997

1998: The caboose - Mary Grace - pretty darn new.

August 1, 1999. Treetops at KAA

2000. 

2001 - I think. Obviously the date on the picture is waaaay off.

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

August 1, 2012

This last picture was taken three weeks to the day after Lou's bike wreck. I'm especially thankful that he's even here since that little tumble over the handle bars. He's seeing small improvements daily. Many thanks to you who have prayed for him - for us - during this time!

And speaking of time,  Lord willing, our time together is...

to be continued...