Adventures in Statema Land: Happy 8 Years of Wedded Bliss

It feels like so much more than eight years, and I mean that in the very best way. I feel like we have been married our entire lives. Every year things get better as we grow and change and find out more and more about who we are and what we enjoy.

This really has nothing to do with the hike other than it's where we parked,
but it's shows how beautiful Ellensburg is. It forever will take my breathe away.

The start

We have never done gifts for our anniversary. Don't get me wrong, we love receiving gifts but since we have know each other we have always preferred an "experience" & special time together over a gift. It's the best "gift;" a gift of a wonderful memory. And, 8 years later we still feel the same way. No gifts, just incredible quality time together as a family. And, this year we upped the antsy.

This is where we stopped for lunch.
I thought it was as high as we were going (hence the "victory" arms) but alas we had a good hour more
of climbing and about 1200 more feet of elevation to gain.

Being able to look down at the town was such a neat experience
and the mountains in the background were so stunning

For our 8th anniversary we went on a hike-a hike up Manastash Ridge ("The hike starts steep and continues steep for 2 miles on exposed desert terrain all the way to the top of the ridge at memorial point, gaining about 2000 ft. ") with Grace. I had never done this hike before so I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. This was the hardest hike I have ever been on and it kicked my tush. I felt exhilarated and proud-proud that we didn't give up and kept climbing even when my heart was pounding a million miles a minutes, couldn't breathe, was fearful of the coyote & rattle snakes and felt like I couldn't go on. Grace was there to remind me that God was taking care of us and would always protect us.

That is the point where we wanted to end up (there is a book there for people to sign when they make it up there)
...at this point we were about 3/4 the way there

When we got to the top it was a pure VICTORY.

The very tippy top.

-Deep Breathe-

and

-Sigh-

Part of what we hiked up

Ellensburg to the right

Excited that she did it!

Everyone up there and everyone we passed going there and back could not believe Grace hiked it. Let's just say she's a little bit determined and by a little, I mean a whole stinking lot. Loren did carry her on his back up the two steepest parts as there was no way she would have been able to do it with out falling/sliding down but other than that she rocked it BIG TIME!

"Mommy, I'm so glad we never gave up!"

-Grace

God, thank you for creating such impeccable places for us to explore.

Places that remind me just how big you are and how much you love us even though we are so small.

And, back to the car we go.....at the every end of the trail

And, the other thing Loren and I like to do to celebrate is go out to eat, just us, on our anniversary. We don't go out to eat very often, just not economical for us so it's a very special treat when we get to. We save up for weeks/months in advance and then eat at a place we've been drooling over for a very long time. Loren chose the Valley Cafe. He use to work there when he was in college at Central. It's where he learned to use an espresso machine, thus starting his career in coffee. His boss way back then was our waiter for the evening and he helped make our anniversary a very memorable night. The following day was going to be his 31st wedding anniversary and he shared with us wisdom on keeping a marriage growing and strong.

The food was very scrumptious. The atmosphere was perfect, not too fancy and not too casual-just in between, kind of like us. It was a special night.

A BIG thank you to our friends the Stahly's for watching Grace for us so we could go out and have a few hours alone.