Reminiscing

In a deviation from our 'normal' blog of our travel journal, I want to make note of our anniversary. We've been married now for sixteen years, but before those years, Craig and I were friends - good friends - for at least eight years.

Everyone has funny stories of things that happened at their weddings - here's a bit of ours.

We were married at Landa Park in New Braunfels, TX. We took the risk of planning an outdoor wedding because we both loved Landa Park and New Braunfels was a new beginning for both of us. Craig was working in San Antonio and I was working in Austin, so we selected New Braunfels as the place for our new home. It was a very exciting time!

The Comal Springs that feed the lake in the park, by the way, are a special environmentally protected area with signs posted all over the place warning that you should avoid contaminating the pristine water. My sister-in-law, a woman of many talents including interior decorating and landscape, had graciously agreed to help with decorations for the wedding. As we toured the park a day or so before the wedding, she recognized a unique water plant growing in the springs and wanted a sampling for her lovely water garden. Leaving Craig to stand guard, she crawled on hands and knees next to the springs and bare-fisted, obtained a healthy sampling to take home. Actually, perhaps she is actually working for the government to test the species viability in different climates? That may be our story if we're ever challenged. Craig and I had the chance to return to Landa Park in January and found the springs, the lovely water plants and fish to be in good form.

We knew that an event, Aquafest, was scheduled for that day in New Braunfels, but we understood that activities would be later in the day. You must also know that there's some kind of 'fest' about once a month in that largely German based community. We didn't know that Aquafest had a 5K run scheduled in Landa Park the morning of our wedding that created blockades at all the entrances. After explaining to the security guards that we wouldn't be getting in the way of the runners, we were allowed to proceed to the little gazebo near the Comal springs. Also, it was fortunate that the 5K route was not in the immediate area of our ceremony - so no runners puffing through the flowers and bridal party!

Everything proceeded on in good order from there. One of the groomsmen labeled their thoughts on the tuxedos as making them feel like a baked potato (silver tux on a very warm day), but there was no rain - just lots of humidity. My niece cued up the music on a boombox and the lovely little flower girls strolled carefully...away from the gazebo and through the park another direction as they focused on the rose petals instead of the path. We got them redirected and the ceremony commenced.

As the pastor lovingly told our family members to basically leave us alone, we couldn't help watching a water snake that lazily swam back and forth behind the gazebo and the pastor in the lake. Thankfully, he never 'landed' our direction.

The ceremony concluded, we took lots of pictures then met at the New Braunfels Smokehouse for a casual brunch buffet and off Craig and I went to San Antonio for the night, then off to Lake Tahoe for a sweet honeymoon the next day.

All in all, a really nice day with no real catastrophes. We appreciate all the friends and family members that set aside that day and took the trip to New Braunfels to celebrate with us.

Sixteen years later, we're still terrific partners in life. Interestingly, we picked up our 5th wheel in New Braunfels in January before beginning this latest adventure. Now, near our anniversary date, we are here just a few miles from our honeymoon destination of Lake Tahoe. These are the things that make us smile!

God has blessed us so richly over the years through happy and sad times. If anyone asked us why our marriage is so strong, I would have to say that first and foremost that God gets the credit for teaching us how to love others - but especially your spouse. In our human frailty, if we can capture even one iota of selfless love from the Author and Creator of perfect love, we can build such strong ties with one another! Added to that most important element is a tremendously healthy respect for each other that had roots before we ever dated one another. We were best friends before we married and we're still best friends. Lastly, is the knowledge that each of us believe to our core in lifetime commitment that creates a wonderful safety zone for each other. We do and will love each other forever - no doubt! Thanks for joining us in a trip down memory lane! We'll return to current events in our next blog post!