Our 9th anniversary

Can you believe we've been married for 9 years?! I sure can't. It makes me feel really old! ;-)

This year we hired a babysitter for the kids so we could go out for a long evening. One of my Mia Maids came over to watch the kids for us, and the kids love her. I don't love paying for a babysitter, but my kids have so much fun with her that it's totally worth it to do it every now and then!

We headed out and did a little shopping first. Then we went to Ah-So, which is one of our most favorite restaurants that we never get to go to because it's super expensive when we've got the kiddos with us. We normally do teppanyaki when we go, but this time we decided to eat in the dining area instead because we had a movie to catch. Dinner was......interesting, to say the least. Seating arrangements were very close quarters (they were packed), and we were seated next to a very strange couple. They were older (40's) and were dating, and the guy kept criticizing every single thing his girlfriend said or did. He definitely wasn't a lady's man, and we both hope he got dumped after dinner! ;-)

Dinner was SOOOOoooooOOOOoooo good! We decided to be brave and tried some sushi, and then we each really enjoyed our entrees. Here's Derk right before trying the sushi. It was delish!

After dinner, we went and saw Inception. It was really good! We really enjoyed the directing, the actors all did a great job, and it was a very clean movie (as far as swearing/sex go). We did end up having a group of younger girls sit right next to us, and they kept laughing LOUDLY at parts that were NOT even meant to be funny, and they kept texting through the whole movie. That was distracting. But we still had a great time. Here we are in the theater. Derk thought I was a dork for taking pictures in the middle of the theater, but I didn't care! :-)

What a fun and crazy 9 years it's been so far! I really love reflecting back on how our marriage has changed over the years. I knew I loved him when we first got married, of course, but the love we have now is so much stronger and more complex than it was back then. It's quite amazing to think about! :-)