Our 10th Anniversary!

We've had such a busy weekend that I am finally blogging about how we spent our Friday night. And this was on the heals of a night out without kids when we met with the Elder's Quorum presidency for a dinner out with wives. (it ended up being us...Clark is secretary....and the EQ president and his wife and that's it)

Friday evening Clark and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. That's right...the big 10 years of marriage. We both kept saying that we couldn't believe it. Why? Well in some ways it still feels like we were just married yesterday. Ask us on a different night and we might have said it felt like much longer. But Friday night we felt like it was just yesterday. For those not in the know, here's a little recap of our meet-up, dating, and first 10 years.

We met in 1995 not long after I got home from my mission (Buenos Aires West Mission....the best one in the whole world). We met through a group of friends at Chaffey College Institute of Religion in Rancho Cucamonga. We hit it off so well and soon I was sending a "Dear John" letter to the elder I said I'd wait for. (I swear I never thought I'd be one of those! LOL!) We had a lot of things in common too.......like his best friend had also served his mission in Argentina and so had his dad (one of his comps was my first mission president, Pres. Richmond....and another comp of his was my 1st year Spanish teacher in high school....small world); my sister was born in the hospital just down the street from where he grew up; and one of the guys he grew up with in West Covina moved out to Rancho C. with his family and when we were like juniors in high school or something like that I can remember that Sean brought a bunch of his friends to church and introduced them all...I still remember that one of them was "going to be baptized today" and I remember the truck they all hopped into later. It was Clark's truck. I even remember Danny was there and I think Cory. But gosh I do not remember Clark at all. It totally wasn't the right time to meet.

So we dated for 3 years. Yeah it was no whirl wind romance for us. And even though he didn't fit my ideal marriage material (you know wanting Temple marriage and all), I knew he was the man I was to supposed to give my heart to and marry.

We married on Dec. 19, 1998 at the Hillside Ward Bldg in Rancho. Clark's dad, Rick, was a bishop at that time and so he performed the ceremony. I don't have a scanner or I'd share pics of our wedding day.

We haven't had an easy 10 years. We are so different that we tend to bicker and argue.... alot! We've also had lots of monetary set backs over the years. But we love each other enough to work things out.

Somewhere along the line we became parents to two beautiful girls (okay so I am a bit biased on that) and are owned by 3 crazy cats. Our life isn't as exciting as others but we have fun, we love each other, and we enjoy what we do have.

And this is how we celebrated our big 10th anniversay.....

My parents took the girls for the night (thanks mom and dad! you rock!). We had made reservations for The Melting Pot in Brea. For those who have never heard of this restuarant, it is a fondue theme. You have a 4 course meal and it is European style......everything except the salad is cooked on your table in fondue pots.

1st course: cheese fondue of choice...we chose the Wisconsin trio.....the waitress mixes it up for you and then brings out chunks of different breads, apple chunks and a veggie medley (carrot chunks, celery, cauliflower). I have never had apples and cheese before and the apples tasted great in the cheese fondue.

2nd course: salad and you have your choice of salad, this is the only course that you don't share; I had the basic house salad. It had a honey mustard vinagrette that was soooo good. This was brought out while we still munched on the 1st course but towards the end so we weren't rushed or anything. They really give you the chance to savor your meal at this place.

3rd course: main course.....we did one of the feature meals for two and it had a variety different cuts of steaks, filet mignon, chicken, shrimp, lobster and pasta along with more veggies. The fondue is a broth based one and it is hotter so the meats cook fast in it. The meats are small chunks so someone with a huge appetite might not want to splurge at this place. But over the course of the evening you do get fed well. The veggies are different from the 1st course veggies. For this one they served red potato chunks, mushrooms, broccoli and yellow squash. They also bring out a variety of dipping sauces as well and explain what each tastes good with. Hard to remember so we just tried it all. Everything was delicious!

4th course: dessert......you get your choice of chocolate fondue. We chose a milk chocolate with chunky peanut butter swirled in. They bring out a platter of lots of yummy dippers. Here's a picture----strawberries, bananas, oreo and graham cracker covered marshmellows, brownie bites, rice krispy treats, pound cake chunks, a slice of cheese cake (Clark let me have the cherry cause he knows I love them!). It was all so delicious!

I really can't decide which was my favorite part of the meal. It was all so good and the service was great. Our waitress was awesome. I even got a rose for the night. So here are some pics of the evening:


The yummy desserts!
Me, getting ready to eat a strawberry.

Clark and I....and my pretty rose.

This is why I married Clark...he's so hot, he's steamy!

And this is all we can show you of the rest of the evening. ;)

Happy Anniversary Clark my love! May the next 10 years be as wonderful as the first 10 years!