43 Years Strong

Today is my parent's 43rd wedding anniversary.

Yes, you read that right.

Forty-Third.

This picture is of them in Prague,

at the beginning of the day,

(the 24 hours we spent in the city, mind you)

after an over-night train ride in the tiniest sleeper-car ever

(are all sleeper cars tiny on trains?

i mean, this one had a bunk-bed, with three bunks)

So, you can tell why dad's not smiling that big

(but really, it's hard to get him to smile for a picture,

as in this picture from Paris is one of the only pictures

I have of him with a real, honest-to-goodness smile:

what's funny about that is that he's one of the funniest,

happy-go-lucky, constantly-making-jokes guys i know.

go figure about the pictures, right?)

Mom on the other hand, always smiling in pictures:

even when it's freezing and i'm making her try deep-fried foods.

Well, she's either smiling,

or making funny faces at the camera:

She's gonna kill me for posting that picture,

but you know what? I love it.

It's so my mom, if you know what I mean.

So, what you need to know:

they've been together forever.

Forever.

As in, they were high-school-sweethearts

(they'll both probably laugh when they read that),

but that's kinda cool.

I mean, really?

In a time when everyone and their brother seems to be divorcing,

here they are showing people that love exists.

Take that divorce rates.

They've lived in really random places together:

Freezing North Dakota,

Middle-of-the-Desert California,

Middle-of-Nowhere New York,

Pony-Land Kentucky,

and now Beautiful New Hampshire.

They've got me,

which makes them super awesome in my eyes.

They're partners.

Marriage is difficult, for sure - you're with someone forever.

In case you forgot,

that's a really, really long time.

You'll get on each other's nerves, for sure,

and you'll learn exactly which buttons to push to royally tick the other off,

and you'll push those buttons both on purpose and without realizing it,

but it's the getting over it and moving on to the next day that matters.

That's how 43 years happen,

and how 43 (or more!) more years will happen.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

I love you more than words!