F.I.R. – Flexibility, Initiative and Responsibility. According to the pastor at our wedding 26 years ago today, focusing on these areas would help make a marriage strong. We even got a little tree to remind us, and we bring it out every year. He was pretty right-on.

And I still couldn’t ask for a better match. I am truly blessed to have my husband by my side in this life journey.

For our 24th anniversary, I touched on some other points that I have found helpful over the years. They still hold true, in my opinion.

Last year was our big 25th. As I mentioned in a post last April, we had decided to celebrate by taking 25 trips over the year. And we did 🙂 (Although the plans didn’t always go exactly as we had hoped all the time.) At the way bottom of this post I’ll show the list for those who might be interested. The links in that list are to posts from those trips.

An unexpected boon from this idea was the way it affects our day-to-day interactions by changing our habits and by enhancing current experiences (Ex: after living out of a suitcase for a month, we realize we have waaaaay to much stuff, so we are downsizing. And now when I go to a global buffet and see the Italian offerings, I know which delectable meats and cheeses to grab as my first course.)

Criteria?

1. 1. It counted any time we stayed at a hotel or went to visit friends and family and spent a night.
   2. Sometimes we went to places more than once for different reasons, and we counted those as separate trips.
   3. We were together (trips taken without each other did not make it on the list).

We tried to keep a list going in a spreadsheet, but I know a few of the trips were not documented (a few other camping trips or brief overnights on the way to other places). And we are heading out to Utah again in two days. Does that count?

We are celebrating the day by going to a West Coast Swing Dance club this evening. I’m pretty excited since we’ve been taking dance lessons.

Here is a collage of some of our happy memories from the past year. I hope you enjoy them. And thanks to all our family and friends who took time out of their schedules to celebrate with us and share these experiences.

Image by Michelle Ames from https://www.facebook.com/ClickHappyDesigns/

And here is a list of most of our destinations: