Dear Todd:

Happy 21st anniversary! September 11th, 1999. What a beautiful day and beginning to our life together. Surrounded by the people we love the most! It was awesome. Now, our 2nd anniversary was a bit of a crazy and world changing day. It’s when our anniversary date became simply numbers (well, for a few years anyway) – 9/11. Yikes. But no matter what – September 11th is still one of the greatest days of my life. I figured today on the internet, we needed a little something else to reflect on as well. So I decided to write to you!

When I met you on that night in Bellingham in 1995 (thanks again for seeing to that, Bonnie Fox) , who even knew what was to come. Isn’t it crazy to think?! Flash forward 25 years and we’ve lived in our favorite place for 16 years, parent two awesome and hilarious teenagers together and are on our second set of pooches! What a ride!

Last year, for our 20th, we headed up to our favorite Flying U Ranch, just us (we will see you again someday Canada). I think my very favorite conversation was when we reflected on our “first 20” and then dreamed about our “next 20”. All the life we’ve lived and the awesome life to come….. like watching our kids graduate high school and go off to college, watching them fall in love, family adventures, us maybe becoming grandparents (whoa). We also took a look at our relationships in life – are we good friends to our people? Are we doing everything we want with our families? What are we doing well and what do we want to do better? We talked about it all. Well, and you are married to me – so it continues – we reflect on the regular – ha! But truthfully, I go back to that conversation all the time.

Which leads me to our 21st year of marriage. We started off cruising right along doing our thing and then BAM – the universe and mother earth said, “listen up peeps”. So the last 6 months have looked a little different then anyone imagined – global pandemic, quarantine, global weather/earth events, cultural movements like we’ve never seen, self reflection that has been long overdue for ourselves, our country and our world. I mean, holy smokes! It’s no joke! 2020 has been quite a year.

But here’s what I know. We, as a family, were reminded that what matters most in life is love. Showing love in small and big ways, self love, loving our neighbors and families and friends and each other. Being there for each other on the easy days and the hard days. Because, in the end, it’s everything. We’ve learned how very little we need to be happy. And truthfully it’s each other, our family and our friends. Well, and food. If we didn’t have food, we’d have hangry teenagers and we’d all be miserable! HA!

So back to you Todd. Thanks for being you through this 21st year of marriage. Steady, funny, loud-sneezing, the best and silliest dad, strong, loving, kind, encouraging, supportive, and my favorite human on the planet. Thanks for joining us on the couch each night to watch our favorite teenager shows. Thanks for playing games and riding bikes and coming up with ideas like waking up at 3:30 to see the sunrise on Mt. Rainier. Thanks for wine on the back deck and for dealing with me after 8 when my tolerance for life can often tank. Thanks for your scary masks and terrifying our children and their friends/cousins. You are my favorite. Happy 21st Anniversary! I think you rock!

-Stacy