happy anniversary to us :) 5 years!

5 years is really a long time. Think about how much a child changes in 5 years. First from a newborn to a baby and then a toddler and then a child and all that they learn in 5 years. They go from knowing nothing to learning a lot of basic, fundamental things in life as well a lot of other important things.

That has sort of been like our marriage. We started off knowing nothing and having to learn the basic, fundamentals of marriage. Then we progressed to crawling, then walking, and some days running. We have fallen and been hurt and have experienced joys we couldn't have thought up. And yet, in all of this, we are only 5 years in.

So I guess that puts us still in the child phase then, huh?

Oh dear. That means we still have the pre-teen and teenage years to go through before we hit adulthood. Some days this parallel seems so true. Some days it feels like we are still newborns and yet other days it feels like we've got this marriage thing down.

On September 14 (Saturday) we will have been married for 5 years. I feel like I could write a book, or maybe multiple books on "lessons" we have learned. And what not to do. And maybe a few things to do.

All in all, through it all- I love you Seth Braker. And i'm celebrating our 5 crazy, wonderful, painful, awesome years of marriage. Let's continue to go on marvelous adventures together!

Even though the whole city of peoria was under water due to massive amounts of rain that caused flooding...we still managed to get some awesome pictures :)...here are some of my favorites:

                                                    Seeing eachother for the first time!

                                                          a little bridesmaid love. typical :)

                                                        The groomsmen and ushers

                                                                   Both of our families

                                Throwing paper airplanes at us as we ran out of reception :)

Branson trip

This past weekend we got to spend in Branson with Seth's family. We knew about it for a while but because of the chaos in our lives lately, we didn't make up our minds until Wednesday night to go and left Thursday night.....*sigh* that just seems to be how we roll lately. Better late than never, right?

We had a GREAT time hanging out together. We did some swimming, some shopping, and some eating out. We have to coordinate our "activities" around quite a few naps and schedules :).

On Sunday morning we went to this brunch. And when I say brunch I mean don't-eat-for-days-feeling-of-fullness. To give you an idea of how much food is offered, Seth kept drinking water before we left that morning so he could stretch his stomach out to fit more food. This place is a.m.a.z.i.n.g. It's at the college of the Ozarks and the students there prepare the food and are the wait staff. They  have an omelette station, biscuits, bacon/ham/potatoes station, waffle station, pasta station, meat/fish/vegetable station, salad bar, fruit bar, and the most decadent dessert table. Typically I don't like buffets. But this isn't even in that caliber. I mean it is a buffet but it's not even close to the typical type of buffet (as in the kind we went to when I was a kid because it was cheap and quick and when you have a family of 4 boys and 1 girl you need massive amounts of food for bottom dollar, haha :)).

We came home on Sunday afternoon and everyone else was staying for a little longer. It was a quick trip but definitely worth the drive and tons of fun!!

See the weekend in pictures, below:

This was the first and last time she'll be wearing this suit...I LOVE the ears on the hood!

I love these munchkins! They are growing up so fast!

Gracie got the hang of "lounging"...at first she didn't like the water but after a little time she LOVED it. (I love the curled toes :)). 

My girl and me

Gracie and her daddy...see any resemblance? :)

Mags being cute...she is a little fish, I think she'd swim all day if you let her :).

                                  I just LOVE those cheeks! she's full of curiosity about the world.

 Rio buddy loved the water fountains!

Gracie loved them, too.

                                We watched a short water show after eating out one night.

                          All of us, the Braker family :)! (after we had miserably stuffed our faces!)

                                                          Jay & Jackie's family

                                                           The Zimm's!

Our family

Grandpa and Grandma Braker and all their grandkids!