Twelve Years!

C and I (and our brood) celebrated our twelfth wedding anniversary Sunday.

Next weekend we have babysitters and a plan for an overnight kayak trip, so we let the kids hang with us on the actual day.

Also, next weekend is my birthday (ahem), so I thought of this weekend as, Birthday, Observed and next weekend as Anniversary, Observed.

What I like to do on my birthday is go to the beach. And so, though the beach isn't much (nor was the weather), we went to Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth (I spent a lovely day there by myself last summer and another with my sister, but my family, including the one who's lived in Maine nearly two decades, had not been there before).

They spent a lot of time running around in these creepy magazine storerooms (as in weapons magazines, not Martha Stewart).

And were impressed by this ruined castle.

The other thing I like to do on my birthday is eat Mexican food, which has always been a challenge here in the northeast. But I've been dying to try El Rayo Taqueria in Portland for about a year (really that was the whole reason for us to dip down into the gene pool for the day).

And? Yum. Look at that corn...it has cheese on it. Brilliant! And tacos, chips, salsa, fancy drinks, all good.

They served the kids' meals on frisbees.

The desserts were also fantastic. This is the coconut cupcake, which I ordered because I thought it would be reminiscent of wedding cake. Z had the best Key lime pie I've ever eaten.

When we got home we watched the video of our wedding (again feeling grateful we had such a short one!). It was sobering to see four people in the video who are no longer with us, including our wonderful officiant, and that the one behind the video camera is now fighting a serious brain tumor. Much can happen in 12 years.

Later C took stock of our last decade dodecade together. From his perspective, it's been a great success--he built this house, started a booming business. From mine, not so much. I feel stuck in much the same rut I was in back then; my career, such as it was, is now in shambles and I don't see a clear path forward. 

Still, we're still together and still in love. He's got a bit less hair and I've got a lot more hips. And of course, we have these three lovely children (one of whom just ran out of the room saying, "I hate you!" to his brother. Sigh).