11 June 2009 = Four Years for the Bonners

Jennifer changed my life. I wasn't much to look at before, but now I'm almost a respectable adult...almost. We've grown a lot in these years together - I've grown out quite a bit, too.

On the side of a mountain, I asked her to marry me while in Ecuador, and on our anniversary weekend, we went to the top of a mountain in the Santiam Pass. We spent our first year's anniversary in Portland, looking for homes when we decided to move to Oregon. Now we are spending time packing and will take a trip after the 4th of July to Logan, UT to scope out a place to live. We are living in cycles right now. Jennifer has asked me not to let this become routine in our lives together.

It's hard, sometimes, for me to feel really grown-up...okay, almost all the time, but let's think about some of the "adult" things we've done in the last four years:

• transitioning successfully into the workforce from college
• loading up U-Hauls and moving across the country
• finding jobs again
• purchasing a brand new car
• deciding to buy quality furniture from now on
• taking a trip to Europe
• enjoying friends from our church small groups
• serving the Lord through multiple ministries at Salem Heights
• going home to help parents with illness
• reapplying to school to focus on career changes
• hoping that there is more that makes us "adults" like getting a reduced rate on our car insurance, but the best one to date is getting a brand new bed - it came today! Jen and I relaxed on it for a moment, and she said, "This feels better than it did in the store!" There was a time in college when we were dating that we traded blankets (that was hot, let me tell you) so we could "sleep with the other person's smell," but now we get to share a blanket - I'm not sure my smell is as alluring as it once was.
  

You see, we'll be turning 26 and 27 this year, and I never thought of myself as being anywhere near 30. My body sure can't do the things I did in high school or even college, but we've both decided that this move will be one that is kind of a restart, a restart to make sure that we don't live day to day, getting up, going to work, eating dinner, and going to sleep in order to do it again tomorrow.

Jen and I have talked about how we are capable people that could be doing just fine on our own, but any "inconvenience" from living with another person (only-children here) is quickly thrown out the window because of the joys that we give each other. Jen just said, laying on the new bed with new sheets, "It feels good to make good choices," and it's true. We chose each other, thank the Lord - I don't think anyone else would have me.
===
Time for some pictures from our anniversary:
The new bed!
Fish Lake
Falls on our day hike
View from a cabin in Sweet Home, thank you Stocks and Thorpes
On our way to the top!