10th Anniversary Vow Renewal in the UP of Michigan

Ten years, it's crazy, I know. All we can say is we are so unbelievably blessed and grateful to get to do life with each other. We so enjoyed our recent extended family (Lindsay's) trip to Michigan, that we couldn't help but end it with a special moment, so we're sharing some of the key photo moments during the trip and the final moment before we got in the van to head back home to MN. Ten years ago, we had said we would read out personal vows together on our wedding day in addition to the traditional, "Mark, do you take Lindsay as your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold,..." Mark wrote them down and felt like he had them memorized, but in the excitement of the moment, his mind went blank and he scrambled to form the words that he wanted to say. We've joked about this for years and so this year, I (Lindsay) said that for my anniversary gift, I wanted him to rewrite his vows on paper all over again.

I went back and forth then on how to surprise him with a vow renewal. Should I surprise him? Would I get a fancy dress and flowers? Where and how? It just came down to the reminder that we say to our bride and grooms on our wedding day: the goal is by the end of the day to be married, everything else is a bonus. For our vow renewal, our goal was to have a moment to face-to-face say once again, "I choose you" -- everything else is and was a bonus.

So, I packed nice clothes on our trip in case we somehow had a moment to be dressed nicely with vows in hand, but as the week went on and we had such amazing and fun adventures, I was content to just capture the real life of our relationship. When Mark turned in his vows on the second to last day, I spent the morning writing my vows in the van (after my normal journaling) and hid them in my back pocket as we walked down to the beach. Once we got to the beautiful lakeshore of Pictured Rocks National Park, it took a bit of coaxing to convince Mark to take off his shoes and get into the water, but once he saw me pull out the paper and that my brother, Josiah, just "happened" to have our camera, he smiled and started rolling up his pants.

Mark, as I said in my vow to you, I'm so grateful for you -- for your servant heart, your gentle coaching, and all the fun we have together. I am grateful that God gave us each other on this journey together and that we will choose to pursue our relationship towards each other out of our relationship to Him. Thank you for ten amazing years, for hanging in there with me during the ups and downs, no kids and kids, in sickness and in health. Here's until death do us part <3