Our Anniversary

Eric and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on Thursday, July 17. We do have or should I say had matching wedding bands, but Eric's ring doesn't look like mine anymore. He has had the antiquing done twice on his ring, and mine looks like it did 15 years ago!

We hope to go to Niagara Falls or somewhere later on, but for our special day, Eric took off work and arranged for a sitter for the kids. He had planned for us to go to D. C. to take in the sights, but because traffic was horrible and we had to be back at a certain time, we opted to get off I-95 and go to the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

No, this was not your typical romantic outing for a couple celebrating a milestone in their marriage, but anytime I can be with my beloved is romantic for me. If you have not been, and are anywhere close to the area, it is worth the trip. The museum is free, and although I'm a Army gal, I was so impressed with the Marine Corps and the presentation at the museum. There is so much to see that we took a break to eat lunch, at Famous Dave's (of course) then came back to the museum and still I don't think we went into each gallery. We will definitely come back so the kids can experience the museum.

Here are some pictures of our outing:

The gallery that featured the Vietnam War was especially meaningful to me. My brother Joe was a "Jar Head" during this war, I remember reading some of the letters that he wrote to our mother years later, telling her that he would be going on a search and destroy mission, and not knowing if this would be his last letter to her. Some mentioned that he had sent money for her to buy me bubble gum or candy - what a brother. My mother still has a photo album that has Vietnam on the once red now slighty pink cover, filled with photos of him and his buddies, I remember one is of him recovering from an injoury, but don't remeber what happened, I will have to see if my Mom remembers. Joe did survice Vietnam, but later was killed in a car accident.

After we left the museum, Eric needed to stop at one of the bike shops in Stafford, and low and behold there was a bead shop two doors down! My eyes light up! So while Eric checked out saddles (bike seats) I went to Art from the Heart. I meet one of the instructors, Tammy, who gave me a free class on wire wrapping, and offered me some encouragement and advise. When Eric was finished at the bike store, he joined me at the art store, and Tammy even gave him a mini wire wrapping class. I have to admit that he was much better at it than I was, but he has handled wire a lot longer than I have - that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! Tammy showed me several of her stunning pieces beautiful pieces, so do check out her site.