19 Years



The years have been kind: 1993-2012

 Today is our 19th anniversary! And we've packed those 19 years with many amazing feats and memories. One of the first series of  memories was created during the period of the "THEN" picture posted above. We'd been together just over 3 months - I was 22, working my way through my 5th year of full-time undergrad (having switched from a psychology major to a social work major at the last minute), while Joe, 23, was just finishing his first year as a full-time environmental engineer. My hair and eyebrows were yet to be tamed, my skin yet to be inked. Joe's hair was yet to be long, his beard yet to be welcomed and his muscles yet to be sculpted.

This picture was taken in  late August 1993 in the mountains of Boulder, CO at Joe's sister's wedding - well, actually her reception. But let me set the pre-story up. I loved Colorado before I ever saw Colorado. As a little kid I used to lie to strangers and tell them I was from Colorado, I did a book report on Colorado in 3rd grade, and planned to move to Colorado after college. So imagine my excitement when Joe invited me to travel with him to Janie's wedding... in Colorado! 

Travel is the other key aspect of this memory. Prior to this trip, I'd never been outside of WI except to Chicago or camping in MI, but was itching to see more of the world. I worked at Hallmark in the Grand Avenue Mall (when it was in it's glory days), and had no vacation time, but that didn't stop me from taking 3 weeks off to travel to the Pacific Northwest. I worked with a gal at Hallmark who was from Seattle, WA and was moving back in July of that year. I made plans to travel by train to Seattle to spend a week with Desiree, then take the train to Denver to meet up with Joe (who would drive 17 hours from Milwaukee to Denver) at the train station, attend his sister's wedding and spend another week+ driving home and seeing sights along the way.

This vacation would hold many firsts for me - my first time traveling outside of WI, my first taste of true independence (I didn't know how to drive at the age of 22, so my independence was limited), seeing the mountains I always dreamed of, seeing big sky country in Wyoming, the plains of the Dakota's, meeting Joe's sister and parent's, and backpacking (if you can call it that!).

It's true, Joe and I weren't always the seasoned backpackers we are today. In fact, we were woefully unprepared. Now with the pre-story laid out, I will jump back to me arriving, LATE, by train to Denver. Joe, who had driven non-stop from WI, was there to pick me up, and I was soooo happy to see him - knowing for sure after more than a week apart, that he was my match for life. 

We had beautiful weather for Janie's wedding, which took place on the side of a mountain with high heels, fancy dresses and the works. A deeper drive up and into the mountains took us to the reception at a large rented cabin-esque building, where we could slip into comfy casual clothing ... eventually leading to the picture in this blog.

I was super stoked by the dramatic scenery and excited for our 2-day "backpacking" trip slated for the following day. Backpacking is in quotes, because technically all we needed to do was hike 3-4 miles into a reserved site and create a home base, but even that was asking a bit much! The bright blue skies and temperate weather vanished overnight, delivering clouds and fog that obscured the mountains.

We found the trail head and began our trek. Did we have backpacks? No. Unless you count a sad one-sack Jansport backpack from middle school. Did we have lightweight gear? Ha! We hiked in sweat pants, carried huge car camping sleeping bags like spindles on our outstretched arms, lugged a 4-person Coleman tent and bed pillows in the other free arm. Did we have dehydrated foods? Nope. I'm not sure what we were thinking, but all we took with us for a 2-night trip was a bag of Lenders Blueberry bagels! Did we have a water purifier? Nuh-uh. I think we hauled some filled water bottles up there too. It's embarrassing now to think about how we looked to others we passed on the trail.

Our site was beautiful, but a chilly misty rain sent us into the tent prematurely. We threw our bag of bagels into a tree (didn't want to attract bears, ya know?)  and called it a day. Heavy overnight rains left puddles in our tent, and the new day was looking like more of the same. We decided to call it quits, thought we'd eat a bagel quick and head back down the mountain, which is what we did, sans the bagels, which had grown moldy overnight. Somehow, the experience didn't thwart our interest in backpacking, in fact, it may have whet our desire to master it.

So, this is one set of early memories, but there are great ones that precede it. Maybe next year I'll share the story of our first date ...