Grand Marais, Michigan with My Kyle

How do you describe the most perfect for us vacation destination in the world?  We love quiet and tranquil places.  We love to experience nature and the beauty of the creation.

 I was worried that when you get married before you are twenty; or even 19 in my case, that we would be another divorce statistic.  I thought that my own parents did not stay married past 19 years of marriage, how could I do it.  But, I was 18 so this worry was fleeting, it would pass through my mind on occasion.  But, we have learned so much about ourselves and marriage over these past few years.

 We have learned that we can't get everything we want right now.  (The hard way.)  We went into a lot of debt when we were first married.  We made all of our payments just fine, until we both lost our jobs...2 months a part.

 At that point in our life we learned to rely more on Heavenly Father,  than on ourselves.  That decision alone has made more changes to our lives and our marriage than any one decision that we have made since then.

 We learned that families can be together forever, not just until death do you part.  We learned to pay an honest tithe.

 We learned to rely on each other and we learned to appreciate our young family.

 We made many sacrifices, like me going to college and Kyle working by himself to support us through.  We sometimes went to the grocery store on a roll of dimes to get just enough to make what was in the cupboards stretch until we got the next pay check.

 We knew that getting me through school would help us to be able to build our dream home on a few acres and have a small farm to be able to sustain us through any future hardships.

 We worked hard to be to this point in our lives.  Like the icebergs in this picture we learned to get through the cool hard parts of marriage and get on to the next task.

 We have raised two children and are moving into the adult children phase.  Funny, wonder when they will starting acting as adults.  Even funnier that I was married and had Kota when I was his age now.  Can't image either of them making the same choices.  (No wonder our parents were asking us if we were ready for marriage 20 years ago.)

 One thing I realized on this trip, that I still love Mr. Crawford after all these years.  I know now that 20 years isn't all that long and I hope to be one of those elderly couples in the newspaper celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary.  Maybe even seeing great-great grandchildren.

 We realized that we still want to move to the Upper Pennisula of Michigan, and we hope that we can do that in the next five years.  (Growing up, it doesn't have to  be now!)

 

 Have you ever seen a wood chuck (ground hog) in a tree?  Well this guy had the best seat in the house.  He was sitting 600 feet above Lake Superior on a branch hanging out over the lake.

 Crazy woodpecker had these all over this tree.  I bet it will fall down soon.

As you can see, Grand Marais area of Lake Michigan is beautiful.  It was a great 4 day hang out for Kyle and I on our 20th anniversary week.  Hope we can repeat this trip, over and over.  Here is to 20 more, and then 20 more after that!