This is the best recent photo I have…really. 15 year old boys do not cooperate for photos

Happy Birthday to Luke! It’s true, 15 years really does go fast! He was born on our 5th wedding anniversary, yes….today we’ve been married for 20 YEARS! What, what?

Because of that fact, I always projected his age with our corresponding anniversary date…he’ll be 5 on our 10th anniversary, 10 on our 15th…15 on our 20th…and I’ve always tried to picture him at those ages. I think he’s pretty much how I imagined…fun, smart, athletic, polite, industrious, responsible and a loyal friend. I have to admit, I did not anticipate the intense goofiness but I’m used to it by now and am thinking he’ll always have it.

After a fun day of watching matches and Federer practice!

Ever since we’ve been married, Mark and I have wanted to go to the pro tournament in Cincinnati. I have family there and went one time as a kid. Everyone always said what a great venue it is to watch tennis up close. Since we weren’t planning anything else, I decided this was the year. We had a quick trip. My cousin scored excellent seats for the first day of matches and we all had a great time. Our seats gave us access to “The Racquet Club”, pardon us. Little Mark was determined to lounge there. It was cooler and quiet and relaxing. They had free water up there (I found that out AFTER I spent $11.50 on 3 bottles of water-GRR).I was so satisfied when he finally got his chance, he was eyeing up these leather couches all day but they were always occupied.

Mark “lounging”

It’s wild how fast 20 years has flown by. I realized that it’s the longest I’ve done anything.

I won’t get too syrupy here. Not my style but I do feel pure gratitude to have Mark.