Yesterday (1 Jun), Karen and I celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary. It is hard to believe we have been married for 17 years! It seems like just yesterday we were dating, she was in college in Virginia and I was a brand new Lieutenant in Dayton, Ohio.Â
We were introduced while I was still in College at the University of Vermont. She had been a long-time babysitter for a family that managed the Farm, Home and Garden store I worked for and they introduced us. After dating (mostly long distance) for a little over 2 years, we got marrried in 1990.  We had an evening wedding on a beautiful sunny day. We spent our first night in Vermont at the Inn at Essex before driving to Albany, NY, for a flight to Florida for our honeymoon. We spent our honeymoon between Vero Beach and Orlando, FL.Â
Since that time, we have covered a lot of ground. We spent the first 4.5 years in Dayton, Ohio, which we really enjoyed. The nice thing about Dayton was that it was near the bigger cities, but yet was still quite rural with wide open spaces and farms just a few miles drive away. We then moved to Los Angeles, CA, for 3 years and lived in Redondo Beach and San Pedro. I really enjoyed the novelty of living in LA, although Karen was less comfortable there. Ben was born in Santa Monica while we lived there. After LA, we moved back across the country to Satellite Beach, FL, where we spent another 3 years soaking in the sun and dodging hurricanes. Delaney was born while we lived there, and in a strange twist of fate, was born in the very hospital in which Karen was born some 30 years earlier. While this may seem not such a big deal, it was quite a coincidence since neither Karen nor I have any family in that area. It just so happened her parents lived there for a short while when her father worked for IBM……and we lived there a short while when I was assigned to Patrick AFB. After that, we moved to Washington, DC (Springfield, VA) for just under three years while I was assigned to the Pentagon. We were there for 9/11 and 2 years after. Then we moved back to Florida, but this time to the panhandle for more hurricane dodging and soaking in the sun. We ended up dodging more hurricanes in the panhandle, but really enjoyed our time there.  Now we find ourselves back in the DC area for what will likely be my last assignment in uniform.  I plan to retire at (or near) 20 years of service in ~Oct 09.
So, while we have covered a lot of ground in 17 years, the time has really flown by. I can’t imagine having shared it with anyone else. Quite honestly, I know of few people who would put up with that many moves, the long work hours and excessive travel that I have to maintain. I am looking forward to many more years together on this wonderful journey. I am sure our biggest adventures still lie ahead.
Congrats!