My Forever Valentine

 

Valentine's Day Date ~ How We Roll

Les had to go to Texas last week for business.  This is the first time in our almost 27 years of marriage that we weren't together on Valentine's Day.  I had a sweet text really early that morning (he was two hours ahead) and he was home Thursday night.  Since he had yesterday off for President's Day we decided to celebrate then. I'm pretty sure this will not come as a surprise to many - our activity of choice was a bike ride!

Les loaded up the bikes and we drove to Ventura where we headed towards Santa Barbara.  It was cool with a very strong headwind.  It was a really tough slog, but I kept telling myself, "It's going to be fun on the way back."  After about 9 1/2 miles of straight into the wind, I was ready to turn around.  We stopped for a few pictures.  The ocean was really choppy!

We also saw lots of burned areas from last December's Thomas Fire.

Heading back to the car we had a fun tailwind and averaged about 17 mph (compared to about 9.5 mph on the way out.)  Total distance - 19.3 miles, number of laughs - too many to count!

I Love Him Everyday!

Cruising the Mediterranean for our 20th

Happy Valentine's Day to my faithful readers.  Hope you are feeling loved!  Les and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in just a few short months.  That seems a little hard to believe, but it's true!  How about a little walk down memory lane?  You can read most of our story in these three links...

Where We Met ~ Camp Meeting/Senior Camp, August 1989

 
When We Got Engaged ~ Yosemite, November 3, 1990

Our Wedding ~ May 25, 1991

And there are have been many, many happy days since!  I don't just love Les on Valentine's Day ~ I love him everyday!

2015 Magical Moments

Happy New Year's Eve!  I know I'm not the only one saying, "I can't believe how quickly this year has gone."  2015 was the year of travel for us - Les traveled 25 weeks - 22 were for business.  Thankfully, I was able to tag along for 14 of those weeks - 13 were for business, our only vacation together this year was our trip to Florida for Thanksgiving.  Les took two cycling trips with Lance - I'm glad they can do that together and I'm happy to stay home during those trips!  Along with traveling, it's been a great year.  I thought I'd highlight one thing from each month:

January:
On January 1st, I embarked upon a new Bible Study - Women of the Word.  While I didn't reach my goal to study one woman a week, I did study 33 women and learned SO much.  My life has definitely been enriched with this study.

February:
Our first of four trips to Oahu this year.  We celebrated a delayed Valentine's Day on the North Shore.

March:
Les was gone 16 days during the month of March.  He was in four states and I didn't go at all.  Brianna Miranda and I were twins one Sunday, so there's my highlight!

April:
I turned 51 and we took our second trip to Hawaii.  This time we celebrated my birthday at Sea Life Park.  I also got to hang out with Levi Bentz for a while.

May:
We celebrated our 24th anniversary at Disney's California Adventure.

June:
Les was home almost the entire month of June!  We took one short trip to Las Vegas for a business conference, but it was nice to stay home for a while.  The only highlight about Vegas was when it was in our rear view mirror!  Funniest picture was this "compare at" price...

July:
July was looking like another stay at home month until about the 15th.  We got word that Les needed to be in O'Fallon, Missouri for two weeks!  I found a cheap ticket and was able to go along.  I saw the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis for the first time.  Truly spectacular!  I also started training for marathon #4 while in Missouri.  Extreme heat and humidity didn't kill me, so I knew it was going to be a good training cycle.

August:
Les traveled to Utah for a week long bike adventure with Lance.  While he was gone, Kim, Krysten and Lauren came for a short visit.  We enjoyed a quick trip to Santa Barbara.

September:
We took our third trip to Hawaii.  Guava chiffon pancakes.  That's all.

October:
Early October we were still on Oahu and I ran the Brio Ice Cream 25k race as part of my marathon training.  Les had another busy travel month.  We flew home on a red eye on October 9th, getting home on Saturday morning.  Les flew to Philadelphia on Sunday morning - a six hour time difference!  He was home for a week then flew to Scottsdale, AZ.

November:
November was a big month!  I ran the Revel Canyon City Marathon and had a 7 minute PR!

At the end of the month, we traveled to Florida for the McElhaney family reunion.  Seven of us ran the Mexico Beach Community Garden Turkey Trot 5k.

December:
We took our final trip to Hawaii.  Les was one of the wheelchair cycling escorts for the Honolulu Marathon.

We had a super mellow Christmas at home, just the two of us.  My final picture is from a mountain bike ride a couple days before Christmas.  We have had a busy, but healthy and blessed year!  God's favor has shined on us.

Valentine Celebration

 

We had a delayed Valentine celebration because we flew to Hawaii on Sunday.  Saturday was filled with bill paying, laundry and packing.  When we booked our flights a couple weeks ago we didn't know that Les would have Presidents Day off (he didn't the last two years) so it was a bonus play day for us!

We started the morning at Cinnamon's.  One word to describe their Red Velvet Pancakes ~ Onolicious!!

 

We then headed to the North Shore to work some of the breakfast off!

The waves were looking great and we spotted lots of whales with our binoculars that our iPhones couldn't catch!

Ka'ena Point is at the end of the road on Oahu.  We hiked 6.2 miles round trip.

A little smooching went on...

The Albatross were nesting...

 

and soaring overhead...

And this Island Girl enjoyed the views!

In Sickness...

Happy Valentine's Day!  You are loved - single, married, divorced, widowed - it doesn't matter, you are loved.

Les and I are having a really exciting Valentine's Week.  I came down with a cold over the weekend and shared it with him.  I'm heading to the store for more Kleenex and cold medicine.  How's that for romantic?  True love is real, not what Hollywood wants you to think it is.

Our "I love yous" are a little nasally these days, but they are no less sincere!

To My Valentine

Dear Les,

On this day that we celebrate love, I wanted to review the vows we repeated on May 25, 1991:

I, Kathy, take you Les, to be my wedded husband.
Other than deciding to follow Jesus, this is the best decision I ever made!  You're not only my husband, but my best friend, my partner in adventure and travel!  When we were on Oahu for our honeymoon, I know neither of us ever dreamed that 2013 would take us to Hawaii for an extended stay, but we're together, in the will of God, and that's what matters.

To have and to hold, from this day forward, 
I don't regret that we waited on the holding part until our wedding day.  Our courtship was so fun, filled with getting to know each other while waiting on the physical.

for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
We've had it a lot better than many.  We've survived multiple job losses and been through times of great blessing.  With God on our side, it's definitely been better and richer.

in sickness and in health, 
When I think about how sick you were our first week in Hawaii, I have been overwhelmed with thankfulness that I was there with you.  I can't imagine how horrible I would have felt if you would have been 2500 miles away and that sick.  I wasn't able to do much, feed you NyQuil and pray, but being with you was so important to me.

to love, honor and obey, 'till death do us part. 
You're so easy to love!  And you've never caused me to want to dishonor or disobey you.  You don't lord over me, you lead my example, you're loving and kind and so fun!

Happy Valentine's Day to my forever sweetheart!