Thursday, May 13, 2010

Happy Anniversary !

As I mentioned in a previous post, both Melissa and I have been married before. I was with my first wife for nine years and Melissa was with her first husband for seven years. I think we would both agree that our first marriages were extremely painful toward the end, perhaps only exceeded by the disaster of pain caused by divorcing our respective partners. I can't speak for Melissa, but my first marriage is a price I would gladly pay again if I knew then what was in store for me the second time. Until I married Melissa I had no idea what a great gift marriage truly is. Using a metaphor with which I am intimately familiar, my marriage to Melissa is exactly like nurturing a sickly plant in good, deep, fertile soil, except instead of a plant what she nurtures is my soul. In no small part, I am what I am today thanks to her.

On Friday of this week, Melissa and I celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary. In honour of this, and in addition to our regularly scheduled photos of contented retirees, I have included a few favourite photos of mine which I hope capture some of the fun we manage to get up to while doing what we love !

Melissa, thank you for being my wife. I love you very much !! Happy Anniversary !

Jason and Sparky, November 2009...Melissa often wonders which one is the donkey and which one is the ass.... :)

Bonnie, Jason, Melissa, Lexi, September 2008
Bonnie, September 2008


Melissa, Jason, Bear and Trooper, September 2008


Bear with an audience floating in our pool, Orwell, VT, August 2005. Bear LOVED jumping from the deck onto the raft and floating around while we swam and played !



Our child Bear, Melissa and Bridget, Orwell VT, May 2005

Melissa with Oreo the cat on a rope in our front yard, Orwell VT, April 2005. Oreo didn't lead well...surprise, surprise !
Melissa and Jason on our first trip together, Olympic National Park, Port Angeles, WA, August 2004
Lexi, April 2004
Bonnie with her mother Gabby, April 3, 2004 [hotographed by yours truly on my first trip to Middle Tennessee

Bugle meets Bonnie...my absolute favourite pic ! March 26, 2004. Bonnie is 8 hours old in this photo. Note the insolent expression which persists to this day !

_________________________________________

Retirement, golf in the morning, swimming in the afternoon . . . Homer says it is all very tiring.

Faune and Winston

Slinky, Lightening, Chili and O'Reilly

Ivan and Tony trotting up the hill together


Apollo and Hemi walking down the hill together


Ivan

Clay

Tony

Lightening and Teddy

Lexi and Norman enjoying a grooming session . . .

. . . and just hanging out together

13 comments:

amy324 said...

What a beautiful story. Happy Anniversary!!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for all the fun family and horse photos - and a very happy anniversary to you both!

LuLo Designs/Blue Eyed Tango said...

Jason, so nice to see your favorite photos. Loved them all! My husband and I just celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary May 7th. Happy Anniversary, you are two blessed people to be doing what you love together.

Java's Mom said...

Yay, Happy Anniversary Melissa and Jason!!

ZionFarm said...

Happy Anniversary! I have to admit, Jason should score some brownie points for those sweet words in the first paragraph! :) My husband and I are celebrating our 3rd anniversary next Wednesday, the 19th.

Sylvia said...

happy anniversary! i love seeing the faces behind the blog :)
the pool picture is great,and i love the first picture and caption. hope you can get out on a date!

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary! Good things are worth the wait. :)

Lori Skoog said...

Jason...you must be a very special man to create a post like this! A great sense of appreciation often comes with second marriages...you go into it with much more experience. The pictures are great and you two look very happy. Congratulations on your anniversary. And kudos to both of you for providing such a great home to your critters.

Jason said...

Lori;

I think we BOTH appreciate what we have together. While I wouldn't change anything about my life, experience is one of the bonuses of growing older and I wouldn't trade where I am today for all the tea in China !

SmartAlex said...

Never regret the journey in which you learned to appreciate where you are.... From another merry devorce'

Happy Anniversary!

RuckusButt said...

Happy Anniversary - to two of the coolest people I've never met! Great marriages truly are one of life's best experiences. I was fortunate not to officially marry my previous mistake but we were together for 5 years, so I feel like I can still relate to your experience.

Great photos, as always. Bear is very talented! Hope all is well with you two and you celebrate large!

Vivian, Apollo's Mom said...

Happy Anniversary! I can't believe when we first met you two that you were practically newlyweds! You seemed that you had been together forever. And I mean that as a good thing! It is a second marriage for Pete and I both, over 15 years now. Thanks for the pics and the farm looks beautiful. Apollo and Hemi look so cute together. I wonder if they were discussing Hemi's Mom who used to ride Apollo for me many years ago!

raphycassens said...

Happy Happy Anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!