Celebrating 3 years together with a lovely evening out

Three years ago Wednesday, I said I do to the man of my dreams. I promised to be faithful in good times and bad and I couldn't think beyond the joy of that moment and those blissful years ahead of us. Fast forward 3 years and I can honestly say that they have been the best of my life, but that's not to say we haven't had our hard moments.  Has it been the "blissful" years I thought they would be?  We've certainly had our "blissful" moments but life isn't meant to be easy and without hard times.  It's through the cross that we find Salvation and as we have learned, marriage holds its fair share of crosses.  But it's the working through those hard times that is a true test to your marriage and every time something is overcome, you grow that much stronger, knit together that much closer.  The more you learn to communicate and work together through those hard times, the more "the two become one."

I can't imagine my life without Zenith.  We truly have become one and I am incomplete without him.  It's been a wonderful and crazy 3 years filled with some sad, frustrating, and hard moments, but so much joy and so many beautiful memories have been made.  I am incredibly blessed to have a man in my life who inspires me everyday to be a better person and who has helped me grow closer to God.

In celebration of 3 years of marriage, we went out last night ALONE (you know, without kids, ie just the two of us) for a date night for the first time in 6 months, thanks to the generosity of my wonderful sister Kaite who offered to come over and watch the boys once her hubby was home to be with their kids.  I can't even begin to say how good it felt!  I think I can really appreciate quality time ALONE with my husband now that we have 2 children and it's been more difficult to do anything.

No packing diaper bags, changing nappies, packing bottles, asking your toddler a million times if he needs to go potty and running around to find one, spending more time at the dinner table making sure the kids eat and then having to scarf your dinner down because the kids are getting to the end of their rope (I don't think I even taste my food anymore!), being on the clock and feeling like it's a race to get everything in before you run home for bedtime...the list goes on, but I'm sure you get the point.  I was in desperate need of a night out.  I just needed a refresher and some time away from the kids, out of the house and with my hubby to hit the reset button and this definitely did the trick.  I always feel guilty for feeling like I need time away from the boys since I love them both more than anything, but I'm realizing I am such a better mother when I've had the chance to "recharge," even if that just means a cup of tea, by myself, with no little ones to climb all over me or hands to pull at my hair.

We went to Newburyport, which is a quaint town on the ocean.  We stopped at a coffee shop where Zenith got a cappuccino and I an iced chai latte (with almond milk :P) and we sat for a bit just chatting.  It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day so we walked down by the water to watch the sun set and had a lovely stroll, and then up through main street along all the cute little shops.

I had my "walking shoes" on here but I actually changed and wore heels for dinner!  (yes, that's a big deal for me :P)

We had 7pm reservations (yes, I'm specifying that time because anything after 5pm is adventurous for us...we felt like a carefree couple again!) for dinner at Ceia's Kitchen and Bar, a European restaurant.  The ambiance was so neat and we felt like we were back in Europe again with the old building, brick walls, and rustic decor.  We were seated by the window on the second floor (it has 3 floors, all relatively small) and had the whole floor to ourselves.  The service was great, the food was impeccable.    It even exceeded Zenith's expectations (which is hard to do) and we both thoroughly enjoyed our evening.  The menu changes according to what's in season and the presentation of the food was very elegant.  I ordered the wood fired salmon, which was delicious, and Zenith really went out on a limb and ordered the rabbit, which was surprisingly good!

This is the second floor and the table we sat at is the one all the way to the left by the window

Our prosciutto and cheese board to start (you can pick from an array of meats and cheese), with the best olives I've ever had, their homemade rustic bread, and a delicious Vinho Verde white wine (which I may or may not have been helping Zenith with ;))

As twilight set in, we watched the street light up from the window, and the lights inside dimmed to set the perfect romantic scene.  The thing I remember most about the evening was how we just talked.  The whole time we were able to really talk, uninterrupted, and as I sat across the table from the handsomest man (seriously, this guy takes dress casual to whole new level), I felt so blessed to have shared these 3 years with such an incredibly caring, loving, hard working man.  This guy has put up with so much, especially with all the health issues I've been going through, and taken it all with the best attitude, treating me like his queen.  We look forward to many more years together, God willing!

The reason we went out Thursday and not Wednesday was because William and I had an appointment with the Lyme doctor that day.  We discussed what kind of approached we would take for treating the Lyme for me along with doing a little more investigating with Thyroid levels (which still don't seem to be right) and some other blood work.  He has me on a Lyme "cocktail" which are a bunch of natural supplements that are supposed to help kill the Lyme and certain co-infections as well as keep my gut healthy while I continue with an antibiotic.  He also recommends doing different natural therapies to really boost my system to help my body fight the Lyme.  We're giving this a month and then we'll re-evaluate to see how it's going.

I brought William in because he's showed a few symptoms that I thought would be worth looking into, however the doctor doesn't seem too concerned and though we're testing him for Lyme, we wouldn't treat him unless the symptoms were to get worse since they're relatively mild right now.

I need to wrap this up so I'll leave you with a video of the boys all entertaining themselves before bed.

Now that I feel refreshed from our night out, I am ready to start this day.  I did miss my boys and was happy to see the faces of my "Willy-wum" and "Cellus" light up when they saw me this morning, and dole out a round of kisses.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Happy Friday!

~Lindsay