With our recent home purchase, we decided to not go on a big vacation this year. Instead we went on a staycation to celebrate our anniversary.

Despite being labeled a DINK couple, we still have bills to pay and strive to be good stewards of our money. And even though it wasn’t as epic as our Hawaii trip, I figured I should record our weekend here since I’ve done so for our past two anniversaries.

As blessed and thankful we are for each other, it’s still a bittersweet time. Birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays are all friendly reminders that another year has passed and still no babes to raise.

Despite our grief, we believe it’s important to celebrate our marriage, family and love for another. So here’s a glimpsed into our weekend:

Our planning was rather last minute but knew we wanted to visit Fr. Peter so we planned our weekend around seeing him. Fr. Peter is the one who witnessed our marriage seven years ago and gave that life-changing homily. His new assignment is about a two hour drive from where we live, so we started the weekend by making our way up North and stopping in Seattle.

It’s been years since we hung out in Seattle besides just going to dinner or a concert. We wanted to check out the new edition to Pike Place. We also walked along the waterfront and stopped at some shops.

Dinner was at this incredible Indian Restaurant, Ruchi. It was so good! My mouth is watering just thinking about it again.

We stayed in an AirBnB just 20 min away from St. Mary’s Church in Marysville and surprised Fr. Peter. It was so good to see him. After Mass, he gave us a special anniversary blessing.

Then we headed up further north to Bellingham. Neither of us have really spent a lot time there and wanted to explore a new city. Plus I found a great Groupon for a hotel room.

We found ourselves at Whatcom Falls Park. We explored. Talked. Connected.

I had a giftcard to Anthony’s resturants so dinner was at the Hearthfire Grill.

Monday was our actual anniversary and we wanted to go to daily Mass but there weren’t any in Bellingham, guess that’s the priests day off there. So we drove a little south to St. Charles, where the Youth Migrant Project (YMP) is hosted. We saw our friend and recently ordained, Fr. Moore and Jose, the YMP Director.

Then we drove 20 min out of our way to Anacortes to stop at Bob’s Chowder House. Totally worth it.

After lunch, ice cream sounded good so we stopped in Seattle to get homemade ice cream at Molly Moons.

On our way home we visited my brother, sister-in-law and Gabe and had dinner with them.

It was awesome to get away and spend quality time together celebrating. Maybe one day we will have a babe in tow when we are celebrate an anniversary. In the mean time we keep hoping, praying and trusting in God.

Praying for you,

Rachel