Happy Valentine's Week! Today I'm sharing 10 Memories of Russ and Me and linking up with Erin for 10 on the 10th! It was fun to look back and relive the past 13 years we've known each other.  Enjoy the walk down memory lane along with some weight and hairstyle fluctuation on both our parts!

{ONE}

Well, let's start where it all begin. Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day 2004 was the first time I really ever met Russ. I maybe had run into him at college before this, but this was the first time I ever remember really meeting him and being introduced. You can read the whole story here.

{TWO}

After Russ and I met in February 2004, we started dating in March. We actually had both been making plans separately to spend the summer in Colorado that summer. We were about 2 hours apart from each other but Russ drove to see me most every weekend that summer. I honestly think if we'd both not been in Colorado that summer we probably wouldn't have ended up together.

{THREE}

We got engaged on November 12, 2004. I'll always remember that day and you can read that story here! These photos are from our engagement pictures. 

{FOUR}

We were married on June 3, 2006 at our college chapel. We had a 10 am wedding and a brunch reception afterwards. It was a beautiful day. I will never forget Russ's dad's best man speech.

{FIVE}

It's funny to think back to our first year of marriage. We lived in an apartment that had two floors. It was honestly just about as nice as our first home and had one more bathroom than our first home. This is Russ on our Ikea couch with Toby and his brother, Jack. 

{SIX}

We spent our first anniversary in Lanesboro, MN. We biked and went to see Prairie Home Companion live! It poured down in the middle of Prairie Home's show and Russ ran many many blocks to get the car while I waited under an overhang. 

{SEVEN}

Fast forward a few years to fall of 2009. We were preparing to be first time parents and dressed up as Juno and Meeker from the movie Juno for a friend's Halloween party. Life before kids... what was that like again?

{EIGHT}

Each of our boys' arrivals was special. The scared and excited first time parents. 

The movie-like arrival of our middle man that resulted in Russ fainting and me not getting an epidural.

And the "we got this" arrival of the final little man in our family.

{NINE}

I think one of the best decisions we've ever made was when we took a big trip together in 2016 for our 10th Anniversary. We went to a resort in Mexico for 5 nights and it was just refreshing to focus on ourselves for a week. We went back in 2017, are booked again to go this summer, and are working it into our budget so we can go every year. If you haven't taken an extended trip with just your spouse, I highly recommend it. Once the kids are grown it's going to just be the two of you again and you definitely need to know how to have fun just as a couple. I feel like sometimes that can get lost in the parenting years. 

{TEN}

I will never forget one night in the kitchen right after Calvin was born when Calvin was crying, one of the older two was crying, and the other boy was causing some sort of chaos as well. Russ and I both looked at each other and confirmed that as far as we were concerned, our family was complete! 

And I just had to add these photos to attest to how great of a dad Russ is. He is totally hands on. He is totally a team player. He is always hands on and I appreciate that so much about him. So many more memories I could go on about, but these are the highlights. 

Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane with me!