once upon a time

April 14, 1982 to be exact. 

I was 4 months shy of 20 years old.

Hanging out at my friend, Rob's house.

Rob asked if I wanted to meet a friend of his named Brian.

I said sure - so Brian came over and then we all went for coffee at Jack's Restaurant.

And the rest is history.

Brian and I started dating, got married in September of 1984,

and here we are, 30 years later.

(All squinty and red-faced due to the bright sun.)

Oh - see the necklace I'm wearing? That's my first Lisa Leonard piece.

One charm has my name on it, another has Brian's, and the heart charm has our wedding date.

If you're not familiar with her jewelry, check it out at www.lisaleonard.com

No, she's not paying me or anything to mention her - I'm just a fan.

Brian had the day off and I took a vacation day from work

so that we could spend the day in Evanston.

It's the town where Brian grew up and where we spent a lot of our dating time,

so we have a lot of fond memories of this town.

Not to mention, Evanston is right on Lake Michigan and boasts Northwestern University, a very

large and diverse art culture, great restaurants, coffee shops,

and wonderful shopping.

We had lunch at The Lucky Platter - a restaurant I've talked about before.

We love this place, not only because of the great food, but because

of the artsy, wacky decor.

After lunch, I just had to go across the street for dessert. ;-)

It was such a beautiful day and we simply wanted to relax and enjoy ourselves after lunch,

so we first went for a stroll down by the lake...

And did some more walking around the town.

I have "house lust"...just love looking (and gawking) at beautiful 

and interesting houses. 

Love the budding trees on this property.

This house was surrounded by gorgeous gardens...

Before heading home, we stopped at Brothers K - one of our favorite independent

coffee shops - to sip on iced herbal tea and browse through our books and magazines.

All in all, a perfect day to spend together, celebrating our 30 years

of LIFE together. We've been through a ton of ups and downs these

past 30 years (including the death of our firstborn son 2-1/2 years ago),

but we're thankful that we have each other.

I can only hope and pray that we're blessed with many more years together!