17 years

It is so hard for me to conceive that when a doctor expertly and precisely performs surgery, it takes pain medicine as extreme as Morphine to help.  However, when you break a bone clean through, or get pins drilled into the bone without opening the skin, it only takes ibuprofen every six hours to help- most times taking it proactively, instead of necessity.  One is intentional while the other is complete accident.  It stands to reason that the one that is a choice should be the one that doesn't hurt as much, right?!  At least that is how it should be, in my mind.

I was slightly worried having little Aria here without him having a hard cast.  She loves him so much and just wants to be with him.  The fact of the matter is, he loves her even more and wouldn't want her to stay away; love strong enough to watch a couple episodes of Sophia the First, just the two of them.  As it turns out, I should not have worried in the least- they were both careful enough to play. 

We all had such a good time together.  Ash and I got to go shopping together in the morning without kids or time restraint, and then the adults went on a double date to Texas Roadhouse (is there anything as divine as those rolls?!) and to the movie, Masterminds.  We came home and researched all of the truths of the movie after cleaning up the mess that is bound to happen when two teenagers (one with a recent surgery) watch 8 young kids (11 months- 9.75 years) and two dogs for four hours- I'm sure Hurricane Matthew could not have done a better job.  All-in-all, I think Ashlee had a great 33rd birthday.

I love having family so close.  I'm even more grateful that Caden's accident didn't deter them from coming, nor produce feelings of guilt for going out on our planned double date.  It was an amazing 38 hours!  I think my heaven would be an entire city that consisted of both mine and Randy's extended families having homes close together.  Dirks Drive and Burrell Boulevard would be coveted streets to live on, that's for sure!

And as a parting thought: Today is the 17th anniversary of our First Date!  Still such a fun memory to reflect on.