Must Be Our Lucky Day

Yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary. Cowboy and I celebrated w/ dinner at the Melting Pot. It's the third or fourth time we've gone to this particular locale; the restaurant was undergoing renovations on our previous visits but they were complete this time. The result was wonderful; the alcoved booths of the lower floors with have been duplicated throughout, creating an intimate and romantic atmosphere throughout. Soft lights, brick walls and velvet curtains wrap the diner in luxury and quiet. In addition, hand cast (therefore heatproof) tops adorn many of the tables; ours was glazed absolutely beautifully.

They changed the menu slightly; there's a new salad, also a new themed event, 'Fung Shui Fondue,' which has differing tiers going up with the quality of wine served. All this was sadly lost on the Cowboy and I as neither of us would know a good bottle of wine from Thunderbird, frankly. We enjoyed our Fondue Fusion cooked in the Coq au Vin without knowing what we were missing. We speared, dipped and flirted our way all the way through the chocolate-peanut butter dessert course, remembering along the way why it is that we work so well together, after all our ups and downs.

I feel bad that I forgot to wish Chris and Prudence a happy anniversary also, as Chris thoughtfully remembered Cowboy and me. Belated congratulations, you two!

Chris, as a kind of answer to your wedding post, a few tidbits about ours:

• We were married by my Uncle, a judge in Fairplay, Colorado. At the start of the ceremony he told the assembled that the occasion actually marked two firsts for him. It was time a member of his family attended a marriage he performed as well as being the first (and only) time he presided over the marriage of a family member.
• Our cake was baked in Laramie at Home Bakery, one of the oldest locally owned and operated businesses in town. I worked there around the same time I met Cowboy, when it was owned by a friend of the family. I only had the money for one layer, which I arranged for my parents to pick up and bring to Fairplay for the ceremony. They surprised me by purchasing a top layer for Cowboy and I to save for our first anniversary.
• I wore a gorgeous peach maternity dress because I was pregnant with Will. Shelley-Sue (nine months)had a bottle just before and therefore slept through the ceremony. MadManda(who was 2 and a half) was supposed to be our flower girl but came down with a bad case of the bashfuls and opted to be held by Grandma Raspberry during proceedings instead. In this way, though, all three of our oldest children were present for the event.
• I smiled (and cried) through the whole ceremony, while Cowboy frowned the whole time. I was worried that he was angry, but he later explained that he was just serious, because he felt that strongly about his vows. Oh and that he thought I looked like an angel when I walked out to meet him under the Aspen.
• Both my mother and Cowboy's helped me get dressed and my mother in law lent me her wedding ring to wear as my something borrowed.
• My aunt made us a lovely wedding picnic and my cousins Janet and Donna served as our wittnesses.
• The pictures taken of Cowboy's grandma are the last ones of her attending a family gathering before her Alzheimer's Syndrome became too great for her to socialize.
• My mother in law put together the flowers, which were breathtaking. Her only downfall is a slight tendency towards big arrangements. My bouquet could have served as a centerpeice in the dining room at Hearst Castle. But it was beautiful!
• Cowboy's parents took the girls and my parents paid for our dinner at the Chart House but our honeymoon was delayed a bit. Cowboy's parents later sent us for a weekend at a bed and breakfast in Aspen.
• We went to see a movie before picking up the girls the next day. I can't remember what movie but I clearly remember crying during the preview for Lion King. I'm such a sap!

Last year, my mother in law presented us with a wedding album she put together for us. Somehow, we never got around to it; our lives have been pretty hectic up to now. We look so YOUNG (and my hair is so BIG!), but so happy and so right. It's nice to know we still are.