Zipping Through Marriage

The first time my husband saw me our freshman year in college he said to his friends "That's the girl I'm going to marry." Two years later we started dating on July 16 of 1996. After a year of dating he asked if I would marry him. My stomach did a few flips and I pretended I thought he was joking around. The truth is that I was scared of falling for him too quickly and after having lived through my parents divorcing each other twice (yes, they married and divorced each other twice), I was afraid to leap into marriage.

Five years later we married and engraved the date into our wedding bands in case our memories failed us at some point. I remember thinking "Well, at least he won't have an excuse to forget our anniversary!" Fast forward ten years, and you find me, sitting in front of two dozen roses with a lovely note that reads "Happy 10th anniversary to the most..." Tenth anniversary?! What?! How?! Who?! What day is it today?! I take my ring off, look at the calendar... and realize I'm a terrible, terrible wife.

I spent the entire day trying to book some adventurous experience like I'd told my husband I would do months ago. I e-mailed my group of moms and got fantastic ideas, but everything was booked or way too expensive (weightless experience for $5,000 anyone?). I called my husband at work to thank him for the beautiful flowers and told him to be home early for a new eating experience -- fondue!

La Fondue (http://www.lafondue.com) was nice and delicious, but I knew it wouldn't cut it as a tenth anniversary celebration. I had to confess. I told my husband the truth. I had forgotten our anniversary... well, not so much forgotten as been surprised by it's seemingly early arrival. Carlos being Carlos, had no reproach. No "I can't believe you forgot," nothing. Just a kiss. I had to make it up to him. Big.

Carlos is an adrenaline junkie; car racing, rock climbing, downhill skiing, making me upset when I'm sleep-deprived or hungry... You get the picture. Me, I used to love roller coasters and such, but have come to value my life more now that I'm a mom (read: I've become a chicken). So in an effort to make it up to him, I scheduled a zip lining tour in the Santa Cruz mountains. http://mounthermon.org/redwood-canopy-tours

My husband was super excited and ready to zip!

Though I felt ultra sexy in my zip lining gear, my stomach was in knots and my heart was racing. (Don't let the smile fool you).

The hardest part was stepping off the platforms -- the tallest one was 150 feet off the ground! But once I was zipping, it was exhilarating!

Walking on the narrow bridges was nerve-racking but looking down and around at trees that are up to 1,000-years-old was amazing!

The sixth and final drop came much too soon but I had redeemed myself and most importantly, made my hubby happy.

So with Carlos certain and sure of what he was doing, and me with butterflies in my stomach and a little scared but willing to take the leap, we entered our tenth year of marriage much like we began our relationship fifteen years ago. My husband said he hopes I forget next year too because he wants to go bungee jumping... gulp!