y.o.l.o

Maryland Mike teaching my Californian parents how to eat crabs ;)

On Saturday night, we planned to have a movie night with the girls and long story short we ended up turning on our wedding video instead. Sophia was beyond thrilled because her newest obsession is weddings right now. It was so sweet to watch and remember all the little details of our special day that I had forgotten over the past five years. But, by the end of the dvd I couldn't help but to feel so bittersweet. Not bitter over us and our marriage, because in fact I feel ever more grateful now and blessed that I married this man five years ago. But the sadness came in the fact that so much has changed in only five years. Isn't five years just a short period of time?! But, it seemed like indefinite when I saw how much different everyone's lives have changed since our wedding day. There were a handful of people that happily celebrated with us that have since passed away and some marriages divorced. Yet just five years ago everyone was together alive and happy. It made me realize how short our lives are and you just don't know what will happen. How quickly people change in short periods of time. Obviously not all of our wedding guests turned out for the worse ;) It was just as exciting to see how much bigger some of the children have grown (especially our flower girls) and to see single friends now married and some of our newlywed guests then now with several children. And of course, I need to realize too that I have changed a lot. Mike and I have changed so much too in the past five years. We have grown together in our marriage and learned to become more one and then of course doubling our family size by bringing our two girls into this world. It just seems like stuff like this should take a lifetime to accomplish sometimes. I can't help but to wonder what the next five years is going to look like. It has me wanting to live life to the ultimate fullest. To live and to love to the greatest potential that I am called to be. 

So it was quite fitting to celebrate my dad's 54th birthday on Sunday with a big bang! :) We specially ordered Maryland crabs and had them expressed overnight to us so that we can eat them in California! It was such a treat to eat them with our family here and let them experience a part of what we do when we go to Maryland. :) My brother and Mike were the main chefs that day as we steamed 50 crabs, potatoes and corns and on top of that we also made some bomb steak! I'm so thankful for the gift of my dad's life and grateful for another year we get to celebrate with him and my family.