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Magical Adventures, Amazing Anniversaries, and Harry Potter

Bridal, Lifestyle, Personal

August 31, 2017

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Hi there! Welcome to the Fully Alive Photography blog, a journal about our clients, shoots, and my own personal life. Stay a while and say hello!

Hello, I'm Tracy

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Magical Adventures, Amazing Anniversaries, and Harry Potter

Today is my and Nate’s 10 year anniversary!

I can’t even believe it. When they say time flies, they mean it. It feels like two blinks since that beautiful day.

I don’t know where to begin on our story of grand adventure either. But I suppose it should begin with Harry Potter and all things magical!

Which is why today I am NOT at my desk and Nate is not at his. Oh no, today we are at THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER. Yes, it must be in all caps. Because it’s just that awesome. If you don’t understand why Harry Potter is such a big deal for us you should read my about me section.

Maybe at this moment, we are screaming our 36-year-old heads off on the flight of the hippogriff. I really hope we are.

We love all things magical and adventurous. The “usness” of us is simply adventure. Adventure can mean physically traveling to new lands, or simply escaping into magical stories found in books, movies, or British dramas.

 

Take for example, our nighttime routine after putting our son to bed.

Step 1: I cut fresh watermelon ( could eat watermelone every day for the rest of my life) , he makes a bowl of cereal or some other salty snack. We have a quick recap of the day or chat about our feelings (this is usually me decompressing and vebally processing too many details from my day)

Step 2: Turn on Netflix or Amazon and start whatever show or movie we are currently watching. Recently we have whizzed through:

  • Lost (for the 3rd time),
  • Downton Abbey,
  • every marvel movie,
  • The Flash,
  • The Crown,
  • Terra Nova,
  • Pushing Daisies,
  • DC Legends,
  • Agents of Shield,
  • Reign,
  • We are doing another full sweep of Harry Potter (we do this every year)

Step 3: Read together! Sometimes on our kindles, sometimes we listen to audio books. Sometimes when I am really lucky he reads to me… but I usually fall asleep and drive him crazy.

As you can see finding creative stories and being drawn into that world gives us both such joy and going on that adventure together makes everything 10 times better.

Our adventures began when dating I suppose, or maybe when he said “come away with me” and swept me off to propose on the warm sandy beaches of Marco Island.  On August 31st 2007 at 7:30pm on sunset shore of evergreen lake when we said “I Do”, the serious and committed adventures began.

Over the past 10 years, we have moved 4 times in Illinois, left our home in Illinois for a 6-month adventure in Tacoma Washington, then moved officially to Phoenix Arizona. We have been here in Arizona for 3 years now. We promised each other when we got married we would escape the bitter midwest winters for the sun, and we did it! If you want to see more of our adventures in Tacoma Washington I made a few blogs posts called Adventures in The Pacific Northwest .

We have traveled together to the Aztec Ruins or Mexico, two Islands in Hawaii, and Italy -Rome, Florence, Torino. We have also traveled across most of the United States together, simply exploring. Greece is next on our list!

Our biggest adventure was probably becoming parents to our son in 2012.

I mean that’s the craziest of adventures because it’s just been so hard for us. Parenting didn’t come natural and our experience has been far from normal. This is one big reason we are a one and done family of three. It began pretty violently with miscarriages and then a horrible pregnancy riddled with issues, then this pregnancy ended with an emergency C-section, 38 something hours of labor, then a NICU stay for the first month of our son’s life. After that trying to figure out what it’s like to live with a child with a sleep disorder, and doctors just telling you he will grow out of it. Let’s just say until I found the most amazing naturopath just a few months ago I have not slept more than a 3 hours stretch in 5 years because he never “grew out of it”. It has been pretty rough.

Let me just take a second to address how awesome homeopathy has been for our son, and I am NOT getting paid to say this… it’s just true! – Onto shameless plug-

Since coming home from the NICU at a month old our son had never slept more than 3 hours at a time and that was a lucky stretch. Most naps were around 20 mins and most night terrors would occur every 1-2 hours night EVERY night. After seeing Dr. Carrie about 2 months ago and starting a homeopathic remedy my son has had a total about 10-night terrors, and they are getting fewer and farther apart as I type!!!! It’s a miracle and I look amazing with so much sleep 🙂 If you live in Arizona and have struggled with symptoms you cannot find relief from or your children I highly recommend this Nourish Natural Medical Center. These women are a God send!

(Want to see more on our pregnancy and newborn adventures? See my old blog Two Pink Lines. )

I think Nate and I, when at our most loving and listening make an amazing team.

We even each other out, we encourage each other when one of us is down. He is smart, calm, and level headed when I am being crazy and over the top. I am practical, logical and extremely efficient when he is feeling tired and lazy. We bring each other to the middle,  inspire each other to live better lives. We bring each other closer to God and closer to the center of the teeter totter of life. Constantly finding balance together, we find joy in the littlest things and remind each other truth.

Still we are best of friends, even though we have been through some really hard stuff in our marriage. Coming full circle in these 10 years and still growing so much.

It’s been a grand adventure these last ten years and I’m so excited for the next ten!

Hopefully, at this moment I’m on my 3rd butter beer…

In several hours at 7:30 pm tonight, Nate and I are doing something celebratory.  Check back next week for a for the fun celebratory surprise that we have planned. I’ll share it here when we are home!

 

Can you guess what we might be doing? Leave replies in the comments 🙂

 

 

Wedding/Bridal Images by Beyond The Well 

Family Portraits by Jamie Grant Photography

Newborn Photo by me :) 

  1. fullyalive says:

    lol love you bae

  2. nate says:

    I may be a bit biased, but I love this post, and especially the author! HAWT!

  3. fullyalive says:

    awwwww thank you so much 🙂 that’s so encouraging. I’m so glad someone read this! haha

  4. Amanda Reed says:

    Love you Tracy. You’re an inspiration. You have a beautiful love and an amazing family

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