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We got to go to Bull Shoals Lake in Arkansas with my side of the family for some of last week (we’ve been going here for 20 years as a family!)
But the family has grown quite a bit in those years! Here are all the grandkids now…
And the grandkids with my parents…
Kierstyn loved getting to spend time with Grandpa!
And the kids loved getting to do all of the water sports!
I even got in on some of the tubing fun!
Jesse and I closed out the week with kissing on the tube while our kids looked on and said, “Ew!” 
I wrote this on Instagram recently:
Love isn’t always a feeling. Sometimes, it’s an intentional choice… to show up, to lean in, to fight for, to fight through, to give up what we want for another.
This man demonstrates that kind of love for me every single day. There is no one else I could imagine being on this crazy, wild, wonderful, sometimes exhausting and often exhilarating adventure of life with. We are so different and yet we compliment one another so well.
My push-through hard-driving personality desperately needs his measured, thoughtful approach. He is the slow down to my hurry up.
Recognizing our differences, celebrating them, laughing about them, and seeing them as gifts have made such a difference in our relationship. Yes, there are still many moments when we drive each other nuts, have misunderstandings, or wish we could change each other. But at the end of the day, we know deep down that our relationship would never be what it is if we were more alike.
Our different gifts make a stronger. I only wish it hadn’t taken me at least a good 7-8 years into our marriage to start to accept and appreciate this fact. (We’ve been married for 18 years and I’d definitely say the last 10 years have begun the best years, so far!)
So if there’s one piece of advice I could give to younger couples it would be this: stop trying to change your spouse and start celebrating the gift of who they already are.
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