Ten Years

Ten years ago -- how has the time passed so quickly?? -- I had been back from Australia for two days, when Walt and I drove to Santa Barbara to prepare for the wedding -- two days later -- of Tom And Laurel.

I think it was 2000 when we first met Laurel and realized that this was a special relationship.  I mention in my journal for 2001 (which is no longer on line) that it was nice to realize that after a year together, things with them were going well.

(Everybody hated this picture, but I've always liked the
sunbeam between the two of them)

I loved Laurel the first time I met her.  And when I got to know her better, I laughed to Walt that I wondered if Tom knew he was dating his mother.   It was even funnier, when, years later, they were planning their wedding and Tom turned to me and said "you know how they say you marry your mother....?"   That was nothing Ned or Paul did (Marta and Audra are both quite different from me, I think), but Tom's chosen is a photographer, a scrapbook keeper, a cake decorator and the more I  got to know her, the more I realized how much alike we were.

There are many ways that we are not alike, and organization is one of them.  Of course Laurel is a bank executive and juggles a successful career with motherhood and so she has to be organized.  When we arrived for the rehearsal there was Laurel with "the book."

For the past year, she had been planning the wedding and had everything organized down to a gnat's eyelash.  There were no questions about who was supposed to do what when.  It was all in "The book."

(Going back over my journal entry for that weekend, it was bittersweet to come across this photo, taken at the rehearsal dinner...

...when Walt's mother was still with us, and my mother looked happy and engaged.)

The wedding was wonderful...

And obviously it's been a good ten years, watching them settle down and begin raising their family. 

Ten years later, I still love our daughter-in-law (both of them!) and watching Tom and Laurel and the girls together makes me smile every time.

Happy Anniversary, Tom and Laurel!