Yuma Adventures & Celebrating 11 Years of Marriage

Nick and I celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary on May 31. If you're new this little space of the internet, you can read all about our love story here. Ask anyone who knew either of us 11 years ago if they thought we'd last. People laughed at us and told us we were crazy.

It was hurtful, but I didn't blame them. We barely knew each other when we got married, and statistically speaking, we were doomed. But through each year that passes, I always think to myself, "that's another year down, haters."

If you know us well or have followed this blog for the last decade, you know our struggles well. I've been open and honest about our struggles on here in hopes that others realize that what you see on social media is never the full story. When our marriage was at its' rock bottom, I threatened to leave Nick and move back to Texas with both kids. He was more than willing to buy us a one way plane ticket back to my home state. It was bad. Praise Jesus for my mom who refused to let her 29 year old daughter move back into her house with 2 kids. We were forced to work it out, and neither of us did it quite willingly either. And....

It was a long journey...that included lots of therapy, church counseling, and prayer. I literally had days where I locked myself in my room, fell to my knees, and just sobbed...begging God to just fix my marriage.

But here we are! 11 years later. We still annoy each other some days. There are days that I pick fights just because I'm in a bad mood. We are complete opposites which means it's hard to find things we agree on. But we also have some of the most amazing life adventures together. I thank God every day for the big and little blessings he has given us.

In 11 years, we have:

So much life lived in just 11 years, and I have no doubt the Marine Corps will keep the next chapter of our lives just as full of adventure.

This year, we decided to do a "staycation", and discover some fun things about Yuma together. Yuma is a very small community, and from the outside looking in, there isn't a whole lot to do here. We wanted to stay local and find Yuma's "hidden gems". We got an overnight sitter for our kids (thanks to the Aggie network!), and ventured out to Yuma.

We ended up in downtown Yuma for dinner at a local craft brewery, Prison Hill Brewing Company. They have typical "bar food", which is right up Nick's alley. Give that man a nice burger and sweet potato fries, and you have one happy devildog. It sucks that Nick can't drink beer due to the development of an unfortunate allergy to hops. We still ended up enjoying some really good drinks and food there. The highlight of our meal there was fried avocado. It came with an amazing dipping sauce, and something I'll definitely go back for.

Dowtown Yuma

I had their signature Bloody Mary, and Nick had a jack and coke 

I'm sad I didn't get a photo of the amazing fried avocado, but I did snap a photo of this amazing  Southwest Bandito Salad. What sold me was the roasted poblano pepper (I LOVE Poblano) and the roasted corn it was topped with. It came with a creamy Chipotle dressing that was AMAZING.

Yuma is home to two Indian reservations (the Quechan and the Cocopah reservations), and both reservations have recently opened up a casino and resort. We headed to the Cocopah where Nick booked us a room (the Quechan supposedly is better, but it was completely booked). We figured, since we're in Yuma, we should at least check out a casino and do some legal gambling! Nick and I are NOT gamblers, but we figured it'd be a lot of fun to sit at the penny slots and try our luck. Our room at the casino was really clean, but nothing special. They don't offer room service, or anything you'd expect at a Hilton. It was nice though. The casino is downstairs, and like most casinos, it smelled like cigarettes and booze (gross). We each had $100, and found the penny slots.

The highlight of our night was me winning $400! I NEVER WIN. We cashed out, and decided to call it a night. I don't think hitting up the local casinos here in Yuma will be a regular date night for us, but it was still fun to do together (Yuma bucket list item). I may head back to the Cocopah with my kids one of these days to tour the museum.

The last thing I wanted to do for our anniversary staycation was to hike Telegraph pass together. Telegraph pass is a popular local hiking trail. We've taken our children there plenty of times, but have never made the trek all the way to the top. It's a 5 mile hike, and takes about 3 hours. It's extremely steep, and weren't sure our kids could make it to the top. It was the perfect way to end our staycation in Yuma. We woke up early the next morning, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed to the trail.

Some facts about Telegraph Pass

Because no adventure is complete without an Aggie ring picture

Story about this photo. A random hiker saw us taking this photo on the trail. He ended up following us down the trail. Later that evening, Nick got a random Facebook friend request and a message from the stranger. He had seen Nick's name tape on his camelback, and looked Nick up. He is an Aggie grade stationed here in Yuma, and has kids the same age as ours. Such a small world we live in!

We had so much fun on our little local staycation. The best part was just having that time together to reconnect as a couple without the distractions of our kids.

When people ask us, "What's your secret?", I never have a great answer.

But I will say, the ONLY constant and consistent thing our marriage has always been God. I think there's something to that...

Growing Up Military & Last Day of 4th Grade Thoughts

Yesterday was Dannika's last day of school...her last day as a 4th grader. Fifth grade feels so much more grown up than 4th grade, and realizing that she'll be 12-13 years old when we PCS from Yuma is so beyond my wildest thoughts. How did my sweet bald baby (that we swore would never grow hair) turn into an almost 10 year old?!

She seriously had NO hair until she was literally 4 years old.

The moment I became a mother, all the "seasoned" parents would cock their head to side, sigh a big sigh, longingly smile, and say, "they grow up so fast, enjoy every moment". It's not that I didn't believe them, but I honestly didn't realize just how fast it would happen. I had Dannika when I was 25 years old. In today's standards, that's actually pretty young. More women are opting to wait to have children to establish careers, buy homes, etc. these days.

Military families tend to be really young. Military life is lonely without a partner to share it with. Because of that, in my experience, I have noticed that marriage and families happen faster than my civilian counterparts (generally speaking).

I thought I was so mature and ahead of my peers at 25 years old, but looking back now, I realize I had no clue what I was doing...or who I was. I was naive (and didn't realize it), and I had a baby to keep alive. Hell...I could barely keep myself alive some days. Praise the Lord for daycare. Ms. Kathi (Dannika's daycare provider) basically made sure Dannika wouldn't end up TOO messed up during that time. I am sure of it. After all, she spent 10-12 hours a day at Ms. Kathi's daycare while I served in the Marines.

I often refer to Dannika as my "Marine life sidekick". She's been through it all with me from the very beginning. When Nick deployed for the first time to Afghanistan, she was only 6 months old. It was just her and me. Nick's first deployment to Afghanistan was rough for me.

He subsequently deployed to Afghanistan one more time when she was 2. Then, when she was 3 years old, Nick got orders to Boston. I was still active duty. and waiting to be discharged. Once again, her and I were solo together without Nick for a year (in Orange County). We've been through a lot together as a mother/daughter duo. I always have a special place in my heart just for Dannika.

I have all sorts of emotions this week. She's starting to enter puberty (insert cry face emoji here), and it scares the ever living hell out of me. I was such an awful preteen, teenager, and adolescent, and I am praying that she is nothing like I was. Someone once told me that motherhood isn't for the faint of heart. I might have laughed to myself when I heard that at first, but as my kids get older and gain more individuality, I am realizing just how true that statement is. I struggle some days with putting ALL my faith in God. I am a control freak by nature, and it's really hard for me to completely surrender to anything, let alone faith. But of course, when motherhood gets really tough, I really have no choice but to surrender. So with that...here we go...to 5th grade...

Dannika started the school year off in College Station, TX. Then we moved here to Yuma, AZ, and enrolled her into the public school that was zoned for our neighborhood. We had come from such an amazing (and high performing) school district that when we came here, she was bored. I'll have to do a blog post in the future about moving around and switching school districts. We looked into other options for her to make sure she would be challenged academically, and found Southwestern Christian School. It has been an amazing fit for her academically, and most importantly, spiritually.

Dream big, sweet girl.

A Texas Hill Country Wedding

Hey y'all! It's been a minute. I am failing miserably at my goal of keeping this blog updated more often. I have been meaning to blog about the last wedding we went to sooner, but life happened. Nick left for training, and I've been here pulling mom/dad duty for going on 2 weeks now. You'd think that I'd be a pro at this (for those new to my blog, Nick and I spent a year apart last year), but I'm not.

I guess it's almost been 3 weeks since Mattis and I attended the beautiful marriage of two very dear people to us, Nicolette and Joseph. Nicolette was an integral part of "the Romer tribe" while Nick and I attended college. As if being a full time college student wasn't time consuming (and stressful) enough, we were also actively trying to raise two kids and nurture a marriage through it all. Needless to say, we needed a lot of help, and Nicolette helped us a lot with our kids (a LOT). She was everything from a nanny to a date night baby sitter for us. I actually hate the term "nanny". It sounds overly pretentious, and something that only the rich can afford. Lord knows, as a military family, we are anything but rich. But she was so much more than just a "baby sitter" for our kids and our family. She had her own carseat. She picked them up from school when I needed, picked them up from gymnastics or dropped them off at gymnastics when I couldn't, she fed them Chick Fil A, loved on them, and did everything in between. She became an extension of our family.

So when she asked us if Mattis would be her ring bearer for her wedding, we said YES without hesitation!

Then we found out our family was heading to Okinawa, Japan. One of the first things I thought of when we found out about Japan was her wedding. I told Nick that there was no way that I was going to miss her wedding. I made plans to fly back to the United States so that Mattis could walk down the aisle for her! But we all know Okinawa never happened, and we ended up in Yuma, AZ. This made travel plans a whole heck of a lot easier for us! So Mattis and I headed to San Antonio, TX earlier this month for the long anticipated wedding of our girl! We made it into a fun mother/son trip, and I am so glad that we did it that way!

First class...just because.

The rehearsal dinner was at a local pizza joint called Fralo's.

Familiar faces that Mattis spent lots of time with when he was with Nicolette.

The groom and the ring bearer with an obligatory Gig 'em photo! Joseph is currently in medical school in Galveston!

I think this was the only photo we got of us together that evening.

No kid looks better in a bowtie than Mattis.

First time seeing the bride!

He fit in pretty well with all the guys!

Mattis and the father of the bride!

The wedding was held at the Kendall Plantation right outside of San Antonio in Boerne, TX.

It was clear skies, sunny, and absolutely breathtaking.

It was a perfect day in for January in Texas!

I loved the little details...

The reception area was also beautiful. 

The venue was an antebellum style home converted into reception area.

It was the perfect Texas wedding in the hill country.

I. can't. get. over. Mattis. in. a. tuxedo.

Always a ladies man.

Because Gig 'em...

Mattis was the flossing king at this wedding.

He was a pretty big hit with everyone.

 Mattis and sweet Carlye! 

Carlye is Nicolette's little sister who is now attending Texas A&M.

We got to have her as a babysitter for our kids for just a few months before we moved away!

One last photo with all the pretty girls.

The wedding was beautiful, and I cried. We are so thrilled for Nicolette and Joseph, and we were so honored to be present on their big day! Cheers to love and happiness!

A New Orleans Wedding (pt 3...the final day)

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Our family just returned from a short getaway to Goodyear, AZ to visit some dear friends of 10 years of ours to ring in 2019. We have been settling in back home, and getting ready to get back into the "school routine". I hope everyone's 2019 is amazing! I am definitely looking forward to a new year here in Arizona!

Finally! Here is the blog post everyone has been waiting for...the actual wedding!!!! Our family got so busy over the holidays, so I didn't get a chance to jump online to blog about my cousin Mark and his WIFE, Lisa's actual wedding day. 

Their wedding was absolutely stunning. It was a formal wedding, and not a single detail was left out. Their wedding ceremony was held at "The Cabildo" in Jackson Square. It was an absolutely breathtaking Spanish Colonial building right next to St. Louis Cathedral. It is a museum by day for local tourists where you can see all kinds of artifacts from old New Orleans, and learn about the history of the town as well. 

The prettiest flower girl I ever did see...

And have you ever seen a ring bearer this cool in your life?!

I think not.

I LOVED my dress...

All the cousins (minus baby Zoe)

Dang...I have a good-looking family.

The groom and the ring bearer!

I call this photo...

"the Matriarch and Her Cubs"

These are the only photos I got of the venue, and they don't do it any justice.

They had kindly asked no one take photos with cell phones during the ceremony, so we are all patiently waiting for the professional photos!

I loved that no one had their cell phones out during the wedding. 

As a guest, I enjoyed being able to watch the ceremony without someone in front of me annoyingly trying to take a cell phone photo, blocking my view.

Everyone got to just enjoy the wedding.

Here are my parents with Nick and me!

It was so nice to see Nick at a formal event in something other than his dress blues.

Look...I LOVE him in his dress blues (because he looks sexy af in them...), but man...he really cleans up nice in a tux too.

 Me and my babe.

The reception was held at "Capulet by the Water". It is a restaurant on the week days, and they host banquets and wedding receptions on the weekends! It is an 1800's warehouse that has been restored to a cool eclectic space. They had an amazing live band, and the appetizers and food was delicious! It was such a neat place, and we really enjoyed everything about it!

The ring bearers and flower girls!

They were so fancy.

Best uncle ever.

Nick asking my niece Lulu to dance.

Cause no trip to the bathroom with a bunch of girls is complete without a bathroom mirror selfie.

These are my gorgeous cousins (in high school) and old me.

My mama and her first son-in-law

Nick dancing with my oldest niece, Lyla.

I'm pretty sure this was the best part of the reception...

An actual ice sculpture of my cousin Mark!!!!

(Note, his body is actually not this disproportionate)

This was a surprise for him from his wife.

It was actually a luge. You could alcohol from his head, and it came out of the bottle of liquor carved into his hand. 

It was great.

We haven't seen too many of the professional photos yet. Once I get a couple, I'll post them!