A decade later

 Yep, it's been 10 years since I became Jenna Dean. In some ways I can't believe it's been 10 years but in others it's as if I've always been Jenna Dean!   I do like being her since she's a very blessed woman.  She has a husband who adores her, 3 beautiful daughters, a home to live in,  a full life, and much much more. To be cliche, our wedding day was THE happiest day of my life-or I should say; the beginning of the happiest days of my life.  The birth of my children was great but it was nothing compared to being sealed to David.  I remember being so happy that I cried through the entire ceremony.  I couldn't believe how blessed I was!

We are orphans here in AZ with no family too close by (my cousin lives an hour away) so we don't really have options for overnight trips.  So instead of begging friends or hiring a sitter to watch our kids overnight we decided to take the entire day and make it our own (Ferris Bueller style but cheaper).  We had 3 shifts of babysitters; morning, afternoon, and evening.  It worked out quite well and I am so very grateful to those that helped out; Alison, Nicole, and Trudy!!

We started at the temple in the morning.  Every year we do sealings the week of our anniversary.  It's incredible to hear those sacred words again on the day you are celebrating your own sealing. I had the distinct feeling of absolute joy while we performed ordinances for those who had passed on.  The thought that kept coming to mind was that "if they feel even a fraction of the joy that I feel with my own eternal family then their hearts will be full to overflowing".  Afterward we had some time in the celestial room and were able to say the sweet words we'd been saving for that special place.  It was a wonderful way to begin our mega-date.

After the temple we headed to lunch then to a local rock climbing gym.  Neither of us had ever done that before so we learned together.  As always when we're together there is a lot of laughing and teasing, I love it.  I think the lady there thought we were a bit crazy--especially since we showed up in church clothes! The rock climbing terrified me a bit.  I got more comfortable as we kept going but at first I was pretty scared!

David is safety conscious and we're both pretty by the book so we did everything exactly as they told us and counted all of our safety checkpoints!

SO HIGH!

Holding on for dear life-the harness is so attractive eh?!

After rock climbing we headed to Ikea to pick up the last piece of our entertainment center.  While there we had our own frozen yogurt cones--it was great not sharing with kids and getting a mess everywhere!

We then went to dinner and to a movie with some passes we had.  We were gone about a total of 12 hours and we were exhausted by the time we stumbled home!  It was a great day!

While we were driving to and fro in the car, David noticed we had about 10 hours left on our date.  So he said every hour he was going to recap the past 10 years.  So each hour we reminisced about a certain year of our marriage.  It was SO fun to remember the ups and downs, funny times, sad times, and to see the path we've been on for the past decade.  We both feel extremely blessed and grateful for our eternal marriage. As David always says "I can't believe how perfect we are for each other" I couldn't agree more!