Four Years Strong

It was four years ago today that I walked down the aisle and joined John Bollwitt at the altar. Our hands trembled as they joined together while my little nephew Cameron fell off a pew with an echoing ‘thud!’. The cold, grey, miserable February day outside was damp and harsh. Wet snow pelted down soaking my veil as we posed for our only outdoor photo of the entire event.

Inside the hall friends and family from Surrey to Seattle and Toronto to Iowa gathered over smoked salmon, caesar salad and white chocolate raspberry buttercream to toast our union. I’d say a third of our guests traveled great distances on short notice just to be with us on the 25th of February 2006 and that was one just element that made everything that much more special. We dined, we danced, we giggled, and when we woke up in the morning we realized we got married with the wrong rings — I was wearing his and he, mine. It wasn’t the perfect day, but it was the perfect union.

My mother in law has said it a few times, she can’t believe her boy met a girl as geeky as him and I was asked just the other day how John and I “stay so much in love”. I wasn’t sure how to answer but maybe the former is part of it.

All I know is that I’m crazy about this man. He makes me weak in the knees whenever we get ready for a night out and he tries on that new button-up shirt. He makes me grin when he tucks my hair behind my ear when we’re snuggled up on the couch watching hockey. I swoon when he takes amazing photos with his new camera, and boy does he make my heart melt when he can solve a PHP code issue I’ve had trouble solving all day.

Lately I’ve been able to go on many adventures by myself, from ascending the Alps in Switzerland and speedskating on an outdoor oval in Prince George. He never complains, he just thinks what I’m thinking: “I can’t wait to do that together.”

He has been beaming during these Olympics. He thinks of his friends, family, and his brother Matt often while at events or collecting pins to attach to his media credential lanyard. He’s been dreaming of attending the Olympics since he was a young boy and this is one adventure that we get to live and experience together. We’ve been waiting for this year, this month, and this moment to see our city shine, and this is one experience with my husband that I will never forget.

Photo credit: John Biehler on Flickr

It has been brought up by friends and family many times during the Games and it must be known that John cheers for the USA. This fact is not detrimental to his Canadian pride nor should it be. In fact, it’s something that I truly admire about him. It shows support for your home country, your family and your friends. I would expect the same courtesy if I were a Canadian living under the stars and stripes.

We won’t have time to sit back and celebrate out anniversary until this is all over. During this time all I can do is continue to wake up each day and give him a kiss as he leaves for work before I go out and soak all of this in. I don’t know if he was kidding when I asked him yesterday but I think he might both cry during the closing ceremony. This city has been on one amazingly exciting ride over the last few weeks and many don’t want this feeling to end.

As we recognize our fourth year of marriage, something that we’ve been looking forward to the entire time is now ending. We’ve had quite the adventure getting to this point already and we’re more than ready to take on anything else that may come our way now.

Happy anniversary John, I wouldn’t be able to do any of this without you and I want to make sure I get to do even more with you in the future.