Earlier this month, my husband and I celebrated seven years of marriage! Since May is the month of ALL THE THINGS we took some time last month to head out for a special day date together before the chaos of may set in.

Since we’re Phoenicians, (I was born here then returned, my hubby is a transplant since shortly after we were married so this has definitely become home for him too) we were surprised to realize that after all these years we had never and made trip to visit Lake Pleasant. My sister graciously agreed to watch the kids

We spent some time hiking in this area that had a crazy amount of saguaros (I have always loved these cacti but have become even more obsessed with them after learning that they ONLY grow in the Sonoran Desert- which means Arizona and a VERY small part of California are the only places in the US you can find them!) and talked about the last seven years and our hopes for the next few years.

Once we were feeling a bit warm from our hike, we went and rented a kayak for two and took to the lake. IT was so beautiful being out on the water and it was fun to celebrate our marriage with something that required team work but was also fun and deeply relaxing. We want to go back and kayak longer, maybe bringing a packed lunch with us next time!

One of the best parts of doing an activity like this together was that it gave us a lot of quiet time to talk and just be together in a way we don’t often get with the kids or if we have a date that involves dinner and a movie or theatrical event. Quality time is my husband’s love language and words of affirmation are mine and this day trip gave us time to give both of those on each other. A lot of the stuff we talked about I know hubby wouldn’t want shared with the world, and I really wouldn’t either. Not because any of it is a secret, just because the point of intimacy is that it’s not stuff you just put out there for anyone. I can say that seven years in we’ve grown stronger and learned so much from each other. We are in the trenches of raising kids so we are tired, and sometimes it sounds more appealing to check something off the to do list so we can sleep in the next day than go on that date we had planned. But dating your spouse is crucial. And doing something new and exciting together was just what we needed for this pre-anniversary date. So instead of going into too much more detail, I’ll just share a few pictures from our adventure:

7 years down… I know it’s selfish to count on living so long, but I’d really like about 70 more… ❤