But Have I Told You How I Love Him

Twelve years ago tomorrow Christian and I first met. I guess it is our golden anniversary of sorts. I usually forget the date, the years, the time...but this year Christian added it to the kitchen calendar, the weekly road map for the Vaicius family, and so I am able to remember and celebrate something that is so hard to believe. Twelve years ago tomorrow was my luckiest day, the day that guaranteed there would be love in my life every day for as long as I live.

So, here we are, together, way back then (or close to it at least):


We made it to a few of the parades this weekend and La Luz officially has more Mardi Gras loot than she knows what to do with. Here's a sample:

On Friday night Christian, Molly, and I took La Luz to see her first parades of the year. We didn't know quite what to expect...did she inherit my blase parade-watching genes or was she infused with a love of mardi gras like no other, inherited from her dad? She was hooked immediately. She was in awe for every second of the madness and didn't want it to end. The band...let's dance...the horses...let's ride them, huh, can we, please...the floats, catch something, wave, catch some more, lift me higher. She was wired when we got home and kept begging Molls to take her to see more floats.

We went to the den to check out the floats with Pop and Uncle Richmond while Christian was at volleyball on Saturday morning. It bummed me out that he wasn't there to see her face when she learned she was able to touch the floats and, oh yes, climb on them. Thankfully, Richmond offered to bring her up onto the float. That part was easy and fun, the tough part was getting her back down when it was time to leave. Here's a picture that Richmond took of her while she was hanging out on the float. She is wearing the adorable smocked dress that AJ just finished. I love it. I think I might put her in it every day this week:

La Luz's buddy, Conor, came over to watch the parades on Saturday night. He enjoyed the whole parade-going experience as much as La Luz and she was so distracted by the fun that she didn't even mind sharing her wagon:

For some reason La Luz has been waking up at 6:00 a.m. for the past few mornings and it really irritates me, especially since Christian had to coach all weekend so there was no chance of sleeping late. Since we were up La Luz and I went running with Loki and the to mass. We could hear the bands getting ready during mass and every time a song would end La Luz would stand up and clap. Everyone sitting around us exercised great patience today. After mass we played with Loki in the yard for a bit and then walked down to the parade to meet up with baby Betsy. I could not believe how much Betsy had grown since the last time I saw her.

She was laughing and trying to talk and dancing to the marching bands. She even outlasted La Luz who insisted on going home for a nap even though the second parade hadn't started. So, maybe not all of her parade-going genes were inherited from her father.