Good things come in fives: fingers, toes, guys with burgers and fries, and years of marriage. That’s right – yesterday Brad and I celebrated 5 years of marriage! It feels like such a long time, but I guess not when you consider a lifetime of love. The good news is, we’ve made it past our first “5 Year Plan” and I guess you could say we’ve checked some pretty important things off the list of obligatory life accomplishments: career, foreign adventures, domestic adventures, house, baby, etc. We’ve even conquered a hefty amount of our debt (although we still have a long way to go on that one!). We have had the pleasure of being content on meals of 88 cent bags of vegetables and rice, but also feasting with friends in fancy restaurants around the world. There is no secret to success to our more-often-happy-than-not marriage. Just learning to live life alongside another person. It hasn’t always been sunshine but the cool thing about rain is that it’s water and water is the source of all life. A happy marriage isn’t about the wedding, or the honeymoon, or big romantic gestures. It’s about the small moments that make up your days and choosing to stick it out with another person – through the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Here’s a glimpse into our five year journey together:

2010: The year of the wedding!

2011: Here we are in St. Thomas on a Wood family cruise.

2012: This is our trip to Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day!

2013: Here we are as the Ulster Project power couple.

2014: Big year for us! We bought our first house and found out we were pregnant with our first child.

And 2015: We welcomed our sweet baby boy, Rory Matthew.

Five years ago I was a bride. Today, I am a wife, a mother, a friend, a young professional, and so much more. The past five years have brought countless joys, even in the midst of trials and I can’t wait to see where the rest of our years take us. I can’t imagine this journey with any other partner.