This weekend would have been my 17th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe this is the fourth one I will celebrate without him. Inconceivable really, and yet here it is. Another year passed. Our last anniversary together, lucky number 13, we went to dinner at our favorite restaurant (the Little Texas Bistro, damn I miss that place). The last three years I’ve done something on that day to celebrate, and this year will be no different. 

This year, I’m taking my 9 year old son Grayson to New Orleans. We went to New Orleans for our honeymoon 17 years ago, and for several anniversaries after. The last anniversary we spent in New Orleans was our 10th. We renewed our vows at our church in Houston, and headed to New Orleans with our great friends Kim and Jason, who were celebrating their 9th. It was a fantastic trip, so relaxing and such great fun. I’d love to relive that one a few hundred times.

 

This trip will be the first time I’ve taken Grayson to New Orleans. He’s heard so much about it, I think he feels like he’s been there before, but it will be the first. We have big plans: a riverboat ride, trolley ride, the aquarium, fancy dinner at Broussard’s (a personal favorite), café au lait and beignets at the Café du Monde, walking through the Quarter, mass at St. Louis Cathedral, rooftop swimming pool at our hotel, so many great things. He knows we went there for our honeymoon, and he knows it will be our anniversary. I’m looking forward to sharing some of those great memories with him, and he’s just looking forward to it with the joyfulness of a 9 year old boy: how many more days until we go Mom? Cutie pie, I feel the same way.