Yes, we have been married............

40 years!!!

John and I celebrated our actual 40th anniversary at the beach with our family. If you read any of my earlier posts you know that we did not get to go on our trip, that I had planned for John's birthday, because of my leg/hip/back situation. That was going to be our big trip and we were just going to do something close to home for our 40th anniversary. Well, this time work got in the way. John was asked to do some contract work that we both agreed he did not need to turn down....but that meant ...no little celebration together before our beach trip. We go on our family beach trip every year working around SAU 4th of July break so that we can be assured that Josh can be with us.....and I wasn't about to change it for an anniversary....even a 40th!

So........finally two weeks ago we got free time to celebrate. We just pretended like it was June 23rd and away we went.

Here are a few pictures of us during our "dating years" or you could call them the "still had hair years" or "still had a flat belly years" or probably the most correct "we were just babies years"!

 With 3 children still at home we were able to find time to celebrate our

"25th Anniversary"
on a cruise

Back to 2012

John and I headed out Saturday morning for Birmingham. We had decided that the best way to celebrate this milestone anniversary was to try and revisit the things we did when we were dating. We went to Birmingham through Maytown and Mulga and rode across "The Bayview Bridge".....I had to stop John and say "was that it".....it seemed so much bigger and of course, it is not the same bridge anymore!!!

We came out in Minor. We rode past my Aunt Earline Black's house, then on down the road to where Dixie Junior High used to be, actually reminisced over the old bus parking lot and then headed to see the remains of Minor High School.....where we met.

Yep, can still see myself turning onto this road and parking. This road ended at the football field. You can see a few of the lights are still standing. John played football and I was in the band.

We rode down some roads and pointed out houses and who lived in them back then. We then rode through Sandusky, Forestdale and turned, at what was George Miller's house, and headed to Gardendale by going down Forestdale Bend Road and going through Brookside. I wanted to go see if the "underwater bridge" was still there but John said it wasn't!

Then we headed to eat at Pasquales. We ate at Pasquales regularly as did all of MHS. The Pasquales in Forestdale is gone but we knew that there was one in Gardendale

It amazingly looked like I remember the inside of the Forestdale Pasquales looking. We crossed our fingers and hoped that they were still serving our favorite from 40 years ago. Guess what......they were....and it was still good. We shared a Stromboli Steak Sandwich and a Chef Salad....it was yummy or maybe it was just the taste of memories!

The hotel that we stayed in our first night of married life is not open anymore....I was kind of glad because I got to stay here instead........love Ross Bridge!

Our plans were to go to another place that we loved to eat when we were dating.....Jim Davenport's Pizza in Homewood. We have eaten there a couple of times since we have been married. You may be thinking....did they ever eat at a finer dining restaurant? Honestly.....not often, but every now and then. We were young, broke and did not know how to appreciate finer dining (plus....even now, we just love a good DIVE), but........we did love "The LUAU" which is gone and was it "Joy Young's", also gone. We also loved to go, out into the middle of no where, and eat at "Lloyds"....we loved "Catfish King" (Ensley) and loved the Bonanza Steak House that opened between 5 Points and Midfield. there also was a Mexican Restaurant we loved just past the Alabama Fairgrounds.

So, we got settled in at Ross Bridge and decided that we were enjoying the outside deck at the restaurant so....we just stayed there!

Again, our plans, in keeping with what we did 40 years ago, were to go to IHOP and eat breakfast, but.....Brunch at The Cheesecake Factory was calling my name.

I am so thankful we were blessed with being able to celebrate 40 years. I know family and friends who did not get to do this and it makes me more aware and thankful. The road to 40 years has often been hard, thankfully, we were so in love that I don't think we realized when it was so hard!

I hope we get 40 more!

I love you, John Brady!

And here we are now!!!!