An Ode to my Husband

I've taken a little hiatus because a) Halloween came up and for some reason we feel like we have to make it complicated every year and sew our own costumes b) we found a house to buy [insert fanfare], so you know, offers, counter offers, signatures, inspections, etc. and c) my husband had a birthday!

And since he recently had a birthday, let's take a moment to gush over him.

Rachel's favorite spot

First, he is a super, amazing, excellent father. This is evidenced by the fact that my daughter loves him a bazillion times more than me. When he leaves in the morning she gets jealous when it's my turn to kiss and hug him goodbye. He genuinely misses her if he has to work late and she's already in bed when he gets home.

He takes every opportunity he can to spend time with her a play with her. Once in church someone said, "We want to give our kids an hour of our time later, but children just want 5 minutes of our time now." That must have stuck with him because he seems almost endlessly patient with our little girl, even if he's in the middle of something.

After running a last minute 10k in Oracle, AZ. Rachel in her favorite spot again.

He's a great example of living a healthy and balanced life. He supports me whole-heartedly when I say crazy things like "Let's not unpack our TV." He takes our daughter in the jogging stroller on his runs (and genuinely enjoys it).

One of my favorite things about him I experienced when we were dating. We have a friend who every year, and often twice a year, does a Grand Canyon rim to rim hike. It's a 22 mile hike down and up Kaibab Trail in one day. Eli really wanted me to go. I love to hike and I also love to think I'm tougher than I really am, so I agreed. I was healthy and fit enough to not die, but I definitely was not prepared to climb 8200 feet of switchbacks after hiking about 18-ish miles at the bottom of the canyon.

I'm pretty sure the only reason I made it out was because Eli was with me. Have you ever hiked with someone that just can't wait for you? They zoom on ahead while you're struggling behind, alone. It's pretty much the worst. Eli for sure could have blazed on ahead with the rest of the group. He could have finished the hike at least an hour before what he did, but he didn't. He stayed behind with me. He encouraged me, but didn't try to rush me. We made it out of in the canyon in just under 12 hours.

And that's how he is. We go on lots of outdoors trips, and I'm sure he would love to go longer and farther than I'm able to, but because Rachel and I are with him he doesn't. And he still has fun. He never makes us feel like we're holding him back. He just enjoys doing it with us because he loves us.

So that's my ode to my super awesome husband. Happy Birthday, big guy. We freaking love you.

After our first Grand Canyon Rim to Rim hike