A perfeclty historic weekend...

Historical is definitely the word for this past weekend. First off, Rick has always been trying to figure out when I was with him longer than I was without him. He has done a couple of calculations based on my age at certain times in our first year. He figured out the day we were married, the day we first kissed, and then he figured out the day we first met. Then he would see how many days old I was at those various times, double the number and add a day. When the date (according to the first time we met) came up to be February 14th of this year, we knew we had to celebrate it!

We wanted to do something more than we normally do for Valentine’s Day. Most years we just try to do dinner & a movie. About every other year we forget to make reservations and have to wait so long that we miss a movie. That’s when we swear we will never go out on Valentine’s night again! We thought we would just head up to Salt Lake and stay the night/weekend there. However, a business trip popped up for Rick last week, so he invited me to join him.

We didn’t have any specific plans, other than I was to fly into Washington D.C. and we would go from there. We’ve been to the DC area many times and feel we know it well. We love it there, but this time we were thinking of doing something a bit different, maybe a little more romantic. I began looking things up on the internet. I would find some wonderful place full of quaint hotels and Bed & Breakfasts, but then would try to book them and they would laugh at me! Actually, they would just say, “Nothing available Valentine’s/President’s Day weekend, you crazy lady.” So, we thought we might just do the city after all.

Monday night we went to the Orem Library as we had a final concert for the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival mid-winter event. Syd Lieberman told the most amazing story. It was the debut of his story, although he had recorded it already. His lovely wife, Adrienne, helped him research it and write it. It is called, “Abraham and Isaac, A Sacrifice at Gettysburg.” We took all of our family, except for Nathan, and we all loved it. It was a beautiful story about Abraham Lincoln and how he was known as “Father Abraham.” It followed the story of a young man named Isaac (they got the details from his journal) during the Civil War. He ended up being “sacrificed” at Gettysburg, along with most of his regiment. It was a very moving story.

After the concert, I was waiting to drive Syd & Adrienne home. Rick left in a separate car so that he could get the kids to bed. I was visiting with Sharon, a woman who had come for the week to attend the conference. We had visited here and there throughout the week and she was very sweet and kind. We started talking about the fact that she was going home that next morning to Virginia. I told her about our upcoming trip to that area. She asked where we were staying and I told her that we weren’t sure yet, but probably in the city as everything was booked in all of the quaint places. I told her that I had heard that Williamsburg, Virginia, was gorgeous, but that there wasn’t anything available. She said that she actually worked at Colonial Williamsburg and she would make some calls in the morning and see what she could come up with. By the time I got home, Rick had the map spread out and said he really wanted to go to Gettysburg. He had always wanted to go, but now after Syd’s story, he thought it was a perfect time.

I’ll post the pictures and details of our trip soon (sorry I’m taking so long, Mom). We ended up being in all the right places at just the right time in history. It just happened to be Abraham Lincoln’s 200th Birthday on Thursday and we were able to feel the significance of that in the air. We loved celebrating our historic anniversary in a very romantic place. We are grateful for this wonderful trip and everything that came together to make it perfect!