Two Year Anniversary Advice

With the two year anniversary quickly approaching, I am back to give you more advice after I first rattle off all of the AMAZING adventures we have experienced together this past year while I  simultaneously and purposefully omit any fight and setback we have had. ;-) To sum up the highlights of last year, we road-tripped across the country visiting National Parks and baseball stadiums, grilled out, made couple friends, flew to Tampa to see friends and watch baseball, drove long distances to weddings, drove long distances to weddings only to leave said wedding early to drive long distances to watch and celebrate my high school students graduation, celebrated James' turning 30, warded off people asking us when we will have children, and did a lot of "white people stuff (Barrett, J., 2016-2017).*Note: For a complete list of "white people stuff" click here. In all, I still stand by the advice with which I imparted to you last year, but I want to add one more nugget to the list. 

ADVICE: Find something you both love (that is legally and morally acceptable) and set out to do it. 

For James and me, we both love baseball. Therefore, we have entered into a friendly competition with my cousin and her husband to visit and attend a game with both spouses present at all 30 baseball stadiums. Luckily for us, she is pregnant and due with her first child soon, so we are about to run away with this thing. Muwhahaha. It has been a nice bonding experience for both of us to plot and map out our path to visiting the stadiums. "So my friend's sister lives in Chicago. We can stay with her over Labor Day Weekend. The Cubs have an afternoon home game and the White Sox have an evening home game that Saturday, and the Brewers play on Sunday. We can get three stadiums in one trip. You down?"  That's how our conversations usually go. In addition, over the course of our galavanting to different stadiums we have developed some traditions of our own. First, we must take the iconic picture of both of us standing in the front of the stadium with the name of the ballpark clearly visible. Second, we have a game we play in which we pick players at the start of the game, and we assign different point values depending on what type of hit they get. Winner is the one with the most points. Thirdly, James usually buys an obnoxious amount of food while I complain at first and then finally beg him to share with me. Lastly, we then decide where the stadium ranks among all the other ones we have visited. Overall, this experience is something we enjoy sharing together, and I wouldn't want to share with anyone else because mainly I don't want to have to start from square one and be behind in the competition. Kidding!   

Therefore, whatever it is you and your spouse enjoy doing, go do it! Visiting every continent, traveling to all the National Parks, volunteering, running in marathons, collecting items, etc. You will be thankful for having this shared experience with your spouse and only your spouse. 

My Ranking of the Stadiums Thus Far
1.) Citi Field (New York Mets) - I am pretty biased on this one since they are my favorite team. 
2.) PNC Field (Pittsburgh Pirates)
3.) Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox) 
4.) Kauffman Stadium (Kansas City Royals) 
5.) Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles) 
6.) Petco Park (San Diego Padres) 
7.) Progressive Field (Cleveland Indians)
8.) Busch Stadium (St. Louis Cardinals)
9.) Yankee Stadium (New York Yankees) 
10.) Coors Field (Denver Rockies)
11.) Great American Ballpark (Cincinnati Reds)
12.) Nationals Park (Washington Nationals)
13.) Citizens Bank Park (Philadelphia Phillies)
14.) Chase Field (Arizona Diamondbacks)
15.) Turner Field (Old Atlanta Braves)
16.) Tropicana Field (Tampa Bay Rays) 
* SunTrust Park (New Atlanta Braves), Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros), and Globe Life Park (Texas Rangers)