Love and Marriage (First for Everything)

My wife and I had been together for more than 7 years before we finally got married. Being married for a little over 4 months has made me think. 7 years is a long time, not just to be involved with one particular person, but a third of my life has past by and she's been along for the ride. This is very interesting to me because of the things we have introduced to each other, or the things neither of us have done before and discovering them together. My wife has grown up in Chicago, that's why I was surprised to hear she has never been to the top floor of our city's tallest building (Sears Tower). Being raised in a big city I found exploring the city and visiting all of it's landmarks common place in my household. Knowing that she had never seen the view from the top floor, I felt that it was my duty to have her experience an amazing view of a city that she loves as much as I do. An even better example is very similar, I think I found out that evening while staring 110 stories down, was that she has never been to the top of the John Hancock building, the second tallest in the city at the time. So for her Birthday I decided to take her there, from what I heard they have an awesome restaurant at one of the top floors. We take what feels like a rocket propelled elevator ride to the dining room. What we found out when we finally were seated, was we couldn't see anything out of the huge windows we sat next to. Our heads were literally in the clouds. The steak and lobster seemed make up for the fact we were surrounded by a thunderstorm 95 stories high. Somewhere during the end of our dinner the clouds seemed to vanish and we were left with a beautiful view of night time downtown Chicago. Now if anyone reading this has never been to either of those places, let me recommend both of them, very cool.
In my wife's defense, there were places that I haven't been and she thought I was crazy for not visited before. When she was growing up, her parents took her on road trips across the country. She tells me about seeing the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and swimming in the ocean. I have never visited a state outside of the Midwest, my wife on the other hand has just about been everywhere in the U.S. So for Thanksgiving last year we decided to join her Mom and Step-Father on there trip to Florida to spend the holidays with her Grandparents. To drive down through some of those Southern states to get to Florida was something she seemed used to. Me on the other hand didn't want to sleep thinking I would miss some landmark in one of these states. Granted it was too cold to swim in the ocean (yeah sounds weird) she was standing next to me when I walked into the warm salt water for the first time. The next example is again very similar, this past summer we took another trip, again with her Mom and Step-Father. This time it was up to Minnesota for an annual fishing trip. Let me add a little side note here, she has never been fishing before, so this falls into the "new for both of us" category, but for different reasons. Anyway, we drove up there and enjoyed a week of fishing. During the trip we took a boat ride even farther North and ended up in Canada. Wow, not just a new state, but a whole new Country.
Now lastly I'd like to give a couple of examples of how we have done a couple of things together for the first time. A couple of years ago we won a trip to a place called the Marlboro Ranch. Both of us thought there had to be some sort of catch considering everything was paid for. With everything being paid for, that includes air fare, yeah, that's where this is going. My wife and I have never been on a plane before. Let me rephrase that, we have never been on a plane that left the ground before. Me, I love airplanes and almost everything about them, my wife on the other hand was a little weary of the whole flying thing. It's a pretty amazing feeling being up in the air like that, it's a sense that I really can't describe. I'm not sure how my wife felt through the whole thing, but she has gotten over her fear of flying in some sense. I would like to explain the one thing that we did together for the first time and never planning on doing again. That thing is getting married, I can't think of a more surreal day in my life than the day I got married. It reminded me of playing with dominoes. You take all this time, patience, and work to get everything wonderfully set up, you invite people to witness the event, and before you know it...it's over, and everyone's gone.
It is very fun to explore this world, and to be able to have someone special and close to your heart to do it with, it makes the experience that much better. I'm glad I found my partner in crime, I wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe we'll try skydiving!