Kim Wilbanks

Thirty-four years — a little over one-third of a century.  How in the world did that much time pass by so quickly?

April 6, 1984 my husband, Jim, and I faced each other at the altar of our church and entered into a covenant.  We promised to love each other from that day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death parted us.  The length of our marriage doesn’t surprise me at all — only how fast thirty-four years flew by.

We started with an empty nest.  The only thing that filled it were the dreams of what might be.

Our nest was empty for the first five years of our marriage.  We traveled quite a bit when we had time off from work.  We visited Washington D.C., New Orleans and took our first trip to New York City.  We snow skied in Colorado for the first time.  Football games were on our weekend agenda.  We were involved in the young married class of our local church and enjoyed spending time with friends.

Then, five years into our marriage, our son was born.  Two years later, his sister followed.  Our nest was full. 

Eighteen years of frenzied activity followed.  It was all so much fun.  Well, except for the potty-training and sleepless nights.

Now we’re back to where we started.  Our nest is empty again.  Oh, it fills up from time to time, especially around Christmas but most of the time it’s very quiet.

We have reverted to the early years of our marriage.  We travel often.  We go on dates.  We spend time with friends — sometimes at football games.  And we daydream about the years ahead.

We have kept our vows and have experienced some of each — better, worse, richer, poorer, sickness, health.  In spite of the ways we make each other a little crazy — one of us an extreme sports fanatic and one of us hopelessly messy — I can’t imagine being on this journey with anyone else.  I’m pretty sure Jim feels the same.

So much sports

So much clutter

We Highly Recommend

One of the blessings of the empty nest (and retirement) is the ability to take off for little getaways without much planning.  That is exactly what we did for our anniversary in early April.  We are native Floridians yet we had never been to Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island so we decided our anniversary was the perfect time to explore.  We were blown away!  If you are looking for a romantic getaway, I suggest this quaint, historic destination in northeast Florida.  I look forward to returning to this enchanting part of the state.

We stayed at the antebellum Williams House

A portrait of Emma, mistress of the Williams House

Sunset on the Amelia River

Fairbanks House

Victorian Home

Nassau County Courthouse

Tabby House

First Missionary Baptist Church

Anniversary Dinner at Espana