Chinese & Tattoos {Part 2 of Our Celebration}

After Kevin and I made our skydiving reservations, we were also talking about what else we could do to make it an epic day.

We have talked for years about getting matching tattoos.  We talked about getting our wedding bands tattooed, but we just couldn't decide what we wanted, so we never got anything.  We decided to think outside the box.  We spent an evening throwing out ideas about what we could get.  Since the reason for celebrating was our 10 year anniversary, I started thinking about how we could incorporate "10" in our tattoo.  We knew X was the roman numeral for 10, so we brainstormed "X" ideas.

When Hayden was a little baby, we picked out Psalm 127:4 as a verse for him... it say, "Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth."  This just seemed to fit.  The highlight of our marriage will always be the children we had in our youth!  So I picked out arrows I liked, and he picked out arrows he liked, and we hunted for a tattoo shop between the skydive place and home.

We found a place called Billy Joe's Tattoos in Terre Haute.  It's actually owned by a pastor and his wife.  She runs a boutique in the front and he owns the tattoo and piercing part.  Marcus is that tattoo artist, and we just felt like this was the place to go!  We also wanted Panda Express in Terre Haute for dinner.  So we made appointments for the 8th at 6pm.

After skydiving, we were both hungry and ready to eat.  We had barely eaten anything all day because our nerves kept us from feeling hungry.  We snacked a little and drove an hour and a half south to Terre Haute.  We picked out our favorite dishes at Panda Express and scarfed them down.  The tattoo shop was about 5 minutes from dinner.  We got there about 15 minutes early.  Marcus was just finishing up his appointment before us.

Us at Panda Express

We had texted him pictures of what we wanted earlier in the day, so he drew up the designs for us and made sure we liked them.  I wanted mine smaller than what he drew, so he shrank it down, and I told him again to go smaller, so he shrunk it again.  I was still thinking smaller, but he told me it would look really good with Kevin's the size it was and he could do all the little details I liked.  If we went smaller it would be less detailed.  So I went with it!

Our designs... I wanted my arrows up, Kevin wanted his arrows down.

Our new tattoos :)

Closer up of Kevins

Closer up of mine.  Allie decided she's the arrow with the frilly ends, and Krissy is the arrow with the feather end. 

Just like the skydiving, I went first (which was how I wanted it :))  I hadn't had a tattoo in 15+ years so I had forgotten what it felt like.  I kept quiet and tried not to talk or move.  I didn't want crooked arrows!  Kevin mouthed, "Are you ok?", and I was, he was just afraid it was too painful for me.  After mine was done (it probably took 10 minutes), we went out in the lobby so he could clean and get ready for Kevin's tattoo.  I told him it hurt, but I was just trying to keep quiet and not move.  Kevin's seemed to go faster than mine.  We paid, got our tattoo goo, and were headed home.  We got our skydiving pictures emailed to us on the drive home. 

We got home right at 8pm (we gained an hour with the time change), and were thrilled to be back home with the kids.  We were both mentally and physically exhausted from the day's emotional roller coaster.  We showed the kids our pictures and everyone went to bed!

Sunday afternoon, our videos were emailed to us, and we just kept reliving how incredible the day was!  Kevin kept smiling at me saying I have to be the coolest person he knows.... lol he makes me smile.  I'm so glad we stepped out of our comfort zone and did some memorable things to celebrate our big anniversary!  Fishing would have been fun, but it just wasn't what I had in mind :)