Dianne and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary last week, and we decided to find a very romantic and fun place to celebrate. 

Last year we went to the historic Seelbach Hotel in downtown Louisville, Kentucky (pronounced Lew-a-ville for those of you not of these parts of the Great Midwest) and ate at their Oakroom Restaurant, Kentucky's only AAA Five-Diamond Awarded Restaurant.  It was fantastic.

This year we decided to try the only other historic and world-class restaurant in downtown Louisville, the English Grill at the Brown Hotel.  It is AAA rated as a Four-Diamond Restaurant....but it was step for step just as romantic and wonderful as the Oakroom's Five Diamonds. No doubt about it.  Here is their beautiful dining room.  We were in the far back left corner, all to ourselves.

In fact, the Forbes Traveller magazine says of  the Brown Hotel's  English Grill  "the rarefied confines and the excellence of Kentucky-based cuisine makes the English Grill one of the finest restaurants in the nation".  The Wine Spectator magazine calls it "the finest restaurant in the city".

It was all of that.

We walked in to see a corner table, seated under a beautiful stain glass window, with fox-hunting horse paintings surrounding us from the dark oak-paneled walls and columns....and on the table a beautiful bouquet of red and white roses with breath-taking stargazer lilies dominating the beautiful floral array. 

From the restaurant manager to the multiple wait-staff, they were charmingly polite, but fillled to near mirith with subdued giggles for the beauty of our table and the celebration of our 26 years of wedded bliss.

Here is Dianne with our roses/flowers waiting for us at our anniversary table.  Check out those stargazers!  Very nice, even from a guy perspective!

When dinner was over, we had our dessert; their much celebrated Strip-Tease chocolate brule that burned with that dull blue flame for about 5 minutes...wishing us a happy and unforgettable English Grill 26th Anniversary, and many, many more.

Thanks Tom Tiernan for the recommendation for "great places to eat in Louisville", from last year!  You were spot on brother.

Traveling the world with the Army has allowed Dianne and I to share some of the world's best dining pleasures together, from the mountainsides Gasthauses of the Alps of Europe to the Hereford Steakhouse in the old heart of Kansas City, from the American Restaurant in the Heartland, up to The Roof in downtown Salt Lake City.  Anniversaries are the occasions when we dig a little deeper into the monthly budget and plan an unforgettable evening.

So we treasured our two hour, five course repast at The Brown.

Dianne made all the arrangements and what an unforgettable evening it was.

On the more domestic, family-fun side, we also love to celebrate our anniversary at home with the children dressing up and serving us an extravagant meal.  With white shirt and black tie our 11-year old, Liesel begged to serve us this year as our chief table waiter, while Brigitte, Dallin and Andre cooked in the kitchen.  They prepared us a 7 course meal for the evening, with candle-light and soft background music and a perfectly attentive "mademoiselle" to wait the table in silent, radiant, beaming joy to be a part of a perfectly romantic evening right there in our Government Quarters (military historic old officer housing).

Don't pay any attention to that "ding" on my lip.  It was not from the frying pan across the head to help me gain some understanding.  It was a very fat lip in fact from a 6-year old son who said "catch me Daddy!" a few days earlier, when jumping down from an overhead jungle gymn, and Daddy didn't do so well in the outfield.  He came right throgh my hands, and my big tooth went right through my lip as his head collided with me.  Bad timing for an anniversary, but that is the family life!

One more anniversary of marriage to celebrate with our ten amazing children and the rich joy that comes from seeing the beauty  that our love for one another as parents, our love for them as our children, and the love of God and our Lord Jesus Christ does to bless us all with kinder words, more patient understanding and more ready forgiveness, and tons of laughter, play and time together with the ones we love the most in all this world.

With all that, how can we not keep going on past our 50th soon!

Lots of fun, and all part of the amazing military experience of seeing and celebrating across the world.