As of Monday I have been married for 7 years. Which feels like a really long time.

We don’t do presents for our anniversary. Instead, we have three anniversary traditions that I love:

1) We get away. Each year we go on a trip for our anniversary. Sometimes we go big (Italy, year 1) other times just sweet and simple (camping, year 2 and canoeing, year 6) but it is always a nice way to re-charge.

2) On our big day, October 13, we say our vows to each other and each year we write a new one that is reflective of the year past or the year to come. It is one of my favorite traditions. I like to imagine that when we have been married for 50 years that it will take all day to read our vows and we will have the sweetest trip down memory lane.

3) We have our “anniversary meal” which is just fancy wine, cheese, salami (for Adam) pate (for me) crackers, apple and fig cake.

This year we took our traditions to the beach house. It was very low key (or as low key as you can be when traveling with two boys). It was Cal’s first trip to the beach–or first trip anywhere for that matter–and he spent almost the entire time asleep.

One of the best thing about traditions is that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each year. We get to pick a new spot, and the rest is a no-brainer.