looks like we made it

It took us two days of travel (7 and 6 hours, respectively) to travel 790 miles to Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah. The kids did great in the car and we're all relieved to be here. The scenery could not be any more beautiful--the canyon is just breathtaking. Real photos tomorrow. Maybe.

somewhere in central oregon

somewhere in eastern oregon

sunset in meridian, idaho

horses in meridian, right outside of our hotel

somewhere between idaho and utah

at the base of big cottonwood canyon

about halfway up the 14-mile drive from civilization to the house

the view from the deck

end of an era

The week before Avery's graduation from elementary school, I got the crazy idea that I had to make her a scrapbook of her six years there.

I wanted to showcase pictures of all the events that happened annually (First Day, Run for the Arts, Father-Daughter Dance, Variety Show, Storybook Parade & Last Day), as well as one special school-related picture from that particular year.

That's when the Type A side of my personality came shining through and I had to make sure that each page had the same number of pictures, the same variety of sizes, etc. I lost precious hours of sleep making this thing.

I got surprisingly emotional (perhaps it was the sleep deprivation kicking in?) putting this book together. Looking back over all those photos, remembering all those events. It hit me like a ton of bricks how fast it all goes. I swear it feels like 15 minutes ago she was crying on the first day of kindergarten and losing her 2 front teeth.

We decided that 4th grade was the year that she changed the most from September to June. She went from a babyface with noticeably absent teeth to a near-grown-up. (Not so?) coincidentally, that was also the year that we had the most friction with her here at home (just temporarily, thank goodness). More attitude, less cooperation.

First grade is when Josie was born. (Not so?) coincidentally, that was also the year that had the fewest number of pictures from school events. Just one photo of most events, and some weren't labeled or organized all that well. But they were there, and now I'm thankful that I was so obsessive diligent about it.

As I was searching through months & months (72!) of photos, the two constants were Avery's super cute best buds, P & E. I decided they needed their own page in her book, so I printed a copy of every decent picture with the three of them from kindergarten through fifth grade. All of a sudden one page turned into four... and they're probably my favorite pages. The thought that (with the help of Facebook, if necessary) Avery will know those two for her whole entire life (minus her first three years) makes me smile.

I gave Avery the scrapbook during her special celebration dinner at Portland City Grill. I tried to prepare myself for the potential of her not being as excited as I was convinced she should be, but she seemed genuinely thrilled.

(Luckily we waited until after the book to hand over her very own cell phone, because we lost her attention at that point.)

alive!

Who knew that sad post about Josie's birthday scavenger hunt would be the last thing anyone would hear from us in over a month? We sort of dropped off the face of the earth for a while there as school was ending; we might possibly have had 3 free evenings during that whole stretch. But now that summer is in full-swing, things are feeling slightly less overwhelming. Still insanely busy (I keep waiting for that to stop but I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that it's just not going to) but much less structured and much more flexible. Phew.

In other exciting news, our garden is alive & thriving! Must be beginner's luck because none of us has a clue what we're doing. Everything we planted is growing like crazy... we've already had several peas and we spotted the first tiny strawberries today. I had intended to post regular updates about the garden for my own record & reflection, but... it is what it is.

Last but not least, I've basically lost all interest in and motivation to take pictures. I'm sure I'll get it back someday soon, but it was the first thing to go when things got so busy, and I kind of didn't miss it all that much when it was gone. Well, that's not entirely true--I missed the experience of taking the pictures but not necessarily the pictures themselves. As a slight compromise, I've become hooked on my new camera phone's Hipstamatic App and the cute pictures that it takes. No settings to change, no lenses to lug around. Easy & freeing, which is exactly what I need right now.