Colors of Summer

A few weeks ago we had a family day up at the cabin. It happened to be one of those days where the color and light were irresistible to my photo-happy eye. Every snap of my shutter screamed summer and then froze it in brief snippets that together recorded a delightful day. In fact, I kind of just want them to tell you the story of the day since they do say "a picture's worth 1,000 words" and all.

Wonders of wonders, I even made it in a picture!
One little tidbit just for my memory, this was Jesse's first time out on the boat and all he did was sit motionless for the entirety of our ride. It was hilarious.

Wk 28: Adventure

 

"I wish more people felt that photography was an adventure the same as life itself and felt that their individual feelings were worth expressing. To me, that makes photography more exciting." -Harry Callahan 

I'm quite enjoying my adventure in photography this year.  

Family Camp

We did something brave this summer. We went camping. As in sleeping bags, fabric for walls, and all four of us slumbering within arms reach of one another. Call us crazy but we decided that it was time to trade in our traditional 4th of July celebration up at Lake Roesiger (which we've been doing since high school) for the craziness of our church's family camp hosted in Eastern Washington.
For our first attempt at camping with children it seemed a safe bet. We'd be surrounded by our good friends, two of the three meals every day would be provided by the church, and there would be a plethora of fun activities to partake in every day. We simply had to pack an extra bit of patience for the tired little people we would have on our hands due to lack of naps and hope that their exhaustion would encourage deep sleep at night (cross my fingers).

We arrived to family camp on the 4th just in the nick of time to decorate Owen's scooter and link up with all the other kids for their little parade.

Within a few moments of the parade's end, Jesse decided that all this scooter business looked like a lot of fun and so began his efforts to master Owen's scooter. He's going to be the death of me I swear. 

 Later we headed off to Slide Waters, a little water park in Chelan. I wish we had something like this in the Seattle area besides the monstrosity that is Wild Waves. Sure there were still a million people at Slide Waters but 90% of the slides Owen could do either by himself or simply sitting in between one of our legs. There was also a great splash pool for the littlest ones. I imagine in the years to come we will have a lot more trouble getting the boys to want to leave all the sliding fun.

That evening we flew kites, ate a dinner of hot dogs, naturally, and tried to keep our eyes peeled open till the fire works show after dusk. 

The next evening I experienced embarrassing myself for the sake of my kids for the first time when I helped the boys (Jude, Levi and Owen) participate in the Friday Night camp talent show. I stood up on stage with them and recited the "Hi my name is Chubby" joke for all the world to see. They thought we were hilarious but I'm not quite sure how the rest of the church felt about our some-what lame joke.
But aside from my rosy pink embarrassed cheeks, an ER trip for some stitches for the Izzards after a scooter crash gone wrong and the fact that our campground was not tucked underneath a canopy of evergreens, we had a blast and all slept successfully despite our close proximity to one another. I think it's safe to say that we'll go camping again.

 

Wk 26: Composition

Swings are kind of a big deal in our house.

 

 

My Golden Birthday

On June 29th, I turned 29. Some people call it your "Golden birthday" when you turn the age of the day you were born on. I kind of like that mine fell on the last year in my twenties. When I think back on this past decade it's kind of amazing how much change has happened: there's been marriage, living in foreign countries, wrestling with infertility, getting pregnant twice and delivering naturally twice by the grace of God, buying our first home which was more than we could have ever imagined, all the while being incredibly blessed by an amazing career for Josh and a community of friends who are like family. As I sat soaking up the surroundings of Mazama with my family I was struck by a deep sense of gratitude to the Lord for His favor and faithfulness to me in my life thus far.
 
It makes me think of these song lyrics:
Every step we are breathing in your grace
Evermore we'll be singing out your praise 

There's nothing I've done to deserve such incredible family, precious boys, and such a loving husband and I am left with a keen awareness that my response to such favor is to proclaim my thankfulness in praise. 

Aside from being reflective, the weekend was truly spectacular.
My brother Clark brought his girlfriend Chelsea up to the cabin for the first time. They've only been dating for 3 years so now that we know their relationship is legit we decided to let her into the inner circle of our family. Oh wait, we did that a long time ago.
Owen was in heaven having all these different people help him use his imagination. My youngest brother Galen won the title of "Best Uncle of the weekend" because of the amount of time he spent with Owen playing Dragons and Monster trucks. It was pretty impressive I'm not gonna lie. 

Lots of little moments to soak up and enjoy each others company...or some corn on the cob if you were Jesse.

Wk 25: Summertime

 My photo pick for this week is this gorgeous shot taken on our two-day-getaway for my 29th birthday to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. How did I score going on a two-day-getaway for my birthday celebration you might ask? Well, partly we were in desperate need of some time to relax together and the other part is because I'm a stinking awesome wife who lets my husband go on a five day fishing trip every year. On my birthday. For the rest of my life. But who's counting?

We came to this same spot 6 years ago for our 2nd anniversary. At that time it was the middle of winter and we could barely get out of our car for more than 30 seconds because the wind chill would quickly bite to the core of your being. Friday Harbor is also basically dead at that point in the year. This time around it was a whole new world and we couldn't have asked for more gorgeous weather.

The view of the bay in front of our guest house.

I can honestly say that our trip was the most relaxing 48 hours of my life in recent years. Our days weren't dictated by who needed to eat or sleep next. We could sit in silence or finish an entire conversation. We could actually hold hands uninterrupted. And to top it all off, I didn't have to lift a single finger to make anything we ate the whole weekend. It was a splendid time and we walked away refreshed and reconnected. I personally think we should make this birthday getaway a new tradition!