Poof! My posts from our trip have disappeared. I carefully wrote drafts and saved them for an Internet connection but they’re all gone. Boo, say I. So the new plan is to keep taking pictures and writing in my notebook. Then I guess I’ll mass-publish when we return to the world of regular Internet connection rather than phone and dodgy signal. Until then…
These four sunflowers popped open over the weekend. Riana planted the seeds herself, so I am glad that we were here to see them bloom. Good timing too, because we are off on another adventure.
Today’s challenge was to fit our gear for the next two+ weeks into these bags. Actually, I was pretty much done beforehand, since I knew the weekend would be busy. But here is our luggage!
This is the first time in years that we will be flying with a checked bag. But we want to be able to camp on our trip, and we might be minimalists, but I’m not sure we could pull off camping with carry-on only. So the bags are packed and we are officially off! Mr. big black suitcase has our tent, sleeping bags, and cookware (ever try to fly with a stove? I’ll find out how it goes…) The red backpack has another sleeping bag, diapers, and our sandals. The camera bag has all the camera and electronic gear. And the grey roller-board (that has flown all over the world!) has out clothes, books, and toiletries.
You know what that means. Expect to see us wearing the same clothes. A lot.
Oh, and don’t worry about the cat. He looks unhappy about the suitcases, but my brother will be staying in our house. We are just a few doors away from the house he is working on, so he’ll be able to work on his house and keep our cat company. Now off we go…
Dear Riana,
You will soon turn four! We celebrated your birthday early since we are about to leave on a trip. You asked for blueberry crisp (a girl after my own heart!) and though you offered to help pick the blueberries, your bucket was strangely empty. Earlier this summer, you learned to ride your bike without training wheels and you love riding for many miles at a time. You entered your first bike race and wore a helmet shaded blue (your favorite color). You tell elaborate and vivid stories about your friends Zoey and Joey and after introducing yourself as Bill for a few months, you now go by the name Jack. You love to dance, be outdoors, and help cut veggies. Best of all, you are a great and loyal friend to your sister. You teach me lots of things about snuggling, reading stories, and turning sticks into everything from saxophones to telescopes. I love you my dear almost-four-year-old. Happy Birthday.
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Confession/Apology: A number of posts could not be published while we were away. So I saved them as drafts to publish from home. Forgive the discrepancy, but for my own record, I’ll be leaving the date as the original.
What a full weekend! My Uncle and Cousin are visiting from Washington DC, and my Aunt and sister also joined us for the weekend. From visiting the children’s play museum and a potato harvest to blueberrying and birthday celebrations, we packed a lot in. Ryan and my brother also had a dirty project: roofing our garage and hauling cement away. Yuck! But back to those birthdays! We celebrated my Grandpa’s 90th birthday and he was blessed with family members making the trip to join him in this observance. We ate family foods and cake, shared stories, and laughed a good bit too. On a different night, we also celebrated Riana, who will soon be 86 less than 90 this week.She sweetly asked for a blueberry crisp and SHE wanted to pick the berries. I’m pretty sure she meant that she wanted to eat berries while we picked the ones to bake, but that’s fine too.
I will return to this post in a couple weeks (when we’re back home) to add pictures. I did not manage to upload any before we left. But I’ll leave you with a couple sweet ones from a Sunday walk.
This sweet dress was given to Riana by her Tia and Tio. Sadly, she was already too big. But now it fits Amelia perfectly. She cried when we took it off at night. :)
Inspired by a) Emily, who is reminding me to live in the moments and take notice of the present and b) Soulemama, who weekly posts “{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.”
