roses and rain

ok, so it only took me two months to post about our summer vacation. this is progress!  my goal was to post in order of events... but that meant i had to go back and edit MY photos... which also meant i had to finish editing my clients photos, first. so... two months later, i’m finally getting to it. but i'm thankful for the wonderfully full schedule, busy with family and kids, photography sessions, and some fun projects at work that have been distracting me.

and it’s just so fitting, because it’s november!

i love love love this time of year. we’ve been doing lots of baking and cooking around my house. new recipes and, of course, the tried and true comfort foods we love. lots of cinnamon rolls, caramel apple sticky buns, soups and stews, fresh tomato sauce made with the bounty of roma and lemon boy tomatoes from the garden. it’s been utterly perfect. i cannot contain my happiness and contentment.

i digress.
here are some pictures of a wonderful trip that i had waited patiently for since the first day of my chemotherapy in April. i knew when i was finished, i wanted to reward myself and my family with a trip to one of our favorite places. a place that has always been a salve for my soul. i wanted family time, time away to just enjoy the kids and what was left of the summer. so, we headed to oregon. we walked around downtown, went to St. Honóres for coffee and pastries, pizzicato (yum!), the nike store (of course), the zoo, and then cannon beach. although it was hectic with five kids in tow, and it rained on us at the coast, i loved every minute of it... well, maybe not that minute when my three year old got his hand stuck in the elevator door (in fact, i’m pretty sure i peed my pants)... or when that same child got his head stuck between the posts in a fence at the zoo (i was just annoyed at this point)... are you seeing a trend here?  yes, despite the three year old drama, i think we all had a wonderful, if not memorable, time. and now the children can look back on the quality family time imposed upon them, hours of being trapped in the car with siblings, fighting over the window seat, or who crossed over the imaginary line into their territory. those were always some of my fondest memories as a child, and i’m thankful, as a parent, that i can pass along that disfunction!

here are some out takes....

and here are some of the more serene moments...

there were only three. :)