oh canada

you might not have loved your first canada day, but i'll tell you what: you will. you will just LOVE all the candy tossed at you from family-filled floats and vintage cars. you will love to play with all your cousins and second cousins and cousins once or twice removed in the hot hot sun with a burger in one hand and a rice crispy square in the other. you will beg to go swimming in the raymond pool and, eventually, be brave enough to jump from the diving board and ride alone down the slide. you might not believe me yet, but canada day is the best. and it is best in raymond, alberta.

love,

mom

taken with my mamiya on canada day 2014

i'm a hot air balloon that could go to space

your second home was the cabin. we moved there so dad could work. you loved the beach, but hated even a toe in the water. you loved the boat, but if the ride was longer than a few minutes you. just. couldn't. handle. it. we had visitors and you watched them from my arms. we went to elvis concerts. we danced in the streets. we garage sailed every saturday. we sun bathed. we caught some snuggles with dad. you hated any carrier i tried. we saw seattle. and vaseaux lake for the last time. wes tried to convince you that tummy time was seriously awesome (you didn't ever believe him). you slept through the biggest lightning storm i could ever remember and we even caught it on film. and stelle finally accepted you were in our pack.

it was a summer of getting to know each other.

although we have always known each other, haven't we?

it is all a blur.  a wonderful sun-soaked blur.

i love you.

mom

ps. i don't care what anyone says, i can still listen to this song on repeat. it was #1 when you were born. and i will always love it.

asher's foot-of-the-bed nursery

when you were born, we did not have an extra room for you. so the foot of our bed became your nursery. it doesn't look like much, but i promise i spent hours arranging and rearranging it. and i loved it so very much. you haven't had a space to call your own since we moved when you were just a couple months old. and you won't be a baby when you finally get your own room (and bed…) again. packing your things up was the hardest thing about moving. and looking at the pictures makes me oh so very excited to get those books out so we can read something other than mortimer over and over and over... eh asher baby?

love,
mom

taken with my mamiya, summer 2014