Canyon Picnic

Oh, those mountains of ours! Our little family had had several weeks of high-stress on all fronts, all with looming deadlines in quick succession. Our schedules didn't really have any room, but we were all starting to burn out and get grumpy with one another. So, that usually means that we need to put on the brakes in a major way and take a freaking breather. So, we did:

We took an impromptu picnic up the canyon and ended up staying there for hours and hours, exploring, chasing and catching insects, picking flowers, reading, relaxing, breathing in the fresh air, and spending time together. It was the best thing we could have done, and all of us came away happy, rejuvenated, and with more patience. I'm so glad we live close enough to put our feet on mountain soil within a matter of minutes, if we want.

Garden Goodness

We've had eons of rain around here, which means our garden and yard are so dang happy! And we are dang happy too because one, we haven't had to turn our sprinklers on yet, and two, we have tasty food on the way:

Now we just have to catch enough of a break between rain storms to actually keep up with the weeding. It's been a challenge lately, I tell you what, but yum! We are all looking forward to eating up the garden fresh edibles!

Piles and Piles

Around here, we've been arting our buns off like crazy kooks! It seems like that spindly-legged kid of ours has caught our project passion and creating habit, which is good and bad. Good because making things is awesome! Bad because...what a mess! Her project piles gather on our couches, counters, piano benches, desks, fireplace, and floors, especially in high-traffic walkways:

We can't blame her for all the messes, though, because she most likely picked up on the busy project-making buzz surrounding our grownup shenanigans. We've been leaving our own piles of our creations everywhere, too.

While we do enjoy simple and somewhat tidy spaces, we also strive to foster creativity and imagination around these parts.  For us, that usually involves experimentation and not being attached to materials used to carry out our wild schemes. Also, it gives us a lot to think about when it comes to tradeoffs and sacrificing a clean home for the greater good.

What are some ways you embrace imagination and other good things that are messy?

Baby Boy!

Things are well underway as we prepare to welcome a baby boy to our family at the end of July:

Name suggestions from our favorite three-year-old genius include Rooster, Holland, Walter, Chickenboy, Jackjack, and Uggawugga. Pretty classy names, the lot of them!

Graveyard Hunting In Sunnyside

You may or may not know of our love for cemeteries, and with Kirk's skillz in family history, we get to take some pretty fascinating trips to hunt down resting places. Our latest cemetery adventure found us in the middle of Nowhere, Utah, in a tiny little mining town called Sunnyside:

Alas, we did not find the headstone we were searching for, but we assumed there might not be one since the internment was a rush job and happened like 100 years ago. We did, however, enjoy the quietude of a tiny town lodged up against a sun bleached mesa. The place gives off a very desperate vibe, which caught me off guard a little. It was interesting to see who decided to make such a place their home. There must have been a lot of Polish and Greek immigrants to the area when it was established, which surprised me at first, but made sense after I thought about it.

Also, please note, should you ever travel there, that the cemetery has more poop in it than I've ever seen in my life! There have got to be rabbits and sheep and mountain goats all over the place. In fact, I'm pretty sure the rabbits dug their dens around and through some old wooden coffins. We eventually just gave up trying to dodge the crap, it was that bad. But, for recompense, there was a school nearby with a playground, and all our poop troubles were forgotten there.

I love the character each individual cemetery has, and I love how a collection of a group of people can tell a story without speaking just as a single headstone can often tell its own story with a few numbers. So many stories to tell, guys.

Do you have a favorite cemetery that's loaded with character?