With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair

Levi is napping in his crib for the second day in a row (huge triumph!) so I am sitting in silence. It's glorious. I forget sometimes how much I enjoy being alone. I value time to think, to sort my feelings, to catch up with myself. I like to clean when I'm alone; organizing my physical space helps me clean up my emotional space, too. I like to read or journal when I'm alone. I like to sit on the front step, close my eyes, and turn my face to the sun. Somtimes I enjoy going to the bathroom alone (actually, I always enjoy that, but it's a rarity now that I have children). I just feel a bit more composed and centered after some me time. Life is temporarily calm over in wildville.

Last night Zach and I booked our first trip (other than our honeymoon) together. We are heading to Denver in July for the wedding reception of one his Army buddies. I cannot express how much I am looking forward to this trip. I absolutely love airports, for one thing. People-watching is a writer's wonderland--imagining where each person is from, filling in the blanks of the lives that pass me by. I also really love the magazine kiosks and Starbucks stores every 30 feet. Mostly, though, I think the excitement of going somewhere gives airports their magic. Holding that ticket in my hand, knowing that within a few hours I'll be miles above the Earth, headed to another place, is intoxicating. Fleetingly, I wonder if I'll be a different person once I reach my destination. I'm extra excited about our vacation because I get a chance to show Zach Estes Park. This is the place my family has been going since I was 6 months old; my parents have this photograph with me in a carrier on my dad's back, smiling in the sun, on a giant rock in front of the Rockies. My dad has a huge walking stick and short-shorts. They've been telling me recently that it was on that trip that I learned to pull myself up (in the crib they'd set up on the backseat of their Cutlass.... evidently seat belts and car seat laws were much more lax back then.) Anyway, Estes Park follows the Big Thompson River and features the nearby Rocky Mountain National Park, possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been. I have so many memories stored up from this place, trips with my parents and brother, like the giant cinnamon rolls at the base of Crosier Mtn. or the time we got sucked into the women's U.S. soccer final in the Olympics and missed our morning plans. I used to pull the phone book and my journal onto the back deck, which jutted out over the river so you'd hear gurgling water as you slept with open windows, and pretend I was working in my spy office. Trust me, spies receive lots of important phone calls.  It's a bit like coming full circle that now Zach and I can create our own traditions, possibly around places we visit on this trip. There's just something so special about sharing things from your childhood with the one you love. I'm letting him glimpse parts of my life he wasn't around for yet. Like I said, I'm really excited.

It'll also be an adventure for us because we are camping in Chatfield State Park. I've never actually camped. Not because I hate nature, but because my parents' idea of "roughing it," as they put it, is the Holiday Inn. I'm mostly worried about being cold at night, because I HATE being cold when I sleep. One thing is for sure: We'll make plenty of memories. And wild stories, knowing us.

My beautiful children (Levi excels at old man face)

Two more shots from avophotography.blogspot.com.