Passing

Lance's grandfather passed away yesterday morning, July 27.  He was the father to my mother-in-law, the grandfather to my husband, a follower of Christ.  He was loved by many and will be missed.

 

“In the evening of life we shall be judged on love, and not one of us is going to come off very well, and were it not for my absolute faith in the loving forgiveness of my Lord I could not call on him to come.”  -Madeleine L'Engle

May we live and love well.

Camp-Outs and Vacations

I've realized lately that one way to dodge the creeping threat of daily-life-monotony is to pretend to be on vacation.  I think about how I feel when we set foot in Boston, Vermont, or any new locale, and recall what it feels like to see things through fresh eyes, unencumbered by routine.

As a result, we've been "going on vacation" a lot lately.  It's more a mental effort than an actual one, since we rarely venture far...oftentimes our vacations are as simple as a drive to a quaint town down the road to walk around, grab a snack, and pretend we just hopped off the train.

Recently, we were downtown for one of Joshua's regular visits to his opthalmologist at Children's, and we chose to turn our doctor's visit into a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo and a nice stroll in the beautiful neighborhoods in that area.

This...

Children's Lobby...pretty fun!

A cutie playing with clinic toys.

Turned into this...

In case you can't tell, he's really excited about this particular vacation.

Blurry photo of a Sun Bear, mainly included because it's now one of our nicknames for Joshua.  We see similarities.

Last night it took the form of a husband and wife living room camp-out.  Admittedly this was more by necessity than for novelty (we're under heat advisory here, and just installed a window unit in the living room), though we chose to make lemonade.  We blew up the air mattress, popped a bunch of popcorn, and turned it into a movie night.  We did this a lot as newlyweds too, and it brought back memories.

Regardless of the form it takes, I firmly believe that it's important to try to be as present as possible in our days, and a great way to take steps in that direction is to see our moments through fresh eyes.  Drink it in.

Enjoy some vacation today.

Journey

I love to travel, but I hate the packing.  I inevitably save it for the last minute, and am far too controlling to allow my sweet husband to help much (what if--gasp!--he forgot something? OR PUT IT IN THE WRONG PLACE?).  So what generally happens is that I pack the night before, laying things all out on the bed methodically and by category, while trying to distract myself from the drudgery with DVDs (in this case, The West Wing), and bemoaning the fact that there is no way to pack *completely* the night before because you'll still need toiletries in the morning.  Sigh.

But then, the next day, as if by magic, I regain perspective.  We set our for the airport and the journey begins!  We're off to see loved ones/visit a new place/shake off the familiar! 

The stress of the preparation is rewarded with the likes of this...

Look, Mama!  Beach!

We arrived in Corpus Christi, TX after a lengthy day of travel with a 20 month old, and then spent the next few days soaking up the sun, frolicking in the pool, eating real TX BBQ as often as possible, and spending time with those who we get to see far too infrequently. 

Spinning cousins in computer chairs...

As it turns out, little man has great taste:

Just watch as I polish off this plate of BBQ like a pro.

Poppa (whose birthday the trip was in honor of), and Nana

"He touched you!"  Translation:  "Joshua put his hand on my face!"

Time with loved ones always goes far too fast.  We were so excited, though, to have the opportunity to pop over to Houston when our time in Corpus came to an end so that we could love on these sweet besties:

Erin & Cole, with new addition Miss Adelyn Sophia

These wonderful friends were kind enough to cart us around all over the place so that we could get our fill of the sorts of delicacies not readily available in Chicago.  Things like...

Spring Creek.  Oh good grief, this is such good food.  I'm salivating.

Los Cucos!  Best guac dip/salsa around...

And Joshua is a fan!  This baby ate a lot of chicken, rice, and beans.

And snowcones!  Can't get a good one of those in Illinois.

Joshua gets confused and thinks mommy is the snowcone.

Plus this little Addie pumpkin, who I could just eat with a spoon...

I'll give you a few other highlights, just for kicks.

"I'm so cozy in this towel, Auntie Manda!"

Not so sure...

"You're crowding me, Addie!"

A lil' Harry Potter watchin', just for grins.

Palm trees!

Kindred spirits

And so we return to our home-for-now, the land of Blago, blizzards, and plenty of overcast skies...albeit with a little extra vitamin D in our systems, happy tummies, and wonderful memories to sustain us.  Life is good.