Our pretty gorgeous---but almost dated!---family photos

Not only did our friend Lisa from New York invite us to join them in the Outer Banks at a fantastic beach house this summer. She also suggested we do a beachy photo shoot while we were there. We kindly obliged her :). 

If you're near Rochester, New York or if you vacation at the Outer Banks in May, contact Lisa for amazing family photos.

I think these are my favorite family pictures we've ever taken. That pier at Avon, the boys, the playful authenticness, color scheme, and, vainly, my longer hair.

 With this new kiddo on the way, I had to post and appreciate these before they were outdated. (Three kids, what?!)

 Thankfully, this one will never be dated. I love this picture and this amazing guy!

A Nice Note

I just found this cute note on the side of the fridge, constructed from our word magnets. That Ben, such a wonderful guy!

How Sweet It Is

I just want to stop--and thank you baby. You've been working and studying so diligently, and to boot you share, listen to and reassure me, and help me with a smile. You're such a good daddy, great husband and will be a great future physician! Good luck with the 6-week stretch before Step 1 of the boards!

This Marriage

I've never studied poetry. I started to by reading Sound and Sense when Seth was a newborn. But then he started to move around. And thus ended my study of poetry. One day I'll go back to it.

In the meantime, the only poetry I get is from music. I've already mentioned my esteem for Eric Whitacre's music. Aside from the music though, the texts he chooses are so good.

Here is one. I feel like this 13th century Persian poet really captures the hope we have and the sweetness that can be found in marriage.

This Marriage

Jalal ad-Dīn Rumi

May these vows and this marriage be blessed.

May it be sweet milk,

like wine and halvah.

May this marriage offer fruit and shade

like the date palm.

May this marriage be full of laughter,

our every day a day in paradise.

May this marriage be a sign of compassion,

a seal of happiness here and hereafter.

May this marriage have a fair face and a good name,

an omen as welcome as the moon in a clear blue sky.

I am out of words to describe

how spirit mingles in this marriage.

Bountiful Court

Sometimes when I'm in the routine of yes-this-is-me-and-this-is-my-life I think about Bountiful Court.

Ta-da!

Okay so it's kind of an eyesore. But an eyesore with good memories. It's where Ben and I met.

This is the perspective from my apartment 1 to Ben's apartment, number 20. Just across the way beyond the ping-pong table. Sigh. And the door's opened, how typical.

We read The Giver and talked about marriage on this lawn.

The view down 200 East and almost being home.

Bountiful Court was chapter one to the "Choose your Own Adventure" book of my life. I could have skipped to page 10 to go on a mission. I could have flipped to page 54 to choose a history major. And I'm sure there were several roads that led to marrying this or that person.

But I got lucky. The best possible combination of choices converged. An unlikely combination. The new, nice, never-home guy in apartment 20. And me.

When I think that today is just another typical day--same ol', same ol'--I think of this. He's coming home to me? We live here in New York together? We have a beautiful healthy son? There's nothing typical about that.

I never thought when he came to borrow oven cleaner that it was really to see me. I never thought after our date to Salt Lake that Ben's words would be the most healing words. I never thought after we talked in the grass that we'd ever understand each other this well, that we'd melt into each other this much, and that our story would be this happy.