change

As much as I look forward to summer's warmth and play and bounty, I'm always ready to slow down around this time of year, for rain and cozy evenings.  There's just something magical about autumn and it's my favorite.  Rain poured yesterday as we drove to Silverton for coffee and then to a farm stand to get some corn to freeze.  It seemed the perfect time for a walk together, so we stopped along Butte Creek at Scotts Mills for a while before heading to Miller Cemetery & Church to wander through the gravestones.  The days of gray skies and bare branches are just around the bend and I am looking forward to the change - change in nature and light, change in habits, change in food, change in routine, change in adventure.  Are you?

envelope

We picnicked, fished, took pictures, and collected sticks on the banks of the Santiam River yesterday.  I watched our boy a lot, remembering being in this very same spot on the river less than a year ago when he seemed so much smaller, so much younger...so much more dependent on us for little things.  I try not to think it, but in moments like these I feel him growing up and slipping through my fingers, as inevitably he will really do one day, and I want to remember everything about the day ~ how beautiful it was, the things that we talked about, the way that he looked, the smiles in his eyes ~ and tuck it all into an envelope in my heart I can reopen again and again.

canada : butchart gardens

We spent last week in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada with my parents for a much anticipated family vacation!  The trip up was long (freeway closure in Portland due to Bridge Pedal and very slow stop-and-go traffic in Seattle) and we just barely made our ferry up in Tsawwassen ~ but we did, finally met up with my mom and dad, and it was smooth sailing from there to Victoria.  On our first full day we went to Butchart Gardens.  I hadn't been there for 20-some years and was really excited to see it again.  We toured almost the whole place, had some of the best soft ice cream we've ever had, and did a little souvenir shopping before taking the bus back to our hotel.  A great first day!