thoughts and plans

[images of our summer - july 2012]

We are gearing up for our annual summer trip to Wyoming. It’s fair time, when the whole family (all seven kids + a couple spouses + kids) plan a visit to town and chaos always ensues. I just love fair week. There will be rides and funnel cakes and cowboys and game nights and a serious lack of sleep. This year we’re also crazy enough to cram in a family photo session. I’m lucky my in-laws are so rockin’.

Clay and I celebrated our 8th anniversary this week with a dinner date at one of our favorite restaurants. Then, of course, we hit up Maverick for some slurpees (coke flavor for him, cherry for her) and went for a drive. I love doing this with Clay. We have the best conversations while slurping our drinks and going wherever the steering wheel takes us. We have a fancier anniversary outing planned next month, after we recover from the fair week festivities.

I can’t help but smile everyday at where we’ve ended up after such a difficult year. The other night I had a hard time falling asleep, so I started counting all the ways I saw God’s hand in my life throughout the course of just one day. I listed one thing after another after another and I fell asleep before I got even close to running out of blessings. It gives me goose bumps, I tell ya!

Fair week also marks the beginning of the end of summer. It’s bittersweet, but a time I always look forward to. This year is no exception. So much has happened this summer and the craziness is far from over. We are still living with my parents but are hoping August will be the month we find a house. Hallie starts preschool in September. And, believe it or not, we are crossing our fingers that an actual family vacation will happen before long. This will be the first since Hallie was born and an event we have talked about and dreamed of for far too long.

Good stuff is happening around these parts. It’s a beautiful thing.