the end of summer

Max and I treated this last summer as a grand finale in a lot of ways, knowing that with medical school starting in the fall, and our baby boy arriving this winter, our lives would drastically be changing for the better by the end of the year, but drastically changing nevertheless. Neither of us worked for a minute, and we spent our entire summer traveling and eating out and sleeping in and crossing off every last bucket list item I could think of. I don't know how any other summer will ever be able to compare!

Now that school has started, our routine has too. Max comes home every day with an hours worth of stories about meeting new classmates, dissecting his first cadaver and how great his professors are going to be. Our new apartment feels more like home every time I walk in the door, which is a real feat since leaving our first apartment in Orem made me cry more than once. The baby usually kicks as I read in bed late at night, and though I didn't think it would happen this quickly, this new chapter in our life isn't feeling as new or foreign anymore. It's all beginning to feel like home.

So here are some pictures I quickly grabbed off my phone to post of our grand summer finale. It was so, so good to us.

My first adult purchase (after a house of course, and perhaps an upgrade 

from my slowly dying honda civic, will definitely be a boat)

Wallowa Lake never really changes, (mini-golf tournaments, talent shows, mourning over nonexistent dole whips, etc) except to say that every year our family seems to grows bigger and closer. I'm lucky to have cousins that double as best friends.

Thanks to Mandie, the curse of the car is real and has been passed onto me. RIP Ford Fusion.

I now live five minutes down the street from a Trader Joes. 

I honestly wrote this down as a blessing in my gratitude journal one night.

Hell has to be eternally packing and moving and unpacking boxes.

Saying goodbye to the Cherry Hill 1st Ward Primary after 3 1/2 years left me in tears. I don't know if that's because I love those children so much, or because I have to start attending Sunday School again.

Fourth of July always remains one of my favorite holidays

(though RIP Republican Party)



And finally, though this has nothing really to do with summer, here is a DARLING video of our little friend Nora who I can never get enough of.