a different perspective

Whew. We are home from New York! It was an insane trip home . . . amazingly enough, United pulled through and our flights arrived even early on the way home. But the children were just miserable, having been up since 3:00 in the morning to catch the ferry to get us to the airport on time.

It was a pretty bizarre trip. That's the only word I can think of to describe everything that happened. What really struck me, though, was how many people commented to me, "Wow, this hasn't been much of a trip for you, huh?" or "Some vacation!" And while there were times I was thinking the same thing, I couldn't help but think of the old cliche that life is what happens when you're busy doing other things. Being in New York and having an unexpected death in the family and a very ill grandfather aren't things I expected to happen, and the events definitely disrupted what I had planned to do while I was there . . . but then I immediately think, these things didn't ruin my vacation, because this is just what life is - the unexpected, the day to day victories and drama. I am grateful I got to see my grandfather and give him a kiss and squeeze his hand and tell him I love him, and I am glad I was there with the girls to comfort my poor mother when she got home from the hospital each and every night, with wear and worry planted deep into her eyes. We had a lot of red wine the past three weeks, my friends.

So I am home, it is lovely here, it definitely feels like fall. Besides my newfound peacefulness with life being as it is, I also have gotten pretty bored with my standard swing shots of the girlies. This is their favorite place to be, and it's not super exciting for me to push them for an hour on end. I usually grab my camera and take the same old portrait over and over again . . . until today! I am trying out a new wide angle lens and I LOVE it.







Ava insisted on changing into this darling little dress this afternoon, so we made the best of it and had a little photo shoot in our yard where Carson keeps his manly tools and supplies.











I have a gazillion things to do and get caught up and meetings to attend and photos to edit and bills to pay and mail to open and magazines to read and wine to drink . . . but I am completely at peace taking it one day at a time. Hope you all had a lovely week!