August 12 14

Last summer we took the kids to Ann Arbor. We took Isabella on a road trip through Virginia and Washington DC. We went to Clevelands House. Twice. We spent many great days sitting by the pool, soaking up the sunshine and the smiles and splashes from our kids. We walked llamas and picked berries and went to museums and to local fairs and ate homemade ice cream outside of the Stonewall Jackson house.

We tried to make the most of one of our (only!18 summers.

18summers-love-live

This summer, well, um, this summer I sort of went nowhere.

The rest of the Martells went places. Camp in Wisconsin, camp(s) in Toronto, one of us went on a several-city baseball trip, two of us went on a boys-only road trip to see my brother, one of us spent the day at Lambeau Field and took photos of herself almost stepping on the field.

We did try to go to the beach once, but there was a tremendous amount of rain.

This summer I worked. A lot. Well, I did change my morning alarm from 5:45 to 6:10 which is probably the world’s saddest summer hours, but it’s an extra 25 minutes. 

This summer I worked on my business. I had amazing shoots, including friends’ families and cake smashes and newborns and headshots and adorable 5-months-old twins and two Mitzvahs (a bar and a bat!) and a very special challahs for chayalim shoot. I have spent a lot of time improving my skills by taking photography courses and using my kids as guinea pigs practice.

Ali-shoot

This summer I held my mom’s hand while my stepdad had (successful—he’s doing great. He was even given permission to drive again!) spinal surgery.

This summer I was a tourist in my own city.

This summer I got together with friends and laughed and played pool and had gelato and sat in our backyard and ate Argentinian food and tried homemade beer and did the ugly cry during The Fault in Our Stars and BBQd and played games and ate baked goods.

This summer I started praying again and reconnecting with my faith.

This summer I read some really good books.

This summer I biked many miles with my kids. And walked many miles with my dog.

This summer I got to spend more time than usual with my awesome nieces and nephews, the ones who live out of town, but also the ones who live here.

cousins

This summer I discovered my son’s voice. All it took was for the two loudmouths to skip town for him to open his mouth and open his heart to me. He taught me a lot about superheroes and baseball.

So yes. This summer I didn’t actually physically travel anywhere on vacation.

Technically I went nowhere.

But nowhere sure looks pretty damn good. 

 

 

 

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  1. Sounds pretty good to me!

    Comment by Kristabella on August 12, 2014
  2. Sounds like a great summer to me!

    Comment by Sarah on August 12, 2014
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