Monday, July 29, 2013

Thirteen, and counting.


It was nearly 13 years ago, August 2000, when I moved to this town between the mountains. I’d been an official high school graduate for all of three months and this place was my next chapter, my college town. It was viewed as a quick pit stop, my stepping stone to bigger and better things. I would come, get educated, and then move on. I’m not sure where my “move on” destination was, but this place wasn’t on my short list {or long list, quite honestly}. I liked it here well enough though. I moved in with nine {!!!} great roommates, became bff’s with some girls from my program, and got a job at Jamba Juice on Yellowstone.

It was late December of that same year when I meet Spencer. And by July we had both fallen truly, madly, deeply in to dating each other. Things moved quickly for a couple of Mormon kids {ha} and by the early part of 2003 we started talking marriage. Over time ‘my life’, and ‘your life’, was given a fancy little title of ‘our life’ and we spent a good portion of our time sharing future dreams and plans. We’d marry. Finish what was left of our education. And then move far, far away from our college town {naturally} and live happily ever after.

We bought our first little house on 8th Avenue a couple months prior to our wedding. And then on July 12, 2003 we married.

Life was so dreamy as newlyweds in our cozy yellow house on 8th Avenue. And those years of just me + him are some of my most prized memories. Around our second year of marriage we decided it was a good time to move a baby crib into the guest room. And honestly, the schedule was bedazzled with perfection: we’d get pregnant in July, I’d graduate in December, the baby would come in April, and we’d celebrate the babies first Christmas in the same house that we celebrated our first Christmas together three years earlier. In the spring Spence would get his diploma and then we’d move far, far away from our college town {naturally} and live happily ever after.

In July we found out we were pregnant. I graduated in December. And baby Brynlee arrived March 22, 2006 three weeks earlier than we’d expected.

Spence was offered an engineering internship for a local semiconductor company in the fall of 2006, and although we knew we wouldn’t be in this town for much longer the work {and pay} was so much better than his previous janitorial job that he took the internship position without hesitation. It was good to get his feet wet, we reasoned, and it would make him more saleable to future engineering companies that existed outside of this college town.

That year we wrapped enormous empty boxes in pretty Christmas paper and barricaded the Christmas tree from our curious 9 month old.  And then with the New Year we started talking graduation and future career plans. Every plan had one thing in common: it existed outside of this town. The time had come, and we couldn't wait to move on.

Honestly, Spencer never even typed up a resume or filled out an application to try to market himself as an engineer. A month or so before graduation he was offered a full-time engineering position with the company he was interning for. The company that was in this town, the town that we’d been so fixed on leaving. And something about it felt right. In fact, everything about it felt right. We knew it was what we were supposed to do.

I can still, very clearly, remember our often repeated conversation when trying to decide if we should take the offered position. You know, I would say between gritted teeth, mainly trying to convince myself, we can be happy wherever we are.

And here we are. Thirteen years later. And, can I just say: I LOVE THIS TOWN!! Like, all caps and exclamation points kind of love. This is home. This is where our story is being written. This is where we belong – right here in this town between the mountains. 

I'm so glad it's home.


#summergram2013

#summergram2013
No 7.22|1
||operation: planting something for privacy, step one||

#summergram2013
No 7.23|1
||indian hot springs||

#summergram2013
No 7.23|2
||their trouble, these two||

#summergram2013
No 7.24|1
||ice-cream||

#summergram2013
No 7.25|1
||on the way down||

#summergram2013
No 7.26|1
||crimson red||

#summergram2013
No 7.27|1
||at grandpa’s funeral||

#summergram2013
No 7.27|2
||i like him||

#summergram2013
No 7.27|3
||three||

#summergram2013
No 7.27|4
||three, again||

#summergram2013
No 7.28|1
||right over head||

#summergram2013
No 7.28|2
||kiss denied||

#summergram2013
No 7.28|3
||gettin’ big||


||#summergram2013: a daily photo collection documenting summer 2013||

Monday, July 22, 2013

#summergram2013

#summergram2013
No 7.18|3
||bike rodeo, #thescouts, #organizedchaos, #checkoutspence’sface, #he’stheboss||

#summergram2013
No 7.19|1
||ahoy matey||


#summergram2013
No 7.19|2
||photo #928 of kids on trampoline with sprinklers||

#summergram2013
No 7.19|3
||slumber party on the trampoline||

#summergram2013
No 7.20|1
||a beautiful day, congrats to the pope family!||

#summergram2013
No 7.21|1
||sunday’s playground||

#summergram2013
No 7.21|2
||family photo||

||#summergram2013: a daily photo collection documenting summer 2013||


#summergram2013

#summergram2013
No 7.12|1
||my people made me breakfast in bed!||

#summergram2013
No 7.12|2
||our tenth year as mr. and mrs.||

#summergram2013
No 7.13|1
||building fence||

#summergram2013
No 7.13|2
||hired help||

#summergram2013
No 7.14|1
||backyard picnic||

#summergram2013
No 7.14|2
||it was bigger than my palm, and it hung out all day in our backyard||

#summergram2013
No 7.15|1
||my very last visit||
||i love you grandpa, thank you for your life, your love and your example. you will always be one of my favorite heroes. after you are done kissing grandma, find sweet maycie laine, and tell her that we love her||

#summergram2013
No 7.15|2
||bryn + brynlee||

#summergram2013
No 7.16|1
||bad hair day||

#summergram2013
No 7.16|2
||my girlies||

#summergram2013
No 7.17|1
||it’s raining outside||

#summergram2013
No 7.17|2
||soaked entirely||

#summergram2013
No 7.18|1
||ready, set, handstand||

#summergram2013
No 7.18|2
||the little lady||

||#summergram2013: a daily photo collection documenting summer 2013||

#summergram2013

#summergram2013
No 7.9|1
||we spell summer with an s.n.o.w.c.o.n.e.s.||
#summergram2013
No 7.9|2
||i adore him||

#summergram2013
No 7.9|3
||finished the library reading challenge||

#summergram2013
No 7.10|1
||homemade play-doh cookies||

#summergram2013
No 7.10|2
||him, her, him, and a naked baby||

#summergram2013
No 7.11|1
||da’boss||

#summergram2013
No 7.11|2
||child labor: staining the swingset||

||#summergram2013: a daily photo collection documenting summer 2013||

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

#summergram2013

#summergram2013
No 7.4|1
||parade claustrophobia||

#summergram2013
No 7.4|2
||the five of us on seven four||

#summergram2013
No 7.4|3
||a runaway||

#summergram2013
No 7.4|4
||fourth of july in a swimming pool||

#summergram2013
No 7.4|5
||#whitetrash||

#summergram2013
No 7.4|6
||firework show by jake||

#summergram2013
No 7.5|1
||lil’ firecracker||

#summergram2013
No 7.6|1
||off on a daddy and me date, skating rink or bust||

#summergram2013
No 7.6|2
||paper boats afloat||

#summergram2013
No 7.6|3
||snowboots + shorts||

#summergram2013
No 7.6|4
||i heart him||

#summergram2013
No 7.7|1
||sunday entertainment||

#summergram2013
No 7.8|1
||lava hot springs||

#summergram2013
No 7.8|2
||phtotbombed by gav||

#summergram2013
No 7.8|3
||my girl and a diving board front flip||

#summergram2013
No 7.8|4
||jace and the blue and yellow slide||

||#summergram2013: a daily photo collection documenting summer 2013||
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...