Where It All Began

We took a walk down memory lane this past weekend. I don't even know how to begin choosing which photographs to share with you. Sometimes only pictures can tell the story. The best part of my life started here...


We were celebrating a wedding at our alma mater, where Adam and I met back in '97 and were later married ourselves. Bella looooves weddings - getting all dressed up, dancing, eating - and she is just starstruck by the brides.

(She took it upon herself to add her signature to the others on the matte here.)

Will did wonderfully at his second formal event...

(Snuggled in the sling at bedtime.)

It was the first time we had been back to the college since we moved from the area several years ago. We found that some things never change...

... but many things were new. It took some getting used to, this new campus layout, so we walked the new roads, checked out the new buildings.

Bella was at a wonderful age for this weekend of nostalgia. She loved hearing [censored] stories of our time there and never tired of the words "And this is where Mama and Daddy...." I think she really got a sense of how special this place is. You could see it in her movements, the way she took in the sunset...

... and gazed at the water.

We traversed a lot of ground...
... and she did need a little rest now and then, conveniently right where our wedding took place.

All this exploring sure makes a girl thirsty. Good thing we happened upon a cooler from the previous night's reception, still loaded with ice-cold bevies ...

Bella said several times that she wanted to go to college here. I must admit, I think that would be pretty cool. Future seahawks?

On the way home, we drove by our first apartment and our first house as well. Wow. Our first 7 years summed up in one afternoon.

An amazing weekend. It was quite remarkable to stand in the very place I found myself falling in love, to remember how even then I could imagine being with no other, to hear our children's voices echo across the river where I watched hundreds of sunsets while wondering then what the future would hold...

... and to be holding that future right there, in a place of the past, where it all began.