Sunny and Justin

Congrats to two amazing people! What a beautiful, fun, hip, amazing wedding and reception. Love you both!!

blueberry picking

Blueberry picking needs its own post. It might just be one of our favorite things about Michigan. And our kiddies love it! The weirdest part was that I ate the blueberries and they were delicious. I never like them at home!! I also am fully aware that there is some sappy cheesy pics of me and John here. It's just that a blueberry farm is romantic... even with all your children and extended family! Hee hee.

Michigan

Prepare yourselves people. I am on a blog roll. About 32 hours after returning from California we left our house for the lovely and wonderful Tawas Bay, Michigan. John's grandma had a cottage on Lake Huron that she passed onto her children. And we lucky people get to go there. I love it there. So we had another sweet filled week to tan our bodies, fill our bellies, play games, watch movies, jet ski, sail, catch up with family, build sand men, pick blueberries and find fun new places in Michigan. We heart Michigan!

 

In my basement...

In my basement there is a ton of stuff. Too much for my little brain that craves organization and order. In this pile of stuff tonight I found a gold mine. A huge box of photos to sift through, and a folder of notes. 

I cried. The folder of notes was huge. Full of notes from my first couple years of college from my roommates, and from John as we were falling in love. It made me miss my friends so badly, and it made me love them even more. Perhaps my favorite was a card from John written on Dec.25, 2000 that said, "Will you spend the rest of your Christmases with me? Love, John. " 

And then the box. Pictures from when I was little to just a few years ago. More tears flowed. I think partly because I am not sure when I got from there to here. The extremely sentimental side of me ached to go back to all those times. Just for a day. I would pick a day at Bonneville Elementary, an old school Beach Week, Clayton Jr. High (preferably the day the slushie machine broke during the school play and Adrianne, the SB president at the time, saved the day and the school play), an East High football game, a School Dance, a water polo game, one of the many water polo trips, a Sunday dinner sitting around the old white kitchen, Acapella trip, Europe trip with my family, Freshman Year, 303, Jerusalem, Hilton Head, Falling in love with John, Getting married, having Soph... my goodness the list could go on. I hope Heaven is one big slideshow where we can re-live the days we choose. I might even re-live some of the crappy ones too. Okay, maybe not. 

I guess I go to bed tonight with two sappy conclusions. I like life. I am glad we get to live it. It can be hard, and it can hurt, but I feel grateful for it. And I am going to start enjoying it more today. Because a wise woman once said... "Tomorrow, today is going to be yesterday and I'd like to like where I've been." 

I sure like where I've been.

Beach Week...

Why I love Beachweek: 

the 67+ amazing people

sitting on the beach

the chocolate covered macaroons

the bakery box

watching all the kids

the good food

spending time with my family and friends

all the adorable new babies

tan lines

beach week salad

the laughing

the singing

the big meetings that sometimes are so awkwardly funny

being with my parents who i love so much

the morning runs

silverstrand

the long memorable drives that included lots of throw up and peeing of pants this year

and I could go on and on..... 

here are some pics.. there will be more as they trickle in from other cameras. 

til next year....

We love all you beach weekers very very much!!!....

toothless grin

Sophie lost her first tooth! It was adorable. She was so thrilled. She lost it at the beach, just after she got out of the shower... Love this little girl! 

Mid Year Mix Tape Giveaway

Ash is off to the city for a night of karaoke.  

In her absence, I am storming the Bastille- attacking the fortress of meaningful memories and photographic record keeping that is our little blog- and raising the flag of triviality.  I reclaim this space for album of the month.  

I will make no attempt to declare the best album of each of this years first 7 months.  And I won't attempt a comprehensive list of the years best albums thus far.  

I will start it back up with this, 

The Mid Year Mix Tape.  

There will be an itunes link (way down at the bottom of the page) for those interested and impatient.  But, as a way of saying I'm sorry (to Paul and Tyler for what has been missing the last 7 months, and to everyone else for what will not be missing for the next 5) I will mail you a copy of The Mid Year Mix Tape.  If you want one.  Just leave a comment.  and an address maybe.*  

These are songs from the albums I have enjoyed most this year.   Is there something I've missed?  You tell me.  I would guess there is.  All I know for certain is these are the bands I'd like to see play at the Merriwether Post Pavilion**  I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

*unless you A)live in Farmington B)intend to see me at some point soon or C)don't want to leave your address.  I'm going to cap this at a million copies, so act fast, these things have legs.  

**I guess I respect the album, sort of.   I know I respect a lot of people who love the album, but, frankly, I don't enjoy it.  I tried.  I can hear the indie gods asking me why I am kicking against the indie hype pricks... but it's not happening.  No confirmation.  Though, I would like to see my daughter do a dance to "My Girls" at her next dance recital, Courtney take note.  

What's on the album? (optional reading material-for the bored) 

Answer: 15 or 16 songs, one or two from each of these great artists:

1.  Casiotone for the Painfully Alone-  Vs. Children.  Beautiful and sad and hopeful.  Has a Nebraska-like feel to the lyrics.  Natural Light is a song about a photograph.  Short, perfect melody.  Northfield, MN is a little crime drama that sounds like an Elliot Smith song.  If you are in town next week (I am not, sadly) go see him play at Slowtrain on the 29th.  

2.  The Rural Alberta Advantage-  Hometowns.  Technically this album came out late last year.  Those who received any late copies of our best of 2008 will have heard some of these songs. The album was re-released on SaddleCreek(Omaha based label, home of bright eyes, the good Rilo Kiley albums, the faint, and various other emo/indie/twee bands) a few weeks ago to pretty favorable reviews.  It's probably my most listened to album this year, if I'm honest.  You hear a little Neutral Milk Hotel in his voice.  The drummer is incredible.   Get the album. 

3.  The Antlers- Hospice.  This album will see a more wide release in a few weeks thanks to FrenchKiss records (The Hold Steady, The dodos, passion pit, etc.)  The lyrics are heavy and very well written.  Look at the album cover, listen to some of the songs and make out for yourself what it's about.

4.  The Thermals- Now We Can See.  Rock music.  Done well.

5.  Elvis Perkins- Elvis Perkins in Dearland.  Great songwriter with a great brass section.  

6.  Say Hi-  I used to think they were a Death Cab for Cutie cover band with Pedro the Lion's Dave Bazan as their singer, now I think they're more of a Spoon cover band with Pedro the Lion's Dave Bazan as their lead singer.  I have loved them in both cases.  (lots of Spoon like sounds lately.)

7.  White Rabbits- another Spoon cover band.  Really good one. 

There are some other songs on there.  Bon Iver had a nice EP in Jan. and there's a song from that.  Laura Gibson put out another quiet album with great songs, Spoon primed us for the upcoming album with an EP.   There's a song or two from the Dark Was The Night comp.  The Devil Whale, a SLC band, released an album last year that I missed, but a few of the songs were so good I felt they needed a spot.

And that is all I will say about the music.  If you want the mix, let me know.  Or if you're adventurous and/or wealthy go buy all the albums.   I'll draw you a picture on the cd if you read this far.  or maybe I can get ash to make you some cookies.  they're really quite good.