little things i love

For the very last day of summer vacation, I wanted to do something special – something to mark the occasion. Now that my girlies are older, I treasure the summer months when I get to have them home all day with me and we can just let the day flow, taking us where it wants to, without caring where we end up. I love wearing our pjs until 11:00 and staying up reading at night ’til our eyes hurt. I love it when we spend the entire day dressing up the American Girls for a major fashion show, or playing Harry Potter wizard school in the playhouse. I love that when the ice cream truck drives by my girls shriek and are already running to the door, because in the summer we never say no to ice cream, or cookies, or cupcakes…

To really remember the last day of summer, I had decided that I wanted us to take a little family trip. Since our actual summer vacation had been at the beginning of July, I thought that one last little getaway would be a fun memory to hold onto as the summer was fading away. Since we only had the day, we took a vacation playing tourist right here in our own city: Seattle. We’ve lived her for 7 years and have definitely made the rounds taking everyone who visits us to see the important local landmarks. But it’s been awhile since that’s happened, and it was really nice to fall in love with our city again. We made our way downtown to Pike’s Place Market with a stop for coffee and pastries at Le Panier, a “Very French Bakery” that we adore. We drank our hot chocolates and Cafe au Laits. We ate our pain au chocolats, croissants, macaroons and palmier cookies. We soaked up the fabulous French atmosphere and loved every minute of it.

Then we headed into the market to buy fruit and check out all the beautiful flowers. We made a stop in Beecher’s Cheese shop – their Flagship is the BEST cheese – and then wandered over to the famous gum wall and groaned over how gross it looked – always fun!

Later we drove to Madison Park, another part of the city we love. The girls think the playground there is the best (their zipline is pretty fantastic!). We found Bing’s, a fun new spot for lunch, and sat in the sun for awhile. Ahhh….

Then it was home to pack up the backpacks and choose our first day of school outfits. Teeth brushed, quick bedtime story read and lights out. The day had flown by, but we’d made the most of it and accomplished my mission, created one last amazing summer memory before our everyday back to school life takes over. When you only have one day, it’s important to make it count.

With my wedding anniversary coming up this weekend, I’m remembering last year when my hubby gave me the best gift ever! We were out to dinner at a nice steakhouse and my computer nerdy man was sitting there looking at his phone – what the heck?!? But when he pulled up the email he’d been drafting all week but had not sent to me, I was blown away. It was a list: a list of memories both ordinary and exceptional that made up our almost 20 years together. Some were funny (“Sitting in a cafe in Paris watching some guy eat tartare de boeuf”), some were simple (“Giving Bella and Sophie a bath in the sink in our first house”), and some were amazing (“Kissing you for the first time”)! Together this collection of memories made me so happy I cried. What a lovely gift to give someone to remember all the little moments that add up to a wonderful life spent together.

The only gift I could give in return was a list of my own. So a few days later I emailed him back, adding to his list with more of my own memories: “Hearing them yell out ‘She has red hair!’ when Bella was born, taking our dog EVERYWHERE, our day in Sienna on our honeymoon.” I could go on and on, and that’s the beautiful thing. This list will continue growing over the years reminding us that it’s the little things in life that really matter.