Looking forward to summer

Summer begins in one week, and for the first time in my short lifetime as a mother, I am looking forward to it! This is the first summer we will be keeping the kiddos out of day care (at least at the start; we’ll see how it goes!), and despite some necessary finagling with my work schedule, leaving me with some looooong, late nights and very early mornings ahead, I am really looking forward to having a chance to relax a bit and enjoy the summertime with my kids.

Right now, we’re debating whether we can afford to take our annual trip to visit my dad and stepmom in Colorado as usual, or splurge a little and meet them in Florida (they’re planning a trip there anyway) and stop at Disney World for a couple of days as well.

All of this thinking and daydreaming and contemplating and budgeting has me thinking a lot about my dad and stepmom, whom we don’t get to see nearly as often as I’d like.

Sadly, I “owe” my stepmom, Anita, a couple of years’ worth of Colorado vacation photos. (If you know me, you know I’m excellent at remembering to take photos, but remembering to share the photos is sadly something I usually fail at doing.) So last night I spent some time sorting and re-editing some of the photos from our trip last year. I actually had most, if not all, of my photos from the trip edited at some point, but my editing style has changed dramatically since last year, so I felt the urge to re-edit all of these photos to meet my current liking. Why? I don’t know.

In my digging last night, I came across several pictures I would term “keepers,” ones I hope will not get lost on my external hard drive for all of eternity but will be shared in some way with my family over the years. Here are two of those. These were from our day out on Blue Mesa Reservoir. A great memory, for sure.

I love this photo because it really shows the dad I love (and a sweet look on my little girl’s face). He’s crazy and cooky, and I have lots of memories of him being like this when I was as little as my daughter. Those are great memories, ones that make me smile and that make me thankful he’s my dad.

And I love this one because of the look on Gabe’s face. He’s in heaven, loving every second of his time at the wheel. I have lots of memories of being on the boat with my dad and Anita in Florida when I was growing up, so again, this photo brings back lots of memories!

Well, can you tell I’m missing my dad and Anita? We’ll see them soon enough, I know. In the meantime, I am so glad I have photos (photos that might someday end up in a scrapbook, even!).