Loving potato

I love both how happy Evelyn is looking at Ben in this picture and also how much at one month old she resembled an adorably lumpy potato.

Surreal

It doesn't feel like it's been a whole year since Evelyn and I were just hanging out in bed together taking lots of naps all day.

Verdant

Michigan summer is beautiful... I miss it already!

Farm

Last Monday, Evelyn, Rebecca, Mom, Dad, and I went to the Chippewa Nature Center homestead farm. As soon as we got out of the car, Evelyn was excitedly pointing towards the sheep, ready to go see the animals.

Apparently, Aunt Rebecca and Evelyn both felt a bit skeptical about this sheep grazing outside the fence.

 So excited about the pigs. (And also horrifyingly enthusiastic about chewing on the splintered, mud-spattered fence.

Evelyn takes pig-farming seriously.

Inspecting the cows with Grandpa.

Crater Lake

To continue my theme of wishing I were somewhere other than the heat of Texas, here's Crater Lake in Oregon. It's in the seventies all week there.

Skyline

In the summer of 2013, Benjamin and I had a chance to see New York while traveling to my cousin's wedding. The skyline from the Empire State Building is pretty delightful, as advertised.

Success-like

I went to a painting place with some friends a few months ago. My painting may have had a mass-produced quality, since everyone in the room was painting the same thing, but it was still a lot of fun to do.

Route 66

Part of our road trip to Colorado this summer was along the famed Route 66. 

It was pretty fast-paced and high-tech.

Childhood

Hammock

The view from the hammock at my uncle's in Colorado this summer.

Cliff Palace

This summer, we visited Mesa Verde National Park, which has some amazing ancestral Puebloan ruins.

Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde

Old digs

Speaking of nostalgia for the Middle East, I'm kinda missing our old neighborhood in Bahrain. This was our street in Suqaya.

Nostalgia

Several of my coworkers are Turkish. They've installed a teapot that makes Turkish tea in the teacher's lounge, and which is reminding me how much I'd enjoy visiting Turkey again.

Sunshine

It may be the first day of September, but it's still sunny and hotter'n'anything around these parts. I like Fall. Maybe it will come visit us sometime.

Fourth

Mom, Dad, and Granny at the fireworks a few years ago. Happy Fourth of July!

Ancient

A necropolis in Turkey. The light was amazing when we visited, and the contrast between the old stones and the new vegetation was beautiful.

Unexpected

Thrifting at Salvation Army today, I found a rather unexpected tag... I had no idea that there were clothing manufactories in Bahrain.

Nostalgia

(Wandering in downtown Adliya)

I'm definitely a little homesick for Bahrain right now.

Wanderlust

(Germany)

It's spring, and the wanderlust is striking. I'd happily pack a backpack at this point and wander around somewhere in Europe! This year we'll just have to have exciting adventures in Dallas and maybe go on a more exotic adventure next summer.

Cotswolds

I always loved visiting the Cotswold cottage at Greenfield Village (thanks in part to my mom's enthusiasm). Imaging how amazing it was to visit the Cotswolds and find entire villages of such cottages!