PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 6/20/11

After 2 long plane trips...to and from...3 countries....seeing places people only read about....time spent in hotel rooms, busses, subways and trains...many experiences...almost 500 photos and many videos...and many stories we look forward to hearing in the days to come...CHRIS IS HOME! He may never know how much I missed him and was so excited to know what he was doing each day and what he was seeing...that I would look up his itinerary and then look up the places where he was visiting...that I would fall asleep and wake up to figure out what time it was where he was (along with doing that many times during each day) ...that I woke up this morning with the anticipation of a child on Christmas Day...I could hardly wait to see this kid... this experience he has had has amazed me, impressed me, worried me, made me sad (selfishly), made me want to explore more, made me beam with pride at Chris being able to do this, made me miss someone more than I thought I could and made me smile in my heart that he is HOME...SAFE AND SOUND!

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 6/18/11

Camping trip #1 of the year is now in the books...Buffalo Peaks...campfires...cold nights...hanging out...awesome breakfast...wolves howling in the distance...Nick didn't bring a sweatshirt, thus quite chilly...worst part: putting up the tents...best part: being there...

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 6/18/11

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 6/14/11

On his way home from work, Todd make a stop at Sam's to pick up the necessities for their camping trip this week...health food at its finest. YUM! (to the left side of this photo, there are grapes for them to take also...my contribution)

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 6/9/11

...and he's off...to Paris, London, Edinburgh. What a crazy feeling to send of my "little boy" to 3 different countries in a completely different continent. He should be in Paris right now as I type this and will be there for 4 days and then onto London and finally, to Edinburgh. What an experience he will have. So strange to know he's so far away . It is certainly more quiet and different without him here and I have to say that I sure miss him already.

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 3/31/11

"An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed with beauty and the imagination is electrified by some haunting quality in the world or by a spirit of voice speaking from deep within a thing, a place or a person."...I think that says it all. I love you Ruidoso and #57, sometimes so much that it makes my heart hurt just a little.

PROJECT 365 PICTURE OF THE DAY 3/24/11

This is such a beautiful church (St. Francis de Assisi) right in the middle of Santa Fe near the Plaza. Although not Catholic, you couldn't help but feel the holiness within the cathedral and the beauty and architecture was truly amazing. I particularly loved the outside and the statue of St. Francis de Assisi with the animals as he is the Patron Saint of Animals and Ecology. Within all the photos, I took one of Christopher in front of this because I can see Chris in a similar light (not a saint, of course, but a person of love, kindness and compassion to animals and the environment). I had fun using photoshop to capture this a little differently than the original photo and reflect back on this photo with peace and a special memory.

TWO WEEKS AGO TODAY

Two weeks ago today, we were enjoying the sandy beach of "The Shores" in La Jolla with the entire Nelson family. These photos make me smile and I can almost feel like I'm back on the beach with all the boys. Photos tell so much more than just the initial snapshot...I can look at the photo of Todd and see Nick and Chris in the background. Todd has a very relaxed, happy smile and looks awesome :) The photo of Zach shows him sitting in the sand and his comfort in staying close to the shore, but still enjoying the water. Nick and Chris heading out to the ocean with my feet in the photo just makes me smile because I know that I was sitting there and smiling as I watched them head out. And finally, the photo of myself and Nick is just relaxed and happy. I am thankful for this time we all had together as a family, and specifically, as it relates to these photos, the time and memories we created together as the 5 of us.