FLASHBACK FRIDAY

{WORDLESS WEDNESDAY}

EARLY MORNING CUDDLES

i love early morning cuddles together as a family. sometimes hudson curls up like this on the pillows and it just melts my heart.  

and p.s. where did my fat little baby go?! this kid is all shoulder blades and ribs.

CRAYON ADVENTURES

jeremy and i haven't encouraged hudson to color as much as we probably should have. and it's because all he wants to do is eat the crayons. we've mostly had this experience in restaurants where they provide the crayons and something to color on. as though eating out with a toddler isn't hard enough. now we add the drama of taking crayons away from this toddler because he doesn't want to use them properly. you can imagine how that usually plays out.

so, the other day i picked up some of the big fat crayons from Target. i thought their ample size would make them seem less edible. as you can see from the video above, i was wrong. the tips are the perfect bite sized snack. but even with the little nibbles here and there, this was a victory since there was some actual coloring that went on. the proof is now up on our refrigerator, hanging proudly. 

i thought this is where our crayon adventures ended for the weekend, until i came into hudson's room yesterday morning to find this.

i thought our house was fairly hudson proofed, but i failed to consider the bath crayons sitting on the edge of the tub. he doesn't even seem that interested in them when he's in the tub, let alone seeking them out for a renegade pouf coloring mission. rookie mistake on my part. one i don't plan to repeat. thankfully these marks came off with little more than a damp towel and some elbow grease. hopefully in the future we can keep the crayons off furniture and out of little curious mouths.

FLASHBACK FRIDAY

missing my sister right now. i love this old picture of us from one of our annual Yosemite trips. happy friday!

VOWS

while sorting through some photos in my Dropbox account, trying to choose which to order and put up in our house, (the only photo we have hanging up of hudson was sent to us by a friend, embarrassing) i came across these vows that i didn't remember writing until i started reading them. i don't think i've looked at them since getting married. (these aren't the vows we said to each other during our ceremony, but a little exercise we did before to get warmed up.) they make me smile so big and i want to put them somewhere i won't lose track of them again. so here they are.

      What is the single greatest thing about the person you are going to marry?

It’s your curiosity and enthusiasm for life. You become interested in something and want to know everything about it. You feel passionate about your “Stuff You Should Know” podcast and your nightly Jeopardy. I love that!

     When did you know that you were in love/ know that this person was the one you wanted to marry?

I knew I was in love the instant I saw your Officer Dangle short shorts Halloween night. Not really. In all honesty I don’t think there was one instant that I knew. That idea is a bit too romantic for me. Over time, our love grew and evolved. I began to see more all the time that you are incredibly kind, silly, curious, intelligent, diverse in your interests and passions, and accepting of the person that I am. The more I got to know you, the greater my understanding was of what a loving best friend, husband and father you could be. I’m marrying the person that you are, but I’m also marrying the person I know you will be over time because I am wholly confident that I’ll always be able to count on you. When you asked me to marry you at the top of a mountain, feet buried in the snow, I had no doubts. 

     What does marriage mean to you? Why do you want to be a married person?

I have heard some people say that your spouse is actually just a glorified roommate. I’m sure many days that is true. But, to me marriage is about making a commitment to someone, vowing to be by their side forever no matter what. It means agreeing on the important things, while learning to compromise and be pliable about other things. It means having babies and raising those babies to be the best people they can be. It means laughing ‘til we cry, challenging each other and sometimes arguing. It means having a pal to explore with, a solid embrace to cry into, and a person to be strong when I cannot be. It means listening even when I don’t want to or when I want to interrupt. It means being able to be quiet when I don’t want to speak. It means the good, the bad and the ugly. But of course it also means those very special moments that we hold close to our hearts always.

     What will change about your relationship once you are married? What will stay the same?

To sum up what will be different is the idea that this is FOREVER. For me, it is incredibly comforting to know that NO MATTER WHAT, this is for always. We’ve lived together for over a year so some things will feel the same. We will share a name and a bank account, which is different. We will have new titles, husband and wife, and with that will come new responsibilities and challenges. I’ve been told that it’s hard to articulate, but things will feel different. We will feel different. I’m ready for that. I’m looking forward to more of the good stuff we already have. More cooking and baking together, dinner parties with friends, more camping trips and hikes, more years of Bay to Breakers silliness, more hugs and kisses, more costumes, more travel, more knitting, more love.

     What is your most favorite memory of your partner?

The proposal, our first real date when we strolled down to Solstice talking and learning about each other, sitting on the hill behind The Greek in our Viking helmets, many nights in the hot tub with friends making drunk person stew, cooking together, making our Hulse family Christmas video, our spontaneous trips to The Tempest after work for the special, you being SUCH an amazing cheerleader when I finished my triathlon, that night we watched Stop Making Sense over and over. There are so many, I can’t list them all here. But there are more and I know there will be TONS more to come! I love you more than anything!

FOUNDER'S GREEN

hudson has become rather obsessed with slides. swings, he could take 'em or leave 'em. but slides, those are the ticket to complete happiness. we managed to each take a turn with him on the inflatable slide prior to the meltdown that resulted from having to wait in line. the patience required for such a task is not in an 18-month-old's makeup. this is documented below. 

but, problem solved. he found another slide, if you could call it that. with no line. this entertained him for a solid 30+ minutes while we sipped our pinot noir and stuffed ourselves with cured meats, cheese and bread. oh, and how could i forget the little tub of black truffle butter, spread onto all of the above. hudson favored the apples and pears, which i think were really just there for good measure anyway.

the rain arrived just as hudson was starting to tire out, our cue to head home. the point of the outing was to watch The Sandlot on the big inflatable screen and we didn't even make it to the opening credits. but it still felt like a success. as hudson gets older we'll be able to participate in more of these great events. for now, we're just getting our feet wet, and possibly a little muddy.