hot air boons.

On Thursday night, the clock struck midnight, and it became Friday . . . our anniversary.

Chris says, "Its our anniversary. Do you want your present?".

But you see, we agreed not to do presents.

Given the fact that we live the poor student life, its pretty rare that we do do presents.

"You got me a present?" I ask.

Yes, he says.

"But I didn't get you a present," I say.

I know, he says.

Chris walks to his backpack and comes back, with the present hidden behind the couch. He tells me how grateful he is that I blog, how much he loves the blog, how it is our family journal. I'm trying to think of a present that has anything to do with blogging.

Not in my wildest dreams did I expect this:

[isn't she lovely?]

I've been wanting a big real super camera for quite a while now. Our camera got sand in it at the Oregon Coast and has occasional emotional breakdowns, so I joked with Chris that it was a sign it was time for me to move up to the big time. I wasn't serious. Because remember how we're poor? But my husband is sweet and awfully good at spoiling me, and this counts for all 5 years of anniversary presents, and the next five years, and my birthday and Christmas. Ha! I was so surprised and so so excited. I love her.

I do not, however, have any idea how to use her. I've been sticking to the manual setting, and even with that the pictures come out so beautiful. I'm excited (and scared) to play around with it. I love taking pictures.

A few practice/play shots:

[our friends' little Kennedy. isn't she a beauty?]

So despite being totally intimidated and afraid of my new prize, I'm very excited.

I even tucked away my fears and took her to a public place.

I heard from a friend about a hot air balloon festival about 30 minutes from where we live. Carly knows all about hot air balloons, because for some reason children's books refer to them as a practical mode of transportation. So we decided to head out and show her real "hot air boons!".

Now, I thought it would be a few hundred of our closest friends and a few cute balloons and maybe some fair games and food. No. Instead it was several thousand of our closest friends, a full out carnival, and tons of hot air balloons. I could not believe how many people were there. Cameron and Chris tried to score some elephant ears, but the line wasn't moving. Later we asked someone how long they waited for theirs: [drum roll please] one hour! For an elephant ear. Needless to say, we just enjoyed our sack lunches and waited for the balloons. It was fun, though, and when the balloons finally did take off, Carly was more interested then I expected . . . as long as she could take breaks from watching to do sprints.

We drove home after they all took off and I sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider" about 800 times to keep Carly awake until we could put her to bed (she doesn't transfer from car to bed well). The girl loves her some "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I would get done and she would demand, "Again!".

That's a wrap for the weekend.

Summer appears to be in full swing, as Carly's knees and hands are constantly scraped and bleeding. She falls because she wants her body to move faster than her feet can take her. I'll pick her up and ask if she is ok and through her tears she says "Ya, ok! Swing slide!". Apparently the worst part about falling is that it slows our progress toward the ultimate dedestination.

She likes to hop like a frog and say "Riggit! Riggit!" (her version of ribbit . . . ). Then she will request that Chris and I "riggit" and we must be getting old, because riggiting is just not as easy as it used to be. Chris did it once and I'm pretty sure every joint in both his legs cracked. Hi-larious.

She has also learned to say "of course" when you ask her to do something and "here ya go" when she gives you something.

And she loves checking on how you're doing: "You ok, mama?".

But most of all, she likes doing things herself. She has entered Miss Independent phase just in time for Independence Day, and her favoritest phrase of all is "Carly do it!". This includes locking the car (she knows exactly the button to push; the other day she locked it and it honked twice and she hands me the keys and says "There ya go, mama"), unlocking the front door, getting in her carseat, opening the blinds . . . all the meaningless tasks you don't think twice about. It makes everything take twice as long, but it sure is cute. I did, however, draw the line when Carly said "Carly do it!" while I was chopping tomatoes.

Oh, and thanks for the kind words concerning my seminary calling.

I've moved past the anger and denial stages, and I'm approaching "acceptance".

Fingers crossed.

xoxo.