Arroyo Seco from my iPhone

This last Saturday I "floated" the Arroyo Seco River with some friends.  In the morning, we hiked upstream to a sandy beach tucked away under a bridge and green canopies.  There, we made sandwiches, inflated some floaties, and readied ourselves for a day on the river.  The rest of (the very hot) day was passed not only by floating, but also by wading, rock-hopping, shore scrambling and swimming our way back downstream.  Along the way, we stopped and lounged at a couple more sandy beaches and splashed around in some perfect little swimming holes.  Some of our group also climbed the river's cliffs and dove into its deeper pools.  What follows are are a series of photos from our day on the river. This last Saturday was definitely a good day.

All photos were taken with my iPhone and edited using VSCO Cam.

On Our One Year Wedding Anniversary

Some photos from our one year wedding anniversary:











In honor of our wedding day, we exchanged cards and small gifts, took some photos, toasted with presecco and went out to eat at Lillian's Italian Kitchen (I had the black truffle gnocchi--yum!).  It was a lovely little evening.  Also, I'm pretty lucky to have a husband who humors me.

Thanks to both of our mothers and our best man (and great friend), Jake, for sending us some anniversary love in the form of cards and gifts.  Also, to all our friends and family who sent us their love on August 6th.  I feel so lucky.

A Mushy Post

One year ago today I became a Mrs., a Nelson and a wife and the man who was already my best friend, love and partner became my husband.  And in marrying him, I gained so much.  I gained his world--his wonderful family, their traditions, the places and activities he and his family love . . .  Put simply, my world got bigger.  And he, in turn, gained my world--my big, crazy family, our traditions, the places and activities we love . . .

I think there's a tendency in our culture to think of marriage in terms of what we give up--the million "other fish in the sea", our singledom, our individuality, our time, our freedom or our privacy . . . But, I think that's all wrong.  In my experience, being in love has opened me up to all sorts of new things.  It's an incredible thing to share your life with another person--to be able to introduce each other to your preferences, your passions and all the things you hold dear.

When I married C, we'd already been together for nearly seven years and in that time, I'd discovered that the exchange never stops, that sharing things with someone you love is always exciting and kind of magical, and that life with a person you love just gets better over time.  On our wedding day, a family friend told me, "every year it gets better.  You don't think it can but it always does".  Experience had shown me that this was true.  Now, one year of marriage--and of ups and downs--later, and I'm happy to report that those words still hold true.

Today, our relationship and the life we share together is somehow even better than before.  We continue to try new things--new recipes, new runs, new beaches, new games, new adventures . . . And our life is still full of firsts.  In the last year we hosted our first Thanksgiving, shared our first Christmas, purchased our first house and adopted our first dog (the sweet and funny little Buckwheat).  Marriage is not without work (and struggles) but ultimately, my life is so much richer, wider and more complete with him by side.

So Happy Anniversary, Mr.!  Your are my other half, my best friend, my favorite subject, my sounding board, my confidant, my goofball, my running partner, my partner in crime and my go-to.  Thank you for knowing my favorite candies, forgiving me when I'm grumpy, putting up with my shutterbugging, cooking dinner for me when I'm feeling too tired or lazy and for sharing day after day (no matter the kind--good, bad, happy sad, boring, exciting, quiet, mad) with me.  Really, there are so many other names I could give you and another million things for which I could thank you but I'm sure this post has already gotten too long (and all of my sweet nothings probably don't belong on the internet).  So thank you for being a wonderful, loving husband and choosing day after day, to share your life with me.  Here's to our first year of marriage and to the many more years to come.  I love you so very much. I do! I do!

Glimpses of Water

I feel at home near the water.  I've never been too far from it.  I grew up on a small, idyllic lake in a suburb of Seattle and I spent countless weekends and holidays up at a family cabin on Whidbey Island which is nestled in the waters of the Puget Sound.  I guess you could consider my college years in Walla Walla a bit of lapse--there were rivers (Walla Walla means "Place of Many Waters")--but I never spent much time on Walla Walla's river banks.  Still, something about field after rolling field of wheat under big expansive rural skies feels oceanic to me.  So I felt at home there, too.

There's so much I love about being near the water.  I love the different sounds of water as it moves--rushing, flowing, lapping, trickling.  I love its many colors--its neon starts and finishes, its brilliant blues and steely greys.  I love its varying texture--how the ocean can look like a smoothed out piece of crumpled tin foil or a lake can be so still that when you go to dive in, you could swear you're going to plunge right into the sky.

So it's no surprise that I love to photograph water.  In the last year I've probably taken thousands of pictures of water.  I've captured the Pacific Ocean from a dozen (or more) beaches along the Central Coast and I've studied the San Lorenzo River from every bridge in Santa Cruz.  I also have pictures of Cottage Lake, the Methow, the Puget Sound and Loch Lomond (among others).

This collection of photos is not just about bodies of water, though.  Specifically, it is of glimpses of water--photos not of the vast views we take in as we gaze out at the horizon but of the more zoomed in impressions we get as we glance down at water, in any of its varied forms . . .

Walking along the levee, exploring beach after beach--I feel at home here, too.

Happiest Place on Earth

A couple of weekends ago C and I went to Disney Land (and California Adventure!) with his mom, aunt and two little cousins.  I love Disney Land!  Sure, it's expensive . . . and crowded . . . and you spend far more time walking around and waiting in lines than you ever spend on rides but it's also kind of magical.  Disney Land is so far removed from reality that it becomes easy to forget your real world concerns for a day and get caught up in the moment.  I have a lot of fond memories of Disney Land but when it comes down to it, they're not really about Disney Land, the place--they're about the people I'm with in Disney Land . . . and acting childish and totally silly and getting caught up in fits of uncontrollable laughter.

The gang: "We got soaked on Grizzly River Run!"

A favorite: California Screamin'!

Screamin' for ice cream!

Some evening tea?

Guess I'm not the king . . . *

The wildest ride in the wilderness!

Pluto being goofy!

Just Mickey the Mr. and Me! **

This trip to Disney Land was as happy and silly and memorable as ever.  C's aunt, Maddy,  consulted her guidebook for everything which proved to be both helpful and amusing.  Apparently, Thunder Mountain was too wild for one particular guidebook-reading-60-year-old so Maddy, who is nowhere near 60, decided to pass on the wildest ride in the wilderness (and many others).   C's mom and cousin, Ella, were much more adventurous though, and went on most of the "scawy" rides with us.  We even got Ella to go from 0 to 60 and upside down on our favorite ride, California Screamin' (and she had fun)!

I really enjoy going to Disney Land with different people.  I love to share the thrill of a favorite ride with someone new.  Rides are supposed to be shared.  You laugh and scream and hold your breath (and maybe someone holds your hand and nearly squeezes all the blood out of it!).  Then, once you're off the ride, you recount the shared twists and turns and splashes and laugh about it all over again.

A big thanks to my mother-in-law, aunt-in-law and cousins-in-laws for a super fun trip to the Magic Kingdom (and a nice break from reality)!

*photo taken by C
**photo taken by C's cousin, Ella