“there’s something like a line of gold thread running through a man’s words when he talks to his daughter, and gradually over the years it gets to be long enough for you to pick up in your hands and weave into a cloth that feels like love itself.” -j.g. brown

bill & bryn, c. 1981

ryan & ellie, c. 2010

happy father’s day to all the incredible dads out there, especially my two favorites <3

you may remember our post about ellie’s favorite stuffed animal, baby bear. he is her love, the one she sleeps with every night, the one she uses to self-soothe by chewing on his tail (formerly his nose and ears, too, but she mostly leaves those alone now).

you may also remember how frustrated we were when we looked into buying baby bear’s twin (just in case) only to find he was recently retired, which meant we couldn’t find him anywhere for less than $50.

i was ready to throw in the towel. “maybe we’ll just get her the blue one,” i thought. “maybe the difference in color won’t phase her.” but did ryan give up on baby bear’s pink identical twin? no, he did not! just this week he managed to find a brand new baby bear, from a “non-smoking home” with original tags and all, from a woman in seattle looking to sell him on ebay … for $24! hallelujah!

sure, $24 may seem like a lot of money to spend on a little pink bear, but to ellie (and to us) he’s priceless <3

here they are together, OGBB and his twin for safe keeping:

welcome to your new home, BB2!

“yosemite valley, to me, is always a sunrise, a glitter of green and golden wonder in a vast edifice of stone and space…”

our yosemite weekend has come and gone, and we have some beautiful photographs to show for it. the trip had several high and low points, but the highs absolutely overshadowed the lows.

letting ellie jump for joy on the bed when we first got to the cabin, seeing her face light up as she pointed to the water at the base of bridalveil fall, watching her run and do hip-hip-hoorays on the o’shaughnessy dam … there’s nothing quite so amazing as seeing the world through the eyes of a child, and i never *truly* understood that until now.

“as a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unself-consciously to the soughing of the trees.”

to see a world in a grain of sand
and a heaven in a wild flower
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
an eternity in an hour

study nature, love nature, stay close to nature.
it will never fail you.

definitely looking forward to taking her back again someday <3

a little after four o’clock yesterday afternoon, our good friends eric and alicia welcomed their first baby, a precious little girl they named brylie mckenna blum. she weighed eight pounds, five ounces and measured 21 inches long at birth.

it’s been a long road for mommy alicia, as brylie was estimated to arrive on may 5th, 16 days before her actual birthday. they scheduled an induction for thursday morning and labor lasted more than 30 hours. but in the end, daddy eric received the greatest gift ever when his little girl arrived on his 29th birthday <3

we had a chance to visit them in the hospital tonight and were thrilled to meet little miss brylie at just one day old. she was so teeny-tiny! i almost forgot how little ellie used to be <3

we spent a little more than an hour with the happy family of three before wishing them a good second night together and heading home. in the car we reminisced about our own baby girl at that age, and we both agreed that we’re sooooo glad she’s bigger now :) sleepless nights and all that stress … oh, the fun they’re going to have! but what a ride it’ll be, and we couldn’t be happier for them.

congratulations, eric & alicia! brylie is absolutely beautiful.

…a GIRL! she simply couldn’t wait another two weeks to find out from the doctor, so this morning she and travis went to womb with a view. we asked her to call us after her appointment to share the news, and we were lucky enough to be her first phone call :D we’re sooooo excited to be an auntie and an uncle, and for ellie to have a brand new baby cousin. congratulations, carerra & travis! she’s gonna be one pretty little lady <3

last saturday we went to a pottery painting studio in lafayette called color me mine, but we couldn’t blog about it until now because we made presents for ellie’s grandmas!

it turns out ellie’s a little too young to paint on small objects without making a huge mess (duh), but we attempted to get her handprints on a couple of mugs with the help of a nice girl in an apron.

once she had her painted hand on the mug, all she wanted to do was wiggle her fingers, which is why the prints look … a little funny. but she tried her best, we had lots of fun in the process, and we know her grandmas are going to love their special mother’s day mugs :)

we really enjoyed color me mine and look forward to taking ellie again when she’s a little older :)

we decided to try our luck with ellie’s pool again last weekend. we knew it was going to be a warm day, so we put the water in early and left it in the sun while we went to the park for a picnic.

hours later, after we’d been home for a bit and ellie awoke from her nap, the water was the perfect temperature for an afternoon dip (i know because i toe-tested it and wished there was enough room for all of us). we didn’t give ellie a chance to sit down by the water and ponder her surroundings this time – we just brought her outside and stuck her in. luckily, she loved it right away … maybe because she was NAKED!

at least we know now it’s not unfamiliar bodies of water she’s afraid of … it’s just cold water!