fall break

we took a quick little fall break this year, kicked off by a no-school teacher inservice day, and propelled by our need to escape the madness of school/work/community involvement that really heightens our stress mid-fall. so we went to santa cruz, and i could (and probably will) go on and on about how absolutely lovely and breathtaking and pleasurable it is to visit there, i'd like to instead say that the highlight of the trip was the people. all our california people (except one, who couldn't swing it this time around) came down to santa cruz and carved time out of their busy lives to greet us. it was magic, and we felt loved and cheered to see these favorite people. because for real: this crew is like a "best of life" highlight reel.

anna and the girls came and we had lots of laughs and time to connect these cousins



chris and oliva and wes and isadora came, and it was immediately a warm reconnection, and even the kids kinda started to acknowledge one another



jackie and brian and their kids lucille and bascom live there and found lots of time to share with us.


and perhaps most importantly, we had a wonderful and easy time with one another, the four of us, which was exactly what we needed.

and we are thinking of these california friends, as they start to adjust to the new normal of drought, wildfire, and electrical black outs to prevent more fires. there was smoke in the air, and lights out in the cities, and lots of talk about the future.