Limelife Photography

In preparation for our 5th-anniversary trip to the Grand Canyon, we took an equally exciting trip to REI. It was practically a vow renewal, me telling Jesse he could get all the long underwear and camping pants he wanted. The boy was so, so happy. Which, in turn, made me so, so happy. We pranced and paraded, mostly circling the clearance racks, holding up thermals, really examining the different thicknesses of wools, talking wildly about how cold it was going to be.

As we decided if Jesse should get the blue long sleeve or the RED long sleeve, I smiled so big inside. “Get whichever one you want, Baby Cakes!” “But which one do YOU like best?!” he said. His spirit transforms me. He’s not always the most verbal or emotional. I sort of take the cake in those departments, in our household. But when he is (even if it’s about blue or red or camping), it moves me. It moves me to a place of realization, where I wonder how it’s ever possible for me to get the blues or be grumpy: I’ve got THIS GUY. We’ve been on so many adventures together, from meeting and traveling in Africa, to shooting weddings in Maui and New Orleans to last-minute road-tripping to the Sequoias. But the greatest adventures of all are moments like that, 20 feet from the checkout line at REI.

He chose the red shirt. We paid for our warm weather apparel, he grabbed my hand and we opened the doors out into the world, where mountains and oceans and canyons are calling. Together, we will go and live and remember those moments and all the other little ones, like the day at REI, that make our life, so beautifully, what it is.

Here’s to the best five years of my life.