hope

how amazing would it be if you could bottle up those precious times you have with your loved ones and open it up just to experience it again at any given time? if i could do that, i would have bottled up our evening last thursday. i was supposed to go to atlanta and decided to wait because i just wasn't feeling that it was where i needed to be that night. i've learned to pay attention to those nudgings and so glad i did on this one. luckily it was a light homework night so em and i picked up pizza and pb got wil from lacrosse practice and we all met downtown at pb's studio. the two of us used to have date nights with pizza and wine there a lot but we haven't ever taken the kids to join us. i've mentioned before how beautifully his studio lights up at night and it was especially cool in there on thursday. he has been working on a project for the new harbin clinic cancer center and had some of his large completed photos there for us to see. i need to write another post about this (or he does) because it has been quite a journey for him. he has been photographing cancer survivors and hearing each of their stories along the way. it has been an exciting and sobering project at the same time. very proud of him.

so thursday night was the unofficial unveiling of some of his photos for us. wil and em were intrigued. they didn't quite understand the term "remission" and they had lots of questions about the faces they were seeing. we sat and ate pizza and talked about which photos we liked best hanging on the brick wall in front of us. so intriguing to hear their opinions and what they love about a photo. it was like our own little art critique.

after we ate, pb took some photos of all of us to test his lights, backdrop, etc. for a party we had scheduled for last night. he wanted to make sure his idea would work so we were more than happy to serve as guinea pigs. we all know that wil and em are not shy in front of the camera. everyone was jumping and laughing and i think we got some pretty great photos.

if we had planned this night in advance, it probably never would have worked out like it did. the kids kept commenting on how much fun they had and how they loved eating dinner at pb's space. family dinner is so important to me. that time of day when we are all together, can decompress, share about our highs and lows, sometimes argue, most of the time laugh, means so much. i think it provides a stability and security for parents and kids. it's the time of day when everyone can let their guards down and be glad to be home. so it was fun to do this at pb's space and break up the routine of the week a little bit.

if i could bottle up that night, i would. the little things like that make such an impact on our lives and those are times we are all going to remember. last week was a bit of a heavy week for some people we care about so having that time together on thursday makes me realize what matters. i hope wil and em will always remember that silly evening as one of their best childhood memories.