jane + trace

after felicity at the lake and just before heading back to california, i got to celebrate with my dear, dear friend jane at her wedding! jane is an angel – truly. there have been many times when i have knelt in prayer and thanked god that jane clayton is in my life. to be with her on her wedding day was so joyous.

{i stole these pictures from facebook – don’t they look fabulously beautiful and happy?}

i got to meet jane’s now-husband trace – when he was just her boyfriend – when i visited her in houston in february. i am so deeply glad that they found each other and know they will create something super awesome together. the sealing in the draper temple was transcendent. i was overflowing with happiness for my friends and conviction of the sanctity of marriage.

…and the reception was lovely.

 
{the rose in my hand is a consolation prize for my attempts to catch the bouquet – all i came out with!}

i love celebrating love.

cutting hard behind the mastercraft

my last day at bear lake every year is always so melancholy. i’m quite never the last one to leave, so leaving means i am missing out on some awesomeness, and saying goodbye to family makes my heart ache.

this year, though, a morning on the boat with my siblings made for a pretty stellar last day to lessen the blow.

the bottom 2/3 of the eyre siblings hopped on the beloved old mastercraft (we’ve been skiing behind this boat for over 25 years!) and we took turns gliding atop the perfect teal water. my brothers are outstanding water-skiers (and saydi and i hold our own pretty good). the super fluffy white clouds hung shimmering in the warm sky. the cold cold water and the rush on the ski were electrifying. we hollered and cheered from the boat as each sibling cut hard across the wake. it was a real party.

i took all the goodness of that morning and wrapped it up tight inside me – surely enough to last until next year!

three jades

the summer i turned 12, i moved in with my sister shawni for a few weeks. shawni was 8 months pregnant and had a just-barely-one-year-old and, since i was wildly obsessed with my nephew, i was happy to come out to washington dc to help her wrangle her toddler and prepare for a new baby girl. one night at about 2am, i woke up to shawni and dave moving through the living room where i slept on the couch. they whispered through the dark that they were going to go have the baby. i surely couldn’t sleep the rest of the night.

to be with my niece on the very day she was born at the hospital (and to get to take care of my nephew at home) was such a special experience for me. shawni and dave decided to name that new gorgeous girl wellesley jade pothier – her middle name matching mine. i was elated to have a tiny namesake, and i’ve loved that girl fiercely ever since.

fourteen and a half years later and six months ago, my closest-in-age brother welcomed his first daughter into the world. i was in utah with my parents when she was born, and i’ll never forget driving in the car with the phone on speaker while eli and julie announced their newborn’s name. zara jade eyre – her middle name matching mine. i was overjoyed to have another tiny namesake, and i’ve loved that girl fiercely ever since.

i think we’re going to have a pretty cool club in the years to come – doesn’t zara already look delighted?? (and yes, elle is 3 inches taller than me!)

for real life

my neice lyla – she’s the sparkliest little girl there ever was – often uses the phrase “for real life.” as in – are we really going to bear lake? for real life? or charity is my favourite aunt – for real life.

this year, lyla’s parents were in charge of planning and executing our annual bear lake eyrealm reunion. they chose “for real life” as the theme for our four days together, encouraging us all to think about what is really real, and what that means for how we see the world and live our lives.

pretty nearly the absolute realest thing, for me in my existence, is the love i feel for these 42 people.

…and also for that place, which is sewn up with millions of memories and much of my identity.

to be there with them was the best. for real life.

highlights include (many more pictures coming!):
-cheering welcome parties as people arrived
-beach bonfire and sparklers and music
-playing on the new “grandchildrens’ green” – a long luscious lawn put in this summer
-magnificent sunsets and majestic storms changing the colors of the world
-a cut-throat final match in the traditional mixed-doubles tennis tournament
-waterskiing and sailing and canoeing and paddle boarding and swimming
-incredible food every meal
-making a music video together
-adults laughing and children crying in fear factor, round 2 (quite a few throwups this year)
-teams running across the finish line together in our 11-mile, all-42-participated “real life relay”
-family testimony meeting on the dingle church lawn
-fantastic talent show acts by groups of cousins
-starry nights and balmy mornings
-sending off paper lanterns into the twilight (magic amidst chaos)
-several really awesome discussions, including one on our last night wrapped up in blankets on the deck
-witnessing the baptism of our pseudo-sister eva’s son london
-breakfast at the lighthouse overlooking the lake and the mountains
-sharing my favourite people and my favourite place with my favourite boy

dream come true

the boy is really good at helping me make a dent in my bucket list. on our way up to bear lake we made a (pretty big) detour to see the spiral jetty. i’ve wanted to experience this peculiar spot for nearly ten years – ever since i learned about robert smithson’s seminal piece of earthwork art in the contemporary art course i took at new york university.

the spiral jetty is in quite the middle of the middle of nowhere. after a turnoff at brigham city, we drove through some pretty desolate land until we reached the golden spike national historic site. we stopped for a bit to appreciate this place where the union and central pacific railroads met to connect trains from sea to shining sea.

then we drove 15 miles further into the middle of the middle of nowhere on a dirt road. we were both so excited when we turned around the corner and we beheld the spiral jetty! the work of art was submerged due to high levels of the great salt lake for over 3 decades after its construction. we saw it two feet above water on a glorious hot day.

now, prepare yourself for an obnoxious amount of pictures of me making my way to the center of the jetty. the boy took these of me and i think the sequence is just really cool!

the sky was blue, the sun was balmy, the water was pink, the view was vast, the salt crystals were amazing, and i was a happy camper! it was a neat little dream come true to experience the spiral jetty.

friends in the mountains

{sorry for my blog silence the past couple of weeks! i’ve been busy playing with family and the boy at bear lake. i just arrived home right in time to start my new job in the morning. i’m excited to catch up on blogging about all the lovelies of being at home with the people i love most.}

 

 

i invited my dearest friends catherine & abby, along with their husbands and babies, up to my parents’ house for dinner. it was heaven to sit on the deck, eat, reminisce and catch up. it was a perfect summer evening and my heart was so happy. i love these people so very very much.

 

 

the day after the fourth i got to meet up with my roommates from my semester at byu for breakfast at kneaders. it was so fun to see them, especially jessica’s babygirl dorothy. and…that french toast!

 

 

after breakfast, lisa and i (and her little brother who was visiting!) met up with megan to hike stewart falls up provo canyon. it was so so gorgeous! (and an exciting adventure since we met a wild turkey in the middle of the path!) oh my goodness i sure do love those utah mountains. and these friends!
 

i’d been planning with lisa to go to pizzeria 712 (all the rage in provo and i’d never tried it) and a rooftop concert (ditto – all the rage, never tried) that evening of the 5th of july for weeks! there was an hour long wait at the restaurant, so we ordered take-out and ate it on the wet grass (it had poured in the midst of a thunderstorm earlier). we went to the rooftop only to find out the concert had been cancelled due to the weather. we brought our blankets and camping chairs up the stairs and sat on the roof nonethless, watching the sky change over those spectacular mountains and it was just so lovely! everything kind of went wrong that night…but it ended up that serendipitously everything went right!

favourite faces in favourite places!

some good loving for america

i’m pretty convinced that provo, utah is one of the best places ever for the fourth of july. the boy and i spent independence day with his family cradled in the grandeur of that timpanogos valley. we drove down from park city the night of the third, and i stayed with my friend lisa, who stayed up to paint me some patriotic nails. in the early early morning we went to see the balloon festival – provo sends off dozens at sunrise every year. we were sad when the weather did not allow for launch or even blow up…but i was glad it got us up early to enjoy a full, long celebration of one of the top 4 days of the year!

i seriously, seriously love the fourth of july. this year it included:
-the provo parade! lots of marching bands and small town beauty queens – and a couple hundred missionaries!
-swinging on a hammock with the boy in his grandparents’ backyard – relaxing and talking to relatives
-a big, extended family barbeque
-a nap on the grass in the dappled sunshine
-a run for byu-creamery-best-in-the-universe chocolate milk, and a slightly later run for milkshakes
-oooohing and ahhing at all the aerial fireworks being set off down the street and across the freeway and over the trees from stadium of fire
-sitting on the grandparents’ front lawn and setting off loads of little fireworks (and a few less-little ones)
-of course, sparklers!

i am sure grateful for america (and real glad for a day to celebrate it!).

there’s nothing like utah home

the boy and i drove to utah friday night and saturday morning. there’s just nothing like seeing the wasatch mountains fill the horizon after driving through nevada and the salt flats. i feel a feeling of home in a lot of different places, but never quite in the same way i do in northern utah. filling my lungs up with my mountain air has been incredibly refreshing and rejuvenating and revitalizing.

we went straight to the boy’s dad’s-side family reunion at vivian park up provo canyon and have been staying since at my parents’ in park city, strolling up mountain trails sprayed with wildflowers and eating meals on the deck and talking under the stars.

on monday after lunch with my all-time best friend eating my all-time favourite meal, i drove up to alta with my dear julie for a hike to the albion basin and cecret lake. it was spectacular.

  

there’s just nothing like utah home.

spinning, sparkling, salt air summer

 

last thursday the boy and i went to the santa cruz beach boardwalk after work. the weather was so lovely and i couldn’t stop gushing about how much i love the old-timey, big-colorful-bulby summery feeling at the boardwalk. we had a good time, even after a little motion sickness kicked in. it was dreamy to ride the ferris wheel and the sky coaster feeling in love.