prescott,az

This weekend was a pleasant change in our usual preferred lazy weekends. After stopping at the gas station for drinks and snacks, we made the drive up to Prescott. I realized on our drive, how grateful I was for the conversations we are able to have on these drives. In comparison to our first year of marriage and our first year of road trips, this was a proud moment, indeed. I know this sounds odd, but I'll quickly explain.

 

When Ryan and I were first married, we did a ridiculous amount of road trips and driving. 14 hr drives to Phoenix, 9 hour drives to Colorado, or 4 hour drives to Utah; we put a lot of miles on Ole' Red. And those confined quarters led to certain topics, which in turn led to a rude awakening on my part that my newlywed husband did not always have the same opinions as me. WHAT?!??
 

I had to hand it to him though; he was just as good at giving me the silent treatment as I was with him. This always made for an even longer drive. And ironically, this always seemed to happen within the first hour or so. Good times.
 

My oh my have we matured.  Ha. That, or we've gotten good at steering clear of certain topics.

 

My point being, I can honestly say I LOVE being stuck in our small Honda with our family of 3. Sure there's the occasional bickering here and there, and now with the occasional screaming and crying of a baby, but it's the best getting away from the distractions of day-to-day and just be us 3. It's my new favorite way to spend time with Ryan: driving in the car and talking about everything and anything. We laugh, we plan goals, we recognize our blessings, and we can always learn something new about each other.

^ ^ Doesn't this picture just melt your heart? Well it melts mine. Even if Lincoln stops smiling moments before I take the picture. Stinker. Saturday was Lincoln's 4 month birthday. Yes, we are new parents and every month of our first child's life is a huge celebration to us. Up to Prescott we went and it was a real beauty of a drive.

They had a big fund raiser for the 19 firefighters who were lost in the Yarnell fire. They had old fire trucks on main street displaying the names of the fallen men, most of them were in their 20's. It's heart breaking what happened. Many leaving behind wives and children. Ever since Lincoln was born, the emotional side of me has grown ten-fold. I start getting choked up on what used to be a passing thought. Now I take things to heart and imagining I lost Ryan and was raising Lincoln on my own. As I start letting my imagination and "what ifs" take over, I can only find peace knowing this is not the end for them. How comforting to know there is life after death and those families will be together again some day.