fifteen

 

our beauty first baby had her fifteenth birthday on sunday. 

summer was born on a thursday night. i was thirty-eight weeks pregnant and had gone in for my weekly exam only to be told that i was already dilated seven centimeters and would give birth that night. shortly after 10:30pm, i did.

we brought summer home from the hospital in kirkland to the same small town where she has spent the entirety of her life. 

summer is both an old soul and an eternal child. she wears robes and drinks herbal tea and reads books curled up in blankets. she loves an organized space and for things to be just so. she's a loyal friend and sister and is honestly happy for her peers in a way that seems almost unnatural to me. she plays no games and has no hidden agendas. she eschews the spotlight and never wants to steal anyone's thunder. naturally given to giving devotion, she lights up big when that devotion is returned.

summer is a talented and masterful pianist and makes her instrument sing.

quietly contented. sensitive. happiest around people. generous. faithful. a gamer. a coder. loves listening to music and going to dances with her friends. 

it was a dark and rainy, unexpected night when our sweet summer sunshine was born.

FIFTEEN!

little rascals at the beach

this is the lone photo from our last-minute-snuck-in-a-young-family-trip to gulf shores at the end of august. (which shows just how far behind i am in updating the blog.)

we'll be a baker's dozen next year, with another young baby due in december, and summer and afton have all their fingers and toes crossed for *maybe* another little girl to join them in the mix. 

lucky number thirteen!

new beginnings

it's a big year for the wheeler kids. and also for the wheeler mom: four kids in four schools is an automatic BINGO! sooo.... #carefullyconsideringhowtospendmyprizemoney

summer is starting her first year of high school. 

afton is wrapping up middle school.

caleb is wrapping up elementary school.

and dallin is in third grade. like a boss.

books, books, learning, learning.

the first day of school is forever one of my favorite days of the year.

nine and thirty

ten years ago, on my twenty-ninth birthday, i posited that i had eaten over one hundred and fifty gallons of ice cream in my twenties. now, i unfortunately can't say that i've eaten quite that much ice cream in my thirties (RIP twenty-year-old metabolism), but what i can say is that there is not another person in the whole wide world who has consumed more guittard extra dark chocolate chips than i have.

i said what i said.

cheers to thirty-nine! 

thirteen

 

or the one where afton grows up.

my artist. my imaginator. who has never met a tree she didn't want to climb or a cat she didn't want to take home immediately. who loves things to be soft and squishy and sparkly and pastel. so smart and so funny. clever. watchful. quiet. sneaky. stubborn.

coming out of her shell and into her self. a talented musician who hates practicing but has perfect pitch and an amazing ability to replicate almost any sound she's heard. she has a gift with languages (right now she's learning japanese and french) and is a natural orator and storyteller. she loves the beach and the pool and sugar and candy and pasta and animals, animals, animals, and kawaii, and learning new tricks on her penny board. 

she hates hiking and even made up a song about it for her dad. because she loves her dad.

thirteen, wafty bay! live life as big and as beautiful as those big, beautiful brown eyes. and all that sparkle you love so much? it's in you, too. 

blink and you'll miss it

 

first day of sixth grade; last day of eighth grade.

(t-shirt and middleschoolcore aesthetic for scale.)

the aftermath

getting off the bus on the last day of school in our neighborhood is not for the faint of heart.

pink hair, don't care. misty rain everywhere.

we make it up to them, though, with rootbeer floats and otter pops.

mere was there to celebrate!

last day of school

it was almost the end of june, but these kids made it to the last day of school. a cloudy, wet and rainy celebration like only the pacific northwest can put on. but still: WELCOME SUMMER!

moving on to ninth grade!

moving on to eighth!

 

splitting up next year!

our soon to be fifth grader!

(yes, he can solve that five by five cube.)

looking forward to third!

middle school milestone

summer officially left middle school behind this june. clocking in at five feet, five inches tall (one inch taller than her mom).

at her moving up ceremony, she was awarded the presidential award for academic excellence, but even more compelling, and much more telling of who she is, she was voted most genuine by her fellow classmates. 

clear eyes, full heart, HIGH SCHOOL!

footloose

with only ten more days of middle school left for THE REST OF THIER LIVES, it was time for this crew to celebrate and dance the night away with their eighth-grade class. they cleaned up, dolled up, showed up, and showed out. 

and only one of them got to go home with two blisters on her heels (take a look at that footwear, and i'll let you guess who).

worth it.

mama bones

my joints crack when i walk: my toes, ankles, hips, wrists, knees, back, and neck. it's a rather loud and abrupt pop-popping sound that accompanies me wherever i go. and i honestly hadn't given it much thought until my children brought it up. 

they brought it up because it's one of the sounds by which they identify me. 

by which they know i'm there. 

it's a sound of their childhood. of their home. 

of their mother.

to the keepers of the sounds.
of the sights and the smells and the feelings. 

(and to the listeners, too.)

happy mother's day.

the grand canyon

fun fact about me: i was born in arizona. 

my father was stationed at fort huachuca arizona, and i love that i get to say that's where i was born. we would move shortly after my birth to fort lewis, washington, where my brother, kenny, was born (and where my early childhood memories begin), and then on to seoul, south korea where brother matt joined the family (for a complete arc to the story here, oldest brother, owen, née daniel, was born in fort ord, california).

but despite this important connection to the state, i've never seen the grand canyon! it's been on my bucket list for a long, long time, and i was thrilled to finagle a little jaunt from scottsdale up to spend a night near the canyon and a day hiking and exploring. even more thrilled that my parents were able to join.

still on the bucket list is a rim to rim to rim!

stayed tuned for bryan's birthday helicopter tour (otherwise known as dallin's expensive nap).

sedona

on our way up to visit the grand canyon, we made a pit stop in sedona to fit in a quick five mile loop amidst the breath-taking red rock there. we hiked the soldier pass trail to soldier pass cave, and good news, only three of the six of us were pricked with cactus spines. 

10/10 would recommend (the hike, not the cactus spines).

you can't really tell how high up afton is here (probably twenty feet), but she and bryan shimmied up a tight claustrophobia-inducing tunnel and popped up at this windy overlook in solider pass cave.