Ashley and Alex: Somewhere...

"Somewhere is better than anywhere..."
- Flannery.

We've been driving a lot these past few weeks, catching up, saying goodbyes, some with a more lasting sting than others. Here are some more pictures from our summer. We're glad to be here, in one place, back in Charlottesville for a few weeks at the very least.

The Curbys , who moved a few weeks ago, will be missed dearly. Mary and Tim have been sources of wisdom and laughter for us these past couple of years, Benjamin is quite possibly one of the most delightful little kids ever, and baby Katherine is just awesome. We're glad they're just up the road in DC.

Here are some more from our trip to FL:

Michael and Alex on the pier in Cocoa Beach.

Heather Diaz, in a modified choke hold:

Heather returned from the teepee (also "tipi", "tepee"; a word more generally spoken, les generally typed, I suppose) on the Wobbly Cart Farm in Washington State to join us for the week in Miami.

She's doing something awesome. Again. She is spending these months until November in a very real teepee as part of her adventure participating in a workers' collective at a farm along the Chehalis River in Rochester Washington. Heather is learning how to farm, sell farm shares, practice food preservation and maybe even beekeeping! And it really is at the Wobbly Cart Farm. Dirt roads, nice neighbors. When the food crisis hits, at least one of the Diaz family will be eating. We caught her only with the most cunning of camera skills and the snap of the new iphone camera...which Ashley was tired of after a while

(well. not really).

Here's the whole family, including cousins Ramon and Maria, in Miami at the restaurant where they dine nightly.

And the following week, Ashley and Beth tackled humpback (the last time Ashley did this, it was in flat form -- see earlier post entitled "Worth it").

While Nelson and Alex worked on turning the armoir that had been sitting in the back for the past six months from this:

to this:

Ashley spent this past weekend with her closest friends from college and their growing families, while Alex played shows in Charlottesville and Richmond and got to see some of his closest college friends and their kids, as well . Here are some shots from those

John and Sam, who both are incredibly talented and play with Alex. The third photo below shows Sam and Kate, who is a dear friend, gifted visual artist, and precious to our church.