Christmas 2012

I'm trying to do a better job of posting my pictures closer to the time in which I actually took them.  I'm still working to get caught up on pictures from, ahem, 2 years ago.  But you see,  I have a hard time processing some of my most favorite images because I find them a bit intimidating.  So forgive me when I post age-old pictures, but this post is only one month old!  I was going to post pictures from this past weekend (shocking, I know!) but when I uploaded them, I found pictures from Christmas which I had completely forgotten about.  You can see more on my tumblr blog (you have to go back a few pages) but here are a few that I took with my real camera :)

Christmas was absolutely wonderful, but absolutely too short.  The more time we spend here in Loma Linda, with the stress and intensity that comes from full time medical school for Barry along with his many other commitments (Street Medicine, a Masters in Bio-ethics, grant writing, etc...) combined with my full time work as a nurse, plus part-time Masters work, it really starts to get old after a while.  We don't mind being busy, but when you're so busy that you can't stop to truly enjoy each other, when friends grow fainter because you are always studying, then you start to long for a slower pace.  We got to enjoy a blissful week of that slower pace over Christmas and it was just wonderful.  We're here for a reason and we don't regret that, but we are oh so thankful for family and true warmth that Christmas brings.

Storm Light

My absolute favorite colors and lighting situation comes right before or after a storm.  There must be green trees and blue water.  Dark sky and bright sunshine.  And wind.  These elements create my favorite conditions.  I cannot describe the awe I get when God creates scenes such as these.  There was one such evening at the Howe home that was just glorious.  Here are two pictures that attempt, but don't come even close, to the beauty that was present.

Home: Katahdin

No matter that it is now August and we were back East in June, I am still playing catch up.  Hope you don't mind!

Barry and I, along with his two brothers and sister-in-law, backpacked 18 miles the first day and 6 miles on the second day in an expedition on Mt. Katahdin, the highest peak in Maine.  It was nothing if not epic, as all Howe expeditions are.

Shortly after this sunset shot, we saw two moose cross the stream, silhouetted against the sun.  It was beautiful!  Unfortunately, both my contacts and camera were out of reach.

Apparently the boys like to sleep in :)

A few minutes after chasing off a moose so that we could have the nice swimming pond to ourselves.  (Not really... He lumbered off on his own accord:)

Home: Sailing

Time at home was beautiful.  We spent much of our time outdoors: hiking, sailing, canoeing.  Here is a glimpse of our time sailing with Barry's family.

Maine: scenic