The drive to Spokane is a gorgeous one this time of year, things were finally green (though we know it will not stay) and the 4.5 hours flew by. We’ve found, and I wonder if you’re the same, that if we try to listen to podcasts instead of just music and talking to each other, the drive draaaaaaags on forever. I don’t know what it is, time just goes so slowly in the car when we try podcasts, no matter what they are about, so we mostly just talk each other’s ears off, then remark about how insane that is after knowing one another 17 years and being together so long. How do we never run out?
Anyway, let’s get onto the photos of what happened, the stories behind them. Why not?
Also, if you’re able, join our little paid family, we’re the raddest community on earth and we want you with us.
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Pulled into Spokane on McGraw’s birthday, bought her a balloon that said “Another Birthday? No Big Dill” and it was rad. We all met at the downtown thrift stores so we could shop for the Fancy Thrift Store Dinner we were going to have once we all got together in Jackson, WY the following week. To say we all nailed it is an understatement.
The following day we had to prep for Griffin’s big graduation party with a friend. They had it at my sister Rian’s house, and they rented a 24 foot tall bouncy waterslide for the event. It was fast as F even without water, as Rian sliding down can attest to. Sarah and I both tried it, and you’ll see her photo below, just to get a real sense of the “Holy shit this is steeper than we thought” sensation it gave you.
Party was a rousing success, and graduation was HUGE compared to Addie’s. Their graduating class was double the size, so the entire thing had to be held at this massive sports facility downtown. Somehow though, the entire thing was about 45 minutes shorter than Addie’s little one. Wild.
It’s a strange thing to watch your nieces, nephews, and children (step, or otherwise) grow up and grow older and stop being kids, and start being little adults. It’s strange watching them do the things you swear you just did yesterday, until someone reminds you it was actually almost 30 years ago. I do not understand how time moves the way it does, so swiftly when you wish it slow, so slowly when you’re in any kind of pain. I don’t know if we’re meant to know, in truth. Just go with it, just forward, just breathe and listen to everything.
We all caravan drove down to Jackson together, as there are too many to fit in less cars, so we had this funny little train of people all related to one another careening down the highway headed for the first big reunion we’ve really had since Sarah and I drug everyone to Scotland in 2019. We stopped a few times along the way, sometimes to take photographs, sometimes to get people Root Beer Floats at the Frostop which looks like it’s straight out of a 1970s Western film, and I even spotted my all-time dream car: El Camino. It was pristine, and I gave it all the attention it deserved.
Once arriving at the Airbnb we were going to all share, yes, all 14 of us under one roof, we were blown away by the views of the Tetons around us, and the space in the house to all be together. Hilarity usually follows my family, and we all were given inflatable costumes to wear for a family photograph, and originally to play kick-ball in, but it was so hot outside, and even hotter inside the suits, we decided heat stroke wasn’t a cost we were willing to pay, so we just goofed around in them awhile. I’ll say this about us: We don’t shy away from being silly.
The Tetons were breathtaking, the time with family so monumentally valuable. To be together, all of us, was beautiful, and we had more silly fun than we even knew what to do with. You’ll see more of it in the next post, but the first few days were just spending time, long conversations in sunset light, and finally a hike up into the forest to catch a special glimpse, a lot closer up, of those magical Tetons that loomed around us the entire time we were there.
The French fur trappers named the mountains Les Trois Tétons, which literally translates to The Three Breasts, and I’m guessing because 1) they might kind of, if you’re really reaching, resemble breasts, but mostly B) Because they were far from home, far from their spouses, and all horny and lonely. To commemorate the occasion, the name of them, and their splendor, I flashed my own Tetons to theirs.
I think we bonded.
More to come, a final installment of June through my eyes and my camera’s lens.
I hope you like them.
I love you all.
Be good.
Seeing these photos and reading your commentary makes me so happy! Thank-you for sharing.
I absolutely love these little insights into your lives, your family, your day-to-day activities. :)