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While there were happy moments that I feel grateful for this past weekend, this is an entry in which I’m not exactly feeling full of wonder and gratitude. There were both minor and major disappointments that occurred, thus making the primary intent of this blog tricky at this moment in time. I’ll get to these tidbits a little bit later, but I’ll only share the minor disappointment on here for the sake of privacy. I think it’s important to remember that, even on a gratitude blog/digital scrapbook, life is rarely all good or all bad. (Dang it, anyway. *sigh*)

The first piece of the trip that I’m feeling particularly grateful for is being able to spend some time with my mother and older brother on Saturday morning. We met up at Clyde’s Coffee in Missoula and chatted for a bit. Jonathan, Kelsey, and Shawn tagged along as well (Shawn and Kelsey were all really good sports coming along for the ride! They had flown in from Colorado for the wedding). In all honesty, I dislike road trips, so I have not spent much time visiting family in Missoula for the past 3-4 years. It was alarming to realize just how much I have been missing my mother – I cried and became choked up when she drove away after our less-than-an-hour catch up that morning at the coffee shop. I’m not really a “crier” so that made it pretty evident that I needed to spend more time in Missoula again. I am now planning on making a special trip specifically to spend time with my mother and brother there! I already can’t wait. Gregory was also able to give me (and therefore the whole crew I was driving around that whole weekend 😉 ) a tour of his and Sam’s (girlfriend) new home! I was – and am – so happy for them. Hmmm… I’m already feeling preemptively grateful for the nights I’ll spend over in their new guest room when I visit Missoula. 🙂

All of us, but my mother who had to get ready for work, walked over to the local farmer’s market after the Clyde’s Coffee meet-up. I bought fresh sun-warmed strawberries and basil honey lemonade! (YUM!) I was also able to buy a sunhat on our walk back to our cars so that I, thankfully, wouldn’t burn to a crisp at the outdoor wedding we’d be attending later that same day. I believe this was my first summer sunhat purchase… ever??? Either way, I feel very grateful to have serendipitously stumbled upon that shop! I’m sure this hat will get a lot of use in future years.

Now, onward to photos of friends at Torrey and Kim’s wedding:

The wedding venue was absolutely gorgeous and the food was tasty too. (Believe or not, I “won” the best looking and tasting meal by ordering the vegetarian option – the whole table agreed!) Torrey and Kim shared beautiful vows in a beautiful spot. It was made all the better by seeing established dear friends and reconnecting with other friends. I had not seen Shawn and Kelsey since Jonathan and I were in our first two years of dating while Jon and I were in Colorado for some reason (probably a festival or concert), so I don’t think Jon or I had seen them in 6-7 years! It was really good to see them again and I know Jonathan was pleased as punch to see such a close and old friend again. I would say that, overall, it really was a lovely weekend full of laughter, hugs, and smiles!

Now, onward to the minor disappointment once we’d arrived back home from our trip. It seems our garden-based bliss was to be short-term since we live close to a mountain range… the deer finally found our raised garden bed and had themselves quite the salad while we were away! I had no idea how emotionally attached I had felt to our garden until the deer completely ate up all of our kale, lettuce, swiss chard, strawberries, and roses! Not only that, but the suckers came back the next night too before I was able to put up any garden fencing/netting around the whole garden bed and our rose bush. They ate most of the peas and some of the green bean plants! (Now they’ve gone too far.) They even attacked out sweet pea flowers once the fencing was up around the garden and roses… Come to find out deer really are like goats. Ugh. Gardening has held a lot of learning curves for us this summer when it’s come to pest control.

The other major and stressful disappointment is one that I can remember without writing it down in here and am still trying to figure out both practical and emotional “next steps” with the situation. It has been difficult to experience positivity and, frankly, even hopefulness at times with this information/situation. All I can say is that I’m doing my darnedest to do some mental/emotional reconciling.

I am feeling grateful for…

• … seeing, spending time with, and hugging loved ones.
• … deer/garden fencing…
• … that there are certain plants deer seem to be disinterested in (safe!).
• … how beautiful parts of Montana are (Bitterroot valley being one of them).
• … playing with children on swings.
• … the support of others both near and far.