I am in Utah right now. Working a bit. Chillin’ a bit. Catching up with family and friends a bit. Mostly playin’ a lot! I love summer here. Especially the summer nights. I love summer nights in general, for summer reason they just spark memories of summer romance for me and I like those thoughts.
When my kids come to visit the cousins’ house they disappear. I don’t see them for hours, days, sometimes the whole week we are here. I look forward to the time I will have with them while on vacation and then when we get here I realize I am chump change compared to the cousins. It’s cool. I get it. I also get to nap while they are off making memories and playing in dirt pools.
Today I thought I would be cool to take my kids to campus, the place where they started, kind of, well, where their history started. Alright, the place where I met their dad and we fell in love. Let me hear it everyone, ahhhh…so, sweet!!!! I took them to the apartment complex where we lived while we were dating, then to campus where we would study together. At each spot I thought their enthusiasm would increase…”Tell us more Mom!! Show us where you picnic’d together and where you kissed under the umbrellas while it was raining. Fill us with the history of you and Dad!!! Please, we HAVE to hear more!!” It was more like, “Please, Mom, take us to the bathroom; we need a snack; where are the Cougars; how long do we need to be here?” It was anti-climactic to say the least, but my heart felt the nostalgia and I lived on that for a second, it and felt sweet. It took me back 14 years to a space and a place where an innocent love affair began and then developed into a laughter filled friendship, and finally a love that would lead to commitment.
Jaren and I dated a little while before I decided to take a break from school to pursue a humanitarian service project for a year and a half in Ecuador. Jaren was heartbroken for me to go; it was sweet. I was sad to leave him, but knew I had to go. We promised we would write and keep in touch. At the end of my time their I was walking a local market. I came across a vendor selling hand-crafted hammocks. I thought I would bring a few home for friends and family. I grabbed one for Jaren.
Today, on the way home from the tour of love, ahem, the tour of the BYU campus, we passed the apartment he lived in while we were engaged. It reminded me of that hammock. He strung it between two trees that were in the backyard. The summer before we got engaged we swung slowly in that hammock, together, our legs pretzeled, one of my hears listening to his heart pumping time, the other hear the cicadas, other summer insects’ night songs, and all the sweet words young loves say during a summer of romantic pursuing!
I’ll tell my kids that story one day, and they’ll listen, and think it’s sweet, or maybe not, but for me, it always will be one of my best memories from a summer of love!!
This entire summer I have been wanting to share Heather and Taylor’s Huntington Beach engagement images, but was waiting for the right moment, with the right story to share with them.
I think their love will always feel like summer love. Always.
Here’s to summer love, wherever it may be, and however you may find it!! xx KJ