one of the things i love most about being back in ann arbor,
is that for the first time in my life, i have a sense
of belonging to a city.
…we moved around a lot when i was younger.
it goes something like this:

born in new jersey, moved to cleveland, moved to chicago,
moved to san francisco, back to chicago, off to michigan,
back to chicago, and back to michigan again.
when people ask me where i’m from, i  used to get a pinch
of anxiety and it would always come out jumbled + sounding
something like “grew up in chicago but i’m from michigan.”
today, the answer is simply ann arbor, michigan. and i love it.
i love it so much. and that feels so good.
…to identify with a place.
if you’ve spent the majority of your life in one place,
this probably sounds ridiculous, but trust me when i say
that it kinda sucks to lack that feeling of belonging to a place.

with that sense of belonging comes my favorite thing, which is
spending time getting to know this beautiful town on another level.
marty’s parents actually inspire this whole thing for me…
if you are looking for something, they always know the perfect
person or perfect place to get it and MY GOD do i love that.
i want that.

so when we went to the farmers market yesterday, we didn’t just
shop, we talked with the different vendors and it was lovely.

we are so lucky to live here, and we’ll be even luckier to raise
our littles here. i can’t wait to give our kids the one thing
i always wanted but never had…
one place to call home.
one place where their memories
will always come to life.
one place that they are proud of.
…there’s just no better place than ann arbor.

…we also went on a walk today in Gallup Park.
fiona has never been there and i just got a delivery
of new polaroid film that i was dying to get in my camera
so off we went! photographically, we had a great walk.
unfortunately, we didn’t do training with the wolf before
we left so she was bursting at the seams with puppy energy so
she was kinda terrible. but she did get in the water [YESSSS!]
and she proved again that her prey drive is wildly controlled.
…with animals.
but if she sees a small child running, well…game on.

marty took some amazing shots today, which obviously
makes my heart burst into a gazillion pieces.  sometimes
i think he has forgotten that he was created by two of the
most creative people in the world…

[if you don’t know about hickory syrup, you haven’t lived.]























[photo cred: mart]