use real butter

I’ve gone through phases when it comes to birthdays. It used to be that I couldn’t wait because it was such a big deal to be another year older! Wow, EIGHT!!

By the time I turned 16 it didn’t matter so much anymore and I learned that not having expectations for birthdays meant you wouldn’t be let down.

On my 21st birthday I went out drinking with my girlfriend and co-captain late into the night. The next day, during a grueling and hungover early morning pre-season volleyball practice, I decided to stop drinking alcohol altogether.

I don’t remember my 30th birthday because I was in graduate school and I’ve been told that the human mind tries to forget traumatic events as a protection mechanism.

Today I turned 40. My parents texted me a happy birthday message at 5 am.

When my dad turned 40, my sister and I ran around the house yelling “The BIG 4-0!!” and we thought it was so funny. 40… Who the hell turns 40? That’s so old! Well, I’m 40 now and I don’t feel any different from 39 any different from 32 any different from 25. It’s still me. I’m just me.

People have asked if I’m doing anything special for my birthday, but I think the people who know me best know that every day is special. And I guess that’s my point – I’m really grateful to have made it this far. I’m grateful every morning that I wake up because there was a time when I wasn’t sure I’d be here. So I’ll take any birthday, any day that comes and I’ll make the most of it and love it because I can’t imagine living any other way.

We’re on travel in southwestern Colorado on recon for the fall shoot. It’s the intersection of work and play. That’s how it always is on my birthday because that’s when the leaves start turning. They wait for no one.

glowing red like a beacon

they look like candy to me

The fall shoot is without a doubt, my favorite shoot of the year. Right now, it’s early in the season, but we’re already seeing more reds than usual and plenty of beautiful and healthy golds. I wonder if that has to do with the late and wet spring we had? It’s glorious.

warm colors

mix and match

My only request for my birthday was that I spend it with Jeremy. It didn’t matter if the leaves were green, gold, or purple (that would have been neat) – I just wanted to be together. The colors, the good weather, the mountains we love so much… all icing on the cake.

how’s that for icing?

sunset: just us, cattle, and two dudes revving their atvs in the background

Jeremy keeps saying, “Happy birthday!” and I instinctively reply, “Happy birthday!” He corrects me and says that it isn’t his birthday. I’ve always felt that birthdays are meant to be shared. So yes, it’s his birthday, and yours, and mine. Happy birthday, everyone! xo

This day is a good day. It’s the day you were born and boy am I glad you were born. You keep telling me to watch out, that you’re catching up to me for those nine days between our birthdays. You’re silly like that.

testing out kaweah’s rescue harness

People have no idea how ridiculous you can be. They never get to see that side of you. You only hint at it with your occasional dorky jokes. But Kaweah and I get to enjoy you for all of your hidden charms and goofiness.

yay for snow in yosemite!

thirsty pup on the trail

You have often said that you can tell a lot about a person by observing the way they treat animals and children. Even though neither of us ever wanted children, I marvel at how well you play with kids and how you are always trying to teach them, to engage their brains, and to make sure they are having fun while learning. I doubt the learning part ever got through to Kaweah, but she definitely had fun.

snow much fun

jeremy and miss crazy above treeline

my two best friends

You have a lot of patience. I mean A LOT of patience. It’s good that one of us does. You’re always a grounding force wherever you go. I just want you to know that it does not go unappreciated, at least not by me. How about that backpack in the Sierra when the mosquitoes were super awful and I lost it and you kept it all together? Or that time in Australia with all of those flies? You always make things better.

that time in australia…

We’ve been to many beautiful places together and sometimes (many times) in less than ideal conditions. I’m grateful that you tolerate and maybe even enjoy Fun #2. Because Fun #1 is for ninnies! I’m glad we value many of the same things in life and set similar priorities. People talk of adventure, of dreams. We live it daily – a choice we made together years ago. Thank you for that.

a windy day in new zealand’s high country

our backyard

summertime

riding in crested butte

**Jump for more butter**

Not the Olympics, but the Olympic Mountains in the northwestern corner of Washington State. I’ve had an obsession with this part of the world ever since I was a little girl, flipping through my collection of Time-Life Nature series books. Anyone remember those? We had The Universe, The Sea, The Desert, and The Forest to name a few. At first I only perused the pictures, but as I got older I could read and understand the narrative that accompanied the images that I had internalized in both my imagination and my understanding of the natural world. They imprinted on me. So much so that when I graduated from college, Jeremy and I took a road trip up the coast and back from Southern California to the Olympic Peninsula, stopping at several national parks and wilderness areas en route. My ultimate goal was to see the only temperate rainforest in the continental US – the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park. A photo, an idea, a place I had fallen in love with and latched onto since I was a five year old sitting on the living room floor with books and pictures of other worlds wide open. Adventure – wide open.

This past weekend, Jeremy and I returned after more than a decade away from this gem of a paradise. There are no roads that cross the Olympic Mountains. Most of the year the high peaks, glaciers, ocean, deep valleys, and skies are obscured by thick clouds. August and September are typically the best weather months for travel into the backcountry there, which translates into the busiest time of the season. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you view it), the snow pack was a month behind in melting out this summer and we were happily alone at the most popular backcountry destination in the park at the height of the summer season.

crossing the sol duc river

boardwalk trail through sensitive meadow

deer lake

avalanche lilies are first to bloom after snowfields melt away

the “snake pit”

**Jump for more butter**