Day 366 - Hike

Thought of the day: I can't believe that today is already my birthday. A year flew past since I started my blog. I learned a lot by doing this blog and enjoyed it tremendously. Of course, there were days, and even weeks, when I had to force myself to keep going. It was particularly challenging when I was sick, busy or traveling. For the entire year, I had my backpack and camera next to me pretty much every day and I constantly reminded myself to pay attention to what was happening around me and to see and capture the extraordinary moments in the ordinary daily life. This year long journey has not only taught me to truly appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of our experiences on earth, it has also taught me something about patience and perseverance. Now, it's time for me to sign off and move on. A big hug and thank you to everybody who has followed my journey and sent me encouragements along the way!


Photo of the day:

Taking a hike with a few people this morning. There was no better way to celebrate a birthday than sitting on some big rocks, drinking coffee, eating a surprise birthday treat and looking out at the beautiful Boulder valley opening up in front of you. That was one of the most memorable moments that my wonderful friends helped me create throughout the day. There will be challenges and uncertainties, but I feel so grateful today to be living in this community, this world and on this day.

Day 349 - Jasmine

Thought of the day: Today was Jasmine’s birthday. We celebrated at the Med followed by birthday cake and presents at home. I couldn't believe that she was already nine and I got emotional when I realized that this would be her last birthday in the single digits! She is growing up soooo fast. Every day that we get to spend with her is precious and her birthday just reminded me of that.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine opening one of her birthday presents at home while Lila watched on.

Day 259 - Candles

Thought of the day: Today Lila had a gymnastics class in Louisville.  It's her first gymnastics class that she did on her own, without me around to help, and she was clearly ready for it.  It's another one of those firsts.  It's exciting to see her become more independent every day.  In the meantime, it's also sad to see her become more independent every day.

Photo of the day:

We celebrated David's birthday today.  Our birthdays seem to be coming faster every year as the kids are growing older!

Day 220 - Canvas

Thought of the day: Today we celebrated Lila's birthday with her friends in the neighborhood pool. It was only the second day that the pool was open.  We got lucky with the weather: no rain or thunderstorm in the morning when we had the party.  The air was still a bit chilly but the pool was heated and the kids had a great time playing in the water. I can't believe that Lila is now almost the same age as Jasmine when we just moved to Boulder. Time is flying and kids are growing up fast. Looking back, the past few years felt like a movie, and a short one at that, but it was a happy one.

Photo of the day:

Lila's godmother made her a special canvas with her footprints on every birthday since she was born.  Now it's time to make another one!

Day 213 - Lila

Thought of the day: Today was Lila's birthday.  We got lucky with the weather as it cleared up and it was green everywhere after all these rain.  We took a bus to downtown, met some friends there, and had lunch at the teahouse.  After some rest in the afternoon, we had cake and Lila opened her presents and they kept the girls busy for the rest of the day.  It was a nice, low-key celebration of Lila's special day.  The party will come next weekend and I am glad that we had today all to ourselves.

Photo of the day:

Lila outside of the Dushanbe Teahouse.

Day 207 - Dinner Table

Thought of the day: Jasmine made lunch today - a tasty rice noodle soup.  She was proud to make it and serve it to us.  She seemed to have grown up so much recently, which made me both proud and sad at the same time.  I was planning for Lila's 3rd birthday party this week, which reminded me of Jasmine's 3rd birthday party that we celebrated near a lake in the bay area.  It was a couple of years ago but I felt like it was just yesterday. Time unfolds in a strange way and it provokes emotional responses from us in unexpected ways.  Over the years, we will go through various stages of our kids' lives and we will keep missing the previous stages and keep looking forward to the new ones.  It's a continuous process with milestones that we both love and hate. It's the same thing for ourselves even though we often don't pay as much attention to it as it deserves.

Photo of the day:

Dinner table - we celebrated a friend's birthday in Laudisio's tonight.  Delicious food, good group of people, memorable evening.  Our lives are marked with milestones too and I am glad that we have the opportunity to celebrated one with her.