Blast from the Past

Actual post date Friday, January 18th, 2008.

Recently, as I was organizing my scrap space, I found myself going through some old photo boxes. I found some great pictures of us. I decided to bring these pictures up to date by scanning them at Walmart, and having them reprinted and saved to disk. Now that they are on disk I can share them here with you.

I am fairly certain this is the very first picture Theo and I ever took together. One month after we met (Valentine's Day 2001) Theo invited me to meet his family (Easter 2001). This picture was taken in his side yard that day. He took this picture with him to Iraq; at the bazaar he had a local artist paint it. We now also have this photo on a huge canvas in our bedroom. This is so very us:



Theo moved to California with me only 4 months after we met. Once we were in CA I could not wait to take him to very favorite place on earth: Yosemite. Once we were settled into our own apartment, and I got a break from graduate school, we made reservations for a mid-winter stay in Yosemite. The trip was awesome, we drank cocoa and strolled in the meadows, slept in a tiny cabin with a cinnamon scented heater. I had never seen Yosemite in the winter, so I was in awe. At night, you could hear the ice on the granite peaks, cracking and falling. Some of the falls were caked in icicles. Here are some of our pictures from that trip:



I wonder if I could figure out how to photoshop this crazy lady out of the background? This is Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls:

This is one of my very favorite pictures of us (Half Dome & Merced River are in the background):


Once I survived graduate school & planning a wedding in the middle of graduate school (idiot), we headed out for two celebratory vacation. First, we got hammered & played roulette in Laughlin, Nevada. Then a few weeks later we went hiking in Yosemite. On this trip Theo truly fell in love with Yosemite in the same way I love it. We had so much fun, and accomplished some of my life-long goals (seriously, since I was 7 I've wanted to do some of this stuff).

We started our trip by visiting Mariposa Grove, one of the only places on earth you can find Sequoia tree, the world's largest living things! We hiked up the mountain to see the the fallen tunnel tree: a tree that was once hollowed out so wide that cars could drive through it. Lightening took the tree down a few decades ago, but I believe my grandparents had driven through it before it fell.

Here we are at the base of the trail; this is a fallen sequoia.


This is a different fallen sequoia roots:

This image of some more sequoias is framed in my house:

I have pictures of the tunnel tree, but I did not scan them. They are not that great.
The same day we hiked to fallen tunnel tree we also went to Glacier Point. I wanted Theo to see how amazing the views from on top of the valley could be; I also wanted him to see the waterfalls we would soon be scaling. This is Half Dome, the waterfall we would later hike is behind it; again, I didn't scan those pictures.

Once in the valley we romped all about. We went to see Yosemite Falls. I am wearing a kids T-shirt with a bear on it; the back has the bear's butt. I loved this shirt.

This is Happy Isles, roaring in spring just like I said it would be (in my post about our fall trip to Yosemite Sept 2007). I have a 5 x 7 f this framed in my house. This photograph made me love photography even more.

Here we are on our hike. I think we're on our way down here. Vernal Falls is in the background. We stood on top of this fall. Ive stood on top of this fall half a dozen times now. Standing at the top of a waterfall is like nothing else I've ever experienced... the little guard gate up there takes with a foot or so of the rushing water. Amazing.

Back behind Vernal Falls lies Nevada Falls. All of my childhood I wanted to see this falls, but I never had been able to until Theo and I went together. The hike is not exactly for the weak. It took us all day. You're alone most of the time on the trail, and some parts are steep. You hike up right next to the water falling... so if you look in the background of the picture here, and you see the pile of rocks to the left of this falls, that is where we climbed up. I can't even imagine doing that right now. There were moments we both paused, deeply humbled by nature. The big granite peak to the left of the photo is the back of half dome. Yeah, we're that high up.

I should scan some more images from this trip. I have tons more, a whole album full actually. I hope you enjoyed my blast from the past. This Valentine's day Theo and I will celebrate 7 years together... wow! I love you honey.