Thankfulness Days 11-13

11.  Veteran's - Today being Veteran's Day makes it hard not to think about and feel gratitude toward the men and women serving, and who have served, our country.  Though I consider myself something of a pacifist, it is because we have freedom, for which these men and women have fought, that I get to believe and express my views on war.  While I love peace, I do as well love our veterans for serving our country and making it a free place to live.

12.  Toddler Talk - I love love love all the funny things Grace comes up with and says.  I appreciate her effort to talk clearly and to use her enormous vocabulary.  One of the things I am thankful for, though, is some of her struggles to form the right sounds at the right time.  It means she is still sort of a baby, and still has a lot to learn.  One of my favorite things right now is when she sings "Where is Thumbkin," only she can't quite say "thumbkin," so it comes out, "Where is Fukkin, where is fukkin, here I am...."  The first time she belted the song at the top of her lungs I about died from laughter.  She has no clue that she is not saying it correctly, or what that word means, and I love the innocence in that.  I also love the humor!

13.  Photographs - Just now, Kevin was scrolling through some old pictures on the computer.  We came across a trip we took to Yellowstone about eight years ago.  I love to look at our past and see how far we've come - obstacles we have encountered, triumphs we have celebrated, etc.  At the time of these pictures, we were not even thinking about marriage or what our long term future together looked like.  It was fun to think about how we were building a foundation to something we didn't even know would exist.  And years from now, we will look at pictures from today and reflect on where we came since then.  Pretty amazing the feelings and gratitude a simple photograph can create!

Yosemite, 2005

Disneyland, 2011