Moon Landing Part Three: Lunar Touchdown

I guess it's about time to finish this trilogy, eh?  It has been hard to decide what to say about this place we find ourselves in.  Arriving here was a shock to my senses.  Not just because it is the desert, but because moving here meant the complete removal of all the conveniences I had relied upon, all the comforts I had grown used to, all the family and friends whose voices I knew.  The apparent barenness of the landscape has a way of psychologically enhancing feelings of loss, a thing which vibrated sharp in me for weeks.

When we drove up to our new house for the first time, we were so excited to finally BE somewhere after our long trip.  For two days, we explored our empty house and our new neighborhood...saucer-eyed.  It really seemed as though we had landed on the moon.  Everything was so...other.  Then our moving truck arrived and we began to fill the white-walled voids of our house with familiar things.  Christmas came and went with ornaments hastily scattered the night before. 

Then we began to scramble to our feet...to put things in their places and to resume our day-to-day routine.  Homeschool.  Mark's work.  Naps.  Meals.  Laundry on the line.  Food in the oven.

I mourned and complained for several weeks about the long list of things I missed...until my husband finally spoke the truth to me about my attitude.  I needed to hear the truth.  I didn't see what ugliness was growing in my heart until he held that truth-mirror to my eyes.  Thank you, Mark, for having the courage to do what you did. 

From then on, I have gradually, stumblingly given thanks for this place knowing that our time here is a gift. My mother recently asked me what I think about Death Valley. Without even struggling for words, I told her that Death Valley is for me like a monastary. It is clean and quiet and its largeness evokes a sense of openness and calm. It is the perfect place to retreat and to breathe. That is what I plan to do here. I will contentedly teach and love and care for my children and my husband. I will cultivate a merry heart. I will say "yes" to life here. I will breathe.

Ava watching our moving truck arrive.

The shock of our first day...can you see it in Oliver's eyes?

The girls enjoying their first time in our neighborhood playground.

First exploration of Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level.

The Blue and the Brown

Desolation Canyon

Above Artist's Pallette

Dante's View

Dante's View

My mom in the wind...Dante's View

Things We've Seen Lately...from the back porch and beyond

Blessings Counted

1. Constellations of cream in fruity tea.

2. My smaller self, lost in the beauty of a moment.

 

3. Tea slurped from silver spoon, light in little sister's eyes.

4. Kitchen spinning, boys blur of tooth and blue in giggling orbit.

Nine Months, Five Days

Last Thursday was the boys' nine-month birthday. Since I missed posting then, I thought I would share a few photos of our handsome chaps today. Enjoy!

Moon Landing Part Two: In Flight

After my final goodbye to our home in Rocky Mountain National Park, it was still another three weeks before we could begin our new life in Death Valley.

First we headed to Paonia to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, sisters and a houseful (and I mean full!) of my dad’s New Mexico family. It was fantastic to see an aunt, uncles, cousins and second cousins that I haven’t seen in years. What a sweet time of catching up and remembering why I’m proud to be a Yeamans. Despite all that, I was reeling, having just been uprooted from the security of home and dropped into a stewpot of human interaction with no time to process what was happening to us.

After quiet settled again on Mom and Dad’s house, the kids and I stayed on there for two weeks while Mark returned to Estes Park. He still had a week of work left and the moving operations to supervise. What a blessing to have our move completely paid for by the NPS. All Mark had to do was watch as a team of experts packed every box and loaded it onto the truck!

All the photos in this post were taken in Paonia while we soaked up every last bit of love before moving far, far away.