The Season of Neglect... or not!

We have been traveling. 

Traveling around the Northwest for All Star baseball season. 

Along the way, we've have family (like Hottie Husband's cute mom) 

 and my adorable niece and her siblings and mama

 come to watch this boy do his thing behind the plate.

I'm really proud of him and so are they. 

For a third consecutive year, he and his team won the State Championship.

And in small town Montana style, they were given a parade to celebrate the 3-peat. 

Note that this photo was taken by me running down the street with a zoom lens from the Farmer's Market where I had just set up baked goods for a fundraiser for these boys. 

(winning State meant they were going to Regionals in Idaho)

The firetruck turned one street sooner than I thought it would and I missed it. 

But, my zoom lens didn't.

Thank you zoom lens, but I'd really have preferred to see it up close. 

In the midst of this, we did find time to slip and slide

and enjoy a fun-packed three day visit with my sister and her kids.

While they were here, they mountain biked with HH, wake boarded and surfed on the lake, visited Glacier Park, went fishing and jumped into the river from a really high bridge. 

I'm sure you can guess my favorite part of this photo. 

When we finally returned from Boise with a 2-2 record at Regionals, I looked around and realized everything I'd neglected over the past 6 weeks- my hair with terrible roots, my toenails with chipped paint, my garden with weeds galore, my dog who has gotten zero attention, my postless blog, my dusty house, my workoutless muscles. 

And I thought- that was a season of neglect.

But, then I started looking through photos of the last few weeks and discovered that I'd just made a trade.

 I traded my hair and toenails and house and garden and blog and toned muscles. 

And it was a good trade.

Because I'd traded them for glory moments and rare time with family and conversations with friends on walks and in hotel lobbies and on the grass of a baseball field.

I'd traded them for times I know are precious and that I'll never get back.

And now a few days home, the garden is perking up, the laundry is almost done, the house is still dusty and I'm off to get my hair done.