{...a breezy life} at briemarisa.com

It is an amazingly beautiful Monday, and except for the down trees, fallen branches, damp, post-flooded basement and the swamp in our backyard you would never know Hurricane Irene came blowing through here this past weekend!

That bitch.

Although the storm wasn't quite as terrible as predicted, there was still a trail of destruction left in her wake. Our basement was flooded (although it wasn't as deep as the nearly three feet my sister-in-law's basement got!) but thankfully, I was able to get out PJ's baby stuff and his Pack n' Play before they were destroyed. We didn't lose power like so many of my friends did, but the storm was still really scary. The wind blew and the rain poured and the alarms from friggin' tornado warnings every six stinking seconds blared all night! And to think, just three days before, we were enjoying amazing weather and the excitement of an east coast earthquake. Mother Nature has just been full of laughs these past few days.

Still, before she unleashed her wrath upon us all, Pete had a stretch of three days off and along with the gorgeous weather we enjoyed a lot of family time together! Pete has a work schedule that is equal parts sucktastic and equal parts awesome (he works nights, and it's hard to work, get enough sleep, and spend time with us, but he also has a six-day-off stretch once a month. So it's a wash.) so when he has time off we try to spend as much time together as possible. For the first half of last week, each evening was more beautiful then the next, so after dinner, we went outside to soak it in!


We played catch...



And ran races...


We ran towards the sun...


We stretched our shadows...

Spending time with my sweet, beautiful little family filled my heart with the same kind of light that was shining through the trees those evenings- the soft, warm, glow kind that makes everything look amazing! I never imagined playing catch outside of our home after supper could be so wonderful. I did the same thing every night when I was a kid! Back then, those nights were fun, but now? Now that I'm a mama?


It's beautiful.