I’ve been waiting for this weekend since I met Amber six years ago- after countless hours on the phone and email, old apartments and new houses, a wedding, job changes and a lot of growing up, I can’t imagine my life without this girl and showing her my city was an incredible amount of fun.

I showed her all the places I’ve been telling her about since we met, she was able to see our little house and the puppies, and even met my crazy, wonderful family. There was a lot of thrifting (and a little mending our finds), Amber got a very cute tattoo & I got the other side of my nose pierced – which didn’t hurt as much as I remembered at all! (I have it in the picture above, but I’ll post a bigger picture this week too.) We went out to a tweed ride and a giant street festival of lights, full of mini doughnut, candles and families watching light displays in the towering trees that stretched above their heads. There were even video game nights & Swedish vampire movie marathons, and staying up too late talking about everything we could think of.

Showing such a good friend why I’m so in love with my funny little city has been a beautiful way to end the summer, and to rest in a place that’s full of arts & culture, puppy cuddles, amazing food & laughter. Sometimes when I look back at this year, I focus on the bumps along the way instead of what I’ve learned and all the moments of happiness and certainty. When I work on changing my focus, I feel like I can see everything much more clearly and from here it looks like this life is  a beautiful and mysterious gift that’s mine to get lost in.

I’m so lucky to wander through it with Amber and the amazing friends I’ve found along the way, and I’m so thankful that you’re reading along for the ride.

So thanks for that, from the bottom of my everything :)