Make Believe

Where to even start? I feel as though everyday is a new adventure up here at Malibu. There is a great quote I ran into a couple weeks back from Amelia Earhardt and it reads "Adventure in itself is worthwhile." It seems to go that when you take yourself out of the comfortable predictability of the everyday and plant yourself somewhere new and unfamiliar life takes on new meaning.

As a little girl, one of my favorite make believe games to play with my brother and sisters was Boxcar children. We modeled the game after the book series and kept ourselves entertained for hours on-end replicating and engaging in pretend play. To this day I feel nostalgic about the affair. Yesterday, Maddie and I began a real game of pretend. Up to this point she would sometimes call me "Miss Kerbel" aka Miss Clavel, the nun, from the Madeline series. She, of course, was Madeline. Jack, our dog was Genevieve, and Ryder somehow escaped the whole charade. As we ate our picnic snack out on Hamburger Point, she began to make believe. We had her dollies dance to "Once Upon a Dream" and become friends. They shared and played together. It was all so sweet. After our pretend play we laid down side by side and found shapes in the clouds. She pointed out an alligator and marshmallow while I saw a pirate ship and trumpet. Ryder slept through the whole thing, which made me grateful to get some great quality time in with my girl.

If your curious, we did get around to making the banana bread and secretly delivered it to our favorite interns. They're incredible. We couldn't ask for a more positive and energetic group of people to share life with in this season. What another great day we had.

This morning started off with pancake breakfast. Emily and I dished out some chocolate chip, mixed berry, and eggs in a pancake - which is fabulous if you have never had it. Bacon and fresh fruit rounded out the meal and we all walked away with full tummies and smiles on our faces.

Addie, the office intern showed Mads how to make buttons or "medals" as she likes to call them. One day she may be wearing an Olympic medal around her neck, but for now the buttons suite her just fine.

We wore our rain jackets and boots everywhere we went and jumped in every puddle along the way. It's a pretty neat thing to not care one aiota about getting wet or dirty!

Matt let us help him out for a little while this morning and I got to belay him on the rock wall so he could get measurements and Maddie played basketball in the gym. What a great day on the job!

I'm learning so much about the beauty of simplicity. It's one thing to preach it back at home and it's quite another thing to live it up here. There is no corner store or Starbucks to meet our every whim. We work with what we have and support one another along the way. It reminds me so much of my grandparents and how simplicity and love for family have always guided everything they have done in their lives up to this point. I'm so thankful for their model and hope to pass on truths that have spoke louder than words ever could.

XOXO,
Julie