SPRING

it is no secret, people--i LOVE north carolina in the spring. (and the fall. and i don't even mind it in the winter . . . but NOBODY loves north carolina in the summer.)

it's always surprising to me, every year, how happy i get when the flowers and the green leaves start popping up everywhere. because in california, you never notice when the seasons change. there's never a week where ALL OF A SUDDEN things are warmer and you realize you should pull out your shorts  and that winter is going away and everything starts to look more cheerful. it was during my freshman year in provo that i first understood the amazingness that is spring . . . and let me remind you--IT IS AMAZING.

of course, in north carolina, there is the weird problem where you have about two weeks of yellow pollen dust that coats everything. but even that is counteracted by the beautiful weather and beautiful flowers and beautiful leaves that cover the trees again after they looked dead all winter. dane and i have been going on 1-2 walks a day for the last few weeks, and we usually go outside and sit on a blanket for 45 minutes or so until tommy comes home, right at the end of the day when neither of us are feeling like we can make it any longer. it makes me so happy to have such perfect weather and wear shorts (it also makes me happy that i FIT INTO most of my shorts . . . hooray!) and it makes dane so happy to be outside, period. that boy could sit outside with no toys and no people and be happy looking around and watching a few cars drive by, and he could do it all. day. long. (if only he didn't need to nap and i didn't want to do other things every once in a while.)

we've been to several fun places with all of this nice weather. we went to the NC botanical gardens in chapel hill for the first time with my friend from NC state and her baby (who is two months older and about twice as big as dane).

and then today we walked around the duke gardens, which were in FULL BLOOM and gorgeous. i don't know if i'd ever seen the gardens in the spring before, and they were awesome!

tommy came and said hi to us because we weren't too far from his building. right after this, i fed dane some sweet potatoes and he got them all over his whole outfit. amazing.