Weekend Wrap-Up: The Grief Update Edition

Today is October 30th, 2016, which means we have lived 18 months without my dad. A year and a half. That first year, all of the month anniversaries on the 30th hit hard. Those have eased, but today this half year anniversary is hitting me.

I went to the cemetery this morning. The leaves near his spot were dull and brown, so I brought in 18 bright shiny leaves from a few trees down to add some light.

 

I looked back at my post a year ago, six months after, and thought I'd link to it.

Here.

There are times that I think about everything, think back to a year ago, and wonder how the heck we have made it this far with all we went through. 

I guess a year and a half later I can say that the grief is less intense more often. There is joy and laughter and silliness and so much gratitude. 

There is a lot of all that, a lot of the time. 

But there are times that it still hits me -surprises me- with the same intensity as a year ago. 

The passage of time gets me every once in awhile, too,  especially when I remember that Callie was just 5 and Maya was just 21 months when he died. They are so much bigger now. So much smarter. So much goofier. Gosh he would have had a blast with them.

I still pay attention to sunrays, though the camera roll on my phone isn't as filled with them, like a year ago:

 

  

It is now all the girls, all the time.

 

So that's where I'm at. Thanks for reading all that to get to the weekend wrap-up.

Yesterday was pretty chill. Callie had her annual Halloween costume dance class.

 

And she continues to stun the world with her outfit creations.

We had playtime and dinner over at G-ma and Pa's house. The highlight was a scavenger hunt that led to playing a new dice game!

 

 

Today we went to Boom's condo after church. Auntie Yoda and Auntie Mari came over, and we did some crafting.

 

 

The girls did some crafting too.

 

We tried out a new park today too. It was a little chilly, but we love us some parks!

 

And now tomorrow is Halloween. On a Monday. Godspeed to all the teachers and parents out there. It is going to be a long week full of crazy sugar highs and crabby sugar crashes. Good luck to you all.