Seven Years Strong

THE SCHMIDT PROPERTY:



Six miles off the highway 17, my grandpa owns a fat chunk of land that we frequent as a family. It's a piece of heaven that we don't have in our neighborhood. So when a Saturday came around and we didn't have anything on the books, we packed up the kids, fishing poles, hot dogs and some drinks for a lazy afternoon.








We plopped Luke down with our supplies, some tires for a possible tire swing if we could find the right tree and the skateboard... well he just loves to have it near.




His property looks out from the Santa Cruz Mountains to Monterey Bay. That little inlet on the right of the coastline just before the tree trunk is the west side of Santa Cruz where we live.



There is the most beautiful chestnut tree at the top of the property. It's so old it has a little assistants these days to keep its aging limbs up.


Bella and Luke love to open up the spikey nuts to find the treasure inside.



We cruised around the property in the truck and let the kids bounce around as we looked for deer. This photos cool cuz the flash fired and you can see Rod pointing out a deer in the reflection as the kids look out the window for it.



I love all the old school things my grandpa has collected over the years. It is what makes his property. This property is his pride and joy. He loves to come up and just tinker around the shed and trim trees etc. I know why more and more with each trip.










We explore all the same things everytime, but somehow it's new and different. Especially with the changing seasons.



I have memories of sticky hot summers, trying to keep cool by day under the big chestnut trees and other times of playing in the snow with my kids. Burn piles baked our potatoes growing up when we'd spend the day with grandpa. Cards with grandma with a butter and cheese sandwhich on white bread. Countless Easters filled with potlucks, same relatives I still don't know names to, and easter egg hunts. Today it was a crisp cool day. We stayed bundled up. Munched on apples and fresh bread as Rod started the fire.






That was a memory in itself... watching Rodney break the wood down to start the fire brought me back to one of our first dates at a beach bonfire. He'd bust the wood with his foot and pull it apart with his hands. I remember his pumped forearms in the flickering fire as he tossed pieces in. We stayed up all night talking out on a log near the ocean front away from the crowd about where we came from... exchanging story after story of our past. We came from two completely different worlds and fell in love that night. It was the beginning of us. Happy Anniversary Baby! 7 years strong today.

With the sun going down we started a fire for our hot dogs and watch the stars come out.