Just a few thoughts

I have so many thoughts running through my head right now, so I apologize in advanced for this post, which will probably end up being random and scattered and sappy.

This weekend, the second weekend here in La Grande, was spent with family. Trampis, my brother and roommate, was off in Montana, helping lead EOU's football team to a victory. He spent most of the weekend on a bus. Jess, my brothers girlfriend, took my brother and her's dog to Boise, and spent the weekend with family as I did. So here I was, in La Grande, not knowing what to do.

I got a text from my aunt Krissy saying she'd be in town with her husband and their two year old daughter, Annalyn, and that she wanted to see me.

Saturday was a pretty chill day for the most part. We didn't do much in the morning except shop and hang out. I broke out some really really old scrapbooks of my grandparents. I even indulged myself in their life stories for part of the day (which are so interesting. If your grandparents wrote their life stories, GO READ THEM).

During the evening, we headed up to my grandpa's property in the mountains surrounding La Grande. To our family, it's called Starkey, and is full of memories of hunting trips, campouts, picnics and four wheeling trips in the summers.

I'm not sure if you can tell, but it's breathtaking up there.

One of my favorite things about going up into the woods when I was little was stealing an old jacket from my grandparent's house. I dunno why, but even when we had our own jackets, me and my cousins would steal one from the coat closet. (My grandma and grandpa were both raised with a love for hand-me-down clothes. When their kids grew out of things, they kept it for the grandkids) My aunt figures this jacket was from the 90's or so. I fell in love with it.

(Here is my little Annalyn. Fun fact: We share a name... kinda. I am named after Christiana Ella, my great great grandma. She is, too! The beginning of her name Anna is taking from Christiana. And Lyn, after our grandma Gwendolyn. Her middle name, Elizabeth, is from our great grandma. Dang, this girl has a name packed of some of the greatest women I have ever known, and not known, in Ella's case).

We spent a little while up at Starkey, checking on my great Uncle Wayne's cows, and hanging out, enjoying the scenery.

When we left, we decided to take a drive to look for deer. This is one of my favorite childhood memories. I was never the grandchild to spot anything, I always got so distracted by anything but last night, I spot a whole herd of Elk! A whole herd! I was so proud of my self.

But that was my moment. Hanging my head out the window with my grandpa driving his pick up really slow. Everyone was so quiet, and the sunset was so pretty. I love it up here and I had the strongest memory come to me of when we would do this every summer with all my cousins and aunts and uncles.

It. Was. Breathtaking.

I spent the night eating dinner with my family, and playing with my youngest cousin, and feeling very very grateful for my childhood and for my family and for the beautiful landscape of La Grande.

Today, of course, was Sunday. MY FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK.

On my way home from church, I thought I'd stop to see someone I mentioned early in this post.

The original Ella Waite. Hey, great great grandma.

(Thought I'd mentioned that Annalyn isn't the only girl who has a name packed full of powerful women. Christianna Ella was AWESOME, and seriously seriously strong. My middle name, Frances, was also the strongest women ever. And the kindest. Whoa, I'm lucky.)

The more I think about it, the more I realize that family is the most important thing in the world. Maybe that's why I love all of mine so much (as crazy and blended as we are), and maybe that's why I'm so interesting in family history and history in general. People.

I love people. I love the mountains. I love movies. I love learning, and popcorn and friends, and technology and blogging and journaling and dogs!! I gotta lot of love.

I'm not gonna lie, the last few weeks have been rough. College is so different, change is hard (especially when you thought it would last for at least a little longer), and life is seriously stressful sometimes. BUT the right kind of people make it better.

Thank you for reading this AGAIN, you know what I'm gonna say ;) ... It means SO SO much.

Signing off until my next rant,

Ella Frances Waite