The soapberries (Shepherdia canadensis) are already out! The girls love to whip them into Indian ice cream (when whipped with sugar, the berries turn into a pink foamy concoction). The girls also love to rub the berries all over themselves (it creat… — The soapberries (*Shepherdia canadensis*) are already out! The girls love to whip them into Indian ice cream (when whipped with sugar, the berries turn into a pink foamy concoction). The girls also love to rub the berries all over themselves (it creates foam!) and rinse themselves in the lake. It really does leave the skin feeling clean and fresh!

Yosemite, Sequoia National Park, Lake Tahoe, Joshua Tree: here we come!!

It was the grey jays fighting over a piece of rhubarb pie, the loon singing in the middle of the night when all is quiet, the mama duck and her ducklings that came to see me when I sat on the dock. It was the pain and shame that I shed on that very same dock. It was the healing tears. It was wild strawberries stained mouths and maps all over the bed, the planning of the next leg of our adventure.

It was the way I realized how I am walking the tightrope between old and new, familiar and exciting. It was the deep exhale. Breathe.