beauty in the desert

I know most of you don't know me well.

And I apologize to those of you who live in the desert.

But I have always declared pretty adamantly that I do not like the desert.

I prefer the ocean or mountains.

I am not a desert girl.

And my husband knows that.

So when he sat me down a few weeks ago and said,

"I want to propose something" coupled with, "I just

wish you liked the desert more."

I instantly thought uh.."Where are you going with this?"

You see my husband is a business man

and he is always looking at things from a business,

practical perspective. 

He also grew up on a farm.

He likes the open range.

And he spends his free time looking things up.

Things about the economy, properties,

investments, things for the future.

He's a forward thinking kind of guy.

And whenever he travels for work he typically

comes home saying he'd love to live there, or buy there.

I used to think we were moving, all the time.

I'd get all emotionally worked up about this place that

it looked like we'd be soon calling home.

But then I realized most of the time he's just kind of thinking out loud.

Only this time, his thoughts turned into reality rather quickly.

But don't worry my local friends, we're not moving.

It's just a getaway kind of thing.

And this possibility led us on an adventure

 to Arizona and the Grand Canyon this past

Memorial Day Weekend.

Again I must say I went into this sort of apprehensively.

Still saying I'm not a desert girl.

But I said I'd keep an open mind.

And I told him, I'd be taking pictures along the way.

A way of helping myself find beauty in the desert.

He asked me to trust him, to trust that this idea he had,

this location was so peaceful and such a good opportunity

that he felt led to move forward on it.

And so to we set off on our very impromptu

Arizona road trip...

My six year old eternal optimist gets out

for our pit stop and says, "I love how hot and

windy it is at the same time."

We traveled along the old route 66.

I've never, ever done this.

And though I told my husband I had

radiator springs visions dancing in my head.

It was kind of fun.

Kind of an adventure.

And super fun stopping in the old historic towns.

The thrift stores.  Let's just say I can't

wait to go back.  Because they don't

charge an arm and a leg like they do here in LA.

And slowly but surely, I was seeing the beauty.

This was our last stop before the grand canyon.  There's many a story here that I will

save for another day. But my kids posed like this and asked for a picture.  I just

had to give it that old saloon look.

In the restaurant she was horrified this cowboy wouldn't stop singing to her.

He truly wasn't getting a clue.  And then she got mad at me

for documenting it, but I just had to. 

And then when we hit the dirt roads, on the way

to the property there were free roaming cows everywhere.

And I was like a giddy city girl getting out to take pictures.

I know the locals must have thought I was crazy.

And finally, we arrived

to the little house on the desert prairie.

I'm standing on the porch taking this picture of

my family.  That's how remote it is.

Nestled on forty acres and surrounded by federally

protected land that will never be developed.

I could understand the peaceful feeling my

husband was talking about.

And how this was something too good to pass up.

And so, I am going to learn to savor the peace

and open space, the golden light, the rustic,

and the wild of the desert.

Because this little 600 square foot prairie house 

is our new little project.

It will snow in the winter and it's about an hour drive

from all kinds of different places like lakes

and the mountains.  

It all happened really so fast.

But it had been a long standing dream

of my husband's to do something like this.

The house officially closed escrow yesterday.

And I'm officially deeming it the desert prairie house.

If you follow me on pinterest, you'll understand

why that folder tentatively called 'future?' 

has been very active lately.

Because there are lots of DIY ideas floating

around and projects I can't wait to

get up there and dig into to transform

this place into a peaceful retreat.

My husband has plans for guy trips with ATV's

and me, well girl trips with scrapbooking or

pinterest parties.  A girl can dream right.

Only one hang up, the closest Trader Joe's

is 90 minutes away.  OH the shame.

I will be bringing up a cooler of my

own food.

But other than that, I'm getting

excited, and learning to embrace

the beauty of the desert.