It's hard for me to believe, but Eden is now seven years old!!
At most, it's felt like she was three. So realising she was actually turning seven this year was a shock to me. How did she quickly go from this adorable little pup:

To this beautiful girl:



Eden comes practically everywhere with me, and we've gone on many adventures together.
She's now been to various places around California, Oregon, Utah, and Michigan!


I remember how a few years ago I thought she was going to die from oral cancer. Turns out, she just had an infection, but I'll never forget how sad and awful I felt when I thought we only had maybe 6 months left together.

For her birthday this year, I took her to Yosemite National Park. We went for her birthday back in 2022, but I thought it'd be fun to go again but visit a different area of the park.
Plus, I've been in desperate need of touching some grass.
This time, we went on the Wawona Meadow Loop Trail. I was really happy to see that this part of the park is incredibly unpopular so there was no struggle for parking, and I could just wander through the woods with Eden, letting my mind wander.



I was hoping we'd see more wildflowers, but the things we did see were really special in their own right.





One of the coolest things I saw on this hike was this giant tree that was uprooted.
I feel like it's a really rare thing to see the actual bottom, root system of a tree!

This tree was so tall I couldn't see where the top of it lay.

It's an incredible wonder to see how this root network supported this tree for so many years, providing it nourishment, stability, and community with the surrounding trees.
I also wondered: what on earth happened here? How did it end up this way? Was it park management? Weather? Or was it some sort of giant beast that accidentally pushed it over while scratching it's back? I'll never know.





I really can't imagine my life without this silly, sweet, shy but also main-character-syndrome-on-tik-tok girl. Every year she's getting older, but I hope we can get at least 7 more years together.