Dear Sweet Evangeline Grace,

I once dreamed of spending my 30th birthday repining on a hillside in the south of France. Instead, I got to spend it with you and Daddy in the hills outside of Yosemite: a reality so much more beautiful than my dream.

You were such an angel and spent most of those three days tucked into your Daddy's jacket, your large brown eyes scrolling up and down at the beautiful green grass, the tall trees, the deer darting in and out of the forest.

I especially loved taking you to the Palace of Fine Arts and sitting you on the sprawling root bed of that great oak tree. I'm sorry that you toppled over, though, and I hope that the memory will be wiped away by all the kisses we gave you afterward.

I am so grateful for you, Evie. You are truly one of the two best things I have to show for my thirty years on this earth. Not that I can take one bit of credit.

With Love Forever,

And Ever,

Your Mother