Update on Family Get-Together Up North

I love surprises in my email, and this morning I received a really nice surprise. Jackie emailed me some pictures she had taken when we had all met a few weeks ago. I was kind of bummed as the pictures I had taken just didn't turn out very well, so I was really happy to get these and be able to share them with you.

This is a much better picture of Dustin and Emily than the one I took. I have so few pictures of my niece and nephew, and now I have this one, and it means so much to me. Thank you, Jackie. I also like the next one of Kelly, Emily, Dustin and David eating lunch on the deck. We all had such a good time that day.

Here we have the two youngest members of the family who, left to their own devices, could probably find all sorts of things to get into! They had so much fun playing together.

Kelly and I spent some time looking at pictures on David's laptop. What memories there are within those pictures. And it was a good way to catch up on what has been happening within the family. I know that I can be a real pain in the whatever to my kids, pestering them for pictures so much, but being able to walk down Memory Lane with my brother is one reason that pictures are so important to me. My memory is not what I would like it to be. I seem to have misplaced entire decades within my memory, and seeing the family pictures serves to remind me of things long since forgotten.

Rarely do I like to have my picture taken. I would much rather be in back of the camera than in front of it. But I like this picture, because it reminds me of a really good day with family - happy and relaxed. I hope we can have more of these times together soon.