photos in flickr
Yahoo told me that they will no longer be hosting my photos in september, so I am going with Flickr, which I have wanted to do for a while. I really like their slideshow format with a black background, instead of Yahoo's white one. It brings out the contrast in the photos much better. So here we are.
We just got back from Michigan for a wedding and some time with my mentor, friend, and spiritual father, F. His daughter was getting married, and she asked if A would do the honors as ring-bearer. To which he replied, "I'nnot a ringbear, I'm A!" We convinced him he would not need to change his name for the job, and so he was ok with it.
We drove 10 hours to get there, the first long car trip since we finished potty-training. I was nervous and stressed, not just because of that, but all the details and maps and making sure we were there on time and all that stuff, knowing I have probably forgotten something very important. I didn't forget anything terribly essential, luckily, except charging my phone before the return trip, but that was easily fixed at a rest stop.
The rehearsal and wedding went very well, though A was scared of a shark coming through the big church windows. Something I can thank my inlaws for, I suppose, as he watched the Jaws marathon with them a few weeks ago. But he got down the aisle, didn't poop in his tuxedo, and was of course, incredibly cute with nearly everyone. He used the potty during the ceremony (after we took him out since he was scared of the shark), and later, when asked what he liked best about the wedding he said, "I made two poops!" Good to know he has his priorities straight.
There was a lovely brunch at F's house the next day, where I got to catch up with a former teacher I hadn't seen since prom (14 years ago?). He had been one of my favorite teachers as well, and I finally got a chance to meet his wife and daughter, who was a newborn when her dad went to our prom. wow.On sunday, we attended F's church, Living Water, where he is a vicar. (I can't help thinking about the Smiths song, Vicar in a Tutu...but that's just me) ("He's not strange, he just wants to live his life this way-hay...") The pastor who did the wedding ceremony was F's mentor in college, and he and F had a conversation-as-sermon about fatherhood, regrets they had about their own mistakes in fatherhood, rewarding and surprising things about ministering to people in a church, and then F's mentor took over and surprised F by calling forward all these people from their church, who gave testimonies of how F has helped them. It was funny, encouraging, and very touching to see all of these people who have also grown so much because of his influence, just like D and me. To see the man who helped F grow to be the godly man he is, was also a profound experience. It is this extended family of believers who, perhaps unknowingly, shaped me just as much as my own, flesh-and-blood relatives.
On monday, we visited the Binder Park Zoo, a really incredible place with peacocks running around the whole park, a safari exhibit where we fed giraffes with obscenely long tongues, and where A was in hog heaven. He's at the age where everything is terribly exciting, and having tons of people besides his parents who want to give him food to feed the animals, pick him up to see special things, and take him for the fiftieth time to the sliding board was a real bonus. He was wiped out by the end, as were the rest of us.
Lastly, we got our Michigan friends hooked on the Wii, which D brought specially (as they have a huge projection-screen TV in the basement with a kicking sound system). It's not too hard to be hooked on the Wii, actually, since it doesn't require extra fingers and twenty years' gaming experience to get the hang of. Literally the whole family spent hours playing tennis, bowling, boxing (oddly satisfying to K.O. close family members' avatars), Paper Mario 3-D and the new Big Brain Academy game. Now they're looking for one everywhere, which no one has had much luck with for months.
We got home on Tuesday, and A was so excited to be in his own bed again. So was I, with an added impulse to hermit myself for a month. Not an option at the moment, unfortunately!
We just got back from Michigan for a wedding and some time with my mentor, friend, and spiritual father, F. His daughter was getting married, and she asked if A would do the honors as ring-bearer. To which he replied, "I'nnot a ringbear, I'm A!" We convinced him he would not need to change his name for the job, and so he was ok with it.
We drove 10 hours to get there, the first long car trip since we finished potty-training. I was nervous and stressed, not just because of that, but all the details and maps and making sure we were there on time and all that stuff, knowing I have probably forgotten something very important. I didn't forget anything terribly essential, luckily, except charging my phone before the return trip, but that was easily fixed at a rest stop.
The rehearsal and wedding went very well, though A was scared of a shark coming through the big church windows. Something I can thank my inlaws for, I suppose, as he watched the Jaws marathon with them a few weeks ago. But he got down the aisle, didn't poop in his tuxedo, and was of course, incredibly cute with nearly everyone. He used the potty during the ceremony (after we took him out since he was scared of the shark), and later, when asked what he liked best about the wedding he said, "I made two poops!" Good to know he has his priorities straight.
There was a lovely brunch at F's house the next day, where I got to catch up with a former teacher I hadn't seen since prom (14 years ago?). He had been one of my favorite teachers as well, and I finally got a chance to meet his wife and daughter, who was a newborn when her dad went to our prom. wow.On sunday, we attended F's church, Living Water, where he is a vicar. (I can't help thinking about the Smiths song, Vicar in a Tutu...but that's just me) ("He's not strange, he just wants to live his life this way-hay...") The pastor who did the wedding ceremony was F's mentor in college, and he and F had a conversation-as-sermon about fatherhood, regrets they had about their own mistakes in fatherhood, rewarding and surprising things about ministering to people in a church, and then F's mentor took over and surprised F by calling forward all these people from their church, who gave testimonies of how F has helped them. It was funny, encouraging, and very touching to see all of these people who have also grown so much because of his influence, just like D and me. To see the man who helped F grow to be the godly man he is, was also a profound experience. It is this extended family of believers who, perhaps unknowingly, shaped me just as much as my own, flesh-and-blood relatives.
On monday, we visited the Binder Park Zoo, a really incredible place with peacocks running around the whole park, a safari exhibit where we fed giraffes with obscenely long tongues, and where A was in hog heaven. He's at the age where everything is terribly exciting, and having tons of people besides his parents who want to give him food to feed the animals, pick him up to see special things, and take him for the fiftieth time to the sliding board was a real bonus. He was wiped out by the end, as were the rest of us.
Lastly, we got our Michigan friends hooked on the Wii, which D brought specially (as they have a huge projection-screen TV in the basement with a kicking sound system). It's not too hard to be hooked on the Wii, actually, since it doesn't require extra fingers and twenty years' gaming experience to get the hang of. Literally the whole family spent hours playing tennis, bowling, boxing (oddly satisfying to K.O. close family members' avatars), Paper Mario 3-D and the new Big Brain Academy game. Now they're looking for one everywhere, which no one has had much luck with for months.We got home on Tuesday, and A was so excited to be in his own bed again. So was I, with an added impulse to hermit myself for a month. Not an option at the moment, unfortunately!
2 Comments:
Who's the chick with the obscenely long tongued giraffe?
flynn's other daughter, anna. she was cracking up, as we all got slimed by giraffe tongue.
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