The biggest thing my mom wanted for her birthday was to have a giant family photo taken. We'd planned on going to a studio to have this done, but the flu swept through our ranks on the day we'd set aside for that event. So, at Grace's birthday party, we tried to get some good pictures. It's hard when so many people are in a family and none of us is a professional photographer. It's harder still when the glare is so bad that all one can do is squint, but also try and smile...Still, they turned out pretty well. The ones of the grandkids with my mom and and dad are especially cute...

I also love the one of my dad holding Grace and looking out to sea...it was her birthday and she is pretty special to my dad because she was named after his mom, my Grandma Grace, who died just a few months before Gracie was born.

So, all these pictures/posts are sort of in backwards order...sorry about that. I didn't detail any of the pictures becauses it's just too much work. Lots of pictures of my neices and nephews (I'm a bit smitten with them), pictures taken with old friends...one with Denise who I've known since I was 7, and one of Jenny who I've known since I was a freshman in college, which almost feels as long ago as being 7. Pictures of my sisters and their husbands...and pictures of a warm sunny evening in California when we celebrated my mom and the life she's lived so well by loving us all so well. Happy Birthday, again, mom...








Final pictures from the party and one from the beach...