I really oughtn't to listen to old recordings of my children singing with their choir while I edit pictures; it makes me far too sentimental. Little Abe! And his little angelic voice, now only a memory underneath his newly-deep tones. But let's be honest: I'm sentimental anyway. Anything that requires me to think about the rushing passage of time sends me off into that half-sweet, half-sad aching reverie, where I start getting teary-eyed thinking about how someday all those little dirty fingerprints will be gone from my walls and doors, never to return…and then I hear screaming and crashing from what is supposed to be a room full of sleeping children, and realize that those dirty little fingers are in the act of creating MORE mischief at that very moment…and the mood passes.
But it comes back with a vengeance when I realize how long we've been riding the ski lift at Sundance with my brother's family in the Fall, and how we've all grown and changed since we started! Well. I can't dwell on it too long, or I fall apart. Anyway, here is the record of it, so I can cry again next year! :)
A tree full of birdies!
A seat full of monkeys!
And…a Goldie. Ta-da!
This is like when you watch Romeo and Juliet for the second time, and all the hopeful, joyful moments are tainted because you know what's to come, and it shadows everything. Ah, the innocence of youth! They look so happy! Little did Philip and Allison know what lay ahead! Minutes after this picture was taken, Allison would have to watch helplessly as her own beloved glove fell like lightning from heaven, down from Junie's heedless pocket in the seat ahead…down, down, down, to the ground below…never to be seen again!
THIS. This sums up Teddy's day perfectly. He had to wear this HAT, and then he kept being made to GO places and SIT places and WALK places. And, then at other times, being made to NOT go places and NOT walk places. How could anyone be expected to enjoy oneself under such circumstances? I ask you.
Ben, Daisy, Mom, Abe
Sebby, Goldie, Junie, Malachi
Don't be taken in by this scene of filial affection and obedience. Teddy was NOT pleased to walk alongside his daddy on the trail as a dutiful child ought. It lasted for but a short time before the tugging hand and arching back set in. We ended up carrying him most of the way, not that it made him much happier. Poor lamb.
The little friends again. You have Philip to thank for Daisy's double-jacket/hat/hood combo. He brought enough hats to hat the entire world. Luckily for us! I always underestimate how cold it will be on top of the mountain.
Goldie doing a little jazz-walk? One of those West Side Story sort of dances?
Um…I don't know.
Now she looks like Mercutio.
…??…
Theo, somewhat happy.
Oh how I love those cheeks and eyelashes!
Lovely, golden, happy days, these are. Don't think I don't know it.
Oh these are lovely! And I think fall -- with its darned rapidly fading gloriousness -- makes feeling sentimental over rapidly passing time all the more apt to occur. Especially if you've gone and created such lovely traditions like this one!! Of course you know I'm becoming all . . . whatever I'm becoming about all of this lovely stuff we are passing and losing. All sure it isn't as it seems and we are gaining and gaining. In fact now I have a little post brewing in my own head! But, like death -- even believing it is a temporary loss -- it still feels hard! To just keep moving towards the future trusting nothing will be lost when I keep wanting to sneak back.
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