The Seven of Us

I hadn't been home for six years, and the last time I was there I didn't take very many pictures. This time I really tried to capture the unique aspects of my home in the Adirondack Mountains. When I think of home, it's the land that I remember: The smell of the pines, the softness of the needles and leaves on the forest floor, the rain drumming its tune on my bedroom roof, the wild strawberries and flowers and ferns and mosses. I remember the humidity, the blueness of the rural New York sky, the mosquitoes and deer flies and black flies.  I remember the forest, the waterfalls, fishing and hiking and cross-country skiing and cutting our own Christmas tree. I remember Home. The beautiful blue sky, complete with the moon, around 4 pm.Even now, I remember how I felt when I looked outside and saw this. It's gorgeous.  I grew up in the town of Stony Creek (No, there was not an e in Stony. Strange.)  Stony Creek is one of several creeks in my little town (We...

Here are some more pictures from Conor's wedding.  My mom with two of her brothers, Al and Dennis.  Boutonnieres are always a pain in the neck. This one was no exception. This is Conor waiting for Natalie before the ceremony. I don't really think this picture looks like him--he looks very thin and very bald. ;-)  I probably just don't see him enough.  Corbin had a blast hula hooping during the reception.   He and Isaac were glad to get away from the conversations and go have some fun.  I like the picture below; it shows the two Isaacs having fun together! This is Taylor with my cousin's daughter Noelle. They had fun getting to know one another.  Neither my mom nor my brother were too excited to do this dance, but they actually had a lot of fun together. 

The boys and I landed in Albany late on Friday, May 22. On Saturday morning we drove to my house, had lunch, changed, quickly cuT Isaac's hair, and went to Conor's wedding. I snapped these pictures between Warrensburg and Stony Creek, when I was still captivated by the curvy roads and green everywhere.  Growing up, going anywhere looked like this. Now I can't believe I used to live in a place this lush. And while I love visiting and taking in the scenery, I now prefer more open spaces. (Actually, I really loved the Utah mountains. In terms of scenery, they were a perfect compromise between the Something of my youth in the Adirondack Mountains and the Nothing of my adulthood on the High Plains of Colorado.) The wedding was held at a camp in Galway.  Don't be deceived--it only looks warm. In actuality, the breeze was frigid.  I kept trying to get a good look at Natalie, as if a glimpse of her would tell me all about her. (We didn't meet until after th...

During June, kids would just come over after baseball practice and play a game in the backyard. 

This is what happens when your kids become teenagers.(Isaac has his back turned to the camera and Corbin is invisible--you can just see his friend Milo's head sticking out of the cart behind Isaac. Later I took this picture and video. 

Isaac is tall . He's still eleven, and I'm guessing he's 5'6". He reaches my nose. Even though he doesn't like to hear it, he takes after my dad (and my dad's grandfather, Andrew Droddy): He's tall and slender. He may be done growing by the time he's 13. And he's obsessively clean. When I look at Isaac lately, I am reminded of the fact that he's becoming a man before my eyes.  I think I felt this way with Caleb, too, but maybe I didn't notice it right away since I hadn't been through it before. Yup, our boys become men, and while it doesn't exactly happen overnight, it happens fast.  Fast enough, in fact, that I'm thinking of Kenney Chesney's song  Don't Blink as I write this, and I'm wondering, How can you miss something when you're right there?  How has this happened so fast?  https://youtube/4f0p5KqdU9U I was organizing the office closet and I found this photo in Caleb's scrapbook. Kinda proves t...

The girls and I went to Salt Lake and Rexburg for Spring Break.  My  Uncle Den  and Aunt Susan live in Salt Lake.  I think we wore them (and me) out! Aunt Susan made amazing taco soup and homemade strawberry shortcake (including real whipped cream from heavy cream). I couldn't quite finish mine. We stayed with them a little less than 24 hours, but we were able to go to church with Aunt Sue and the girls were able to get to know them a little more. As normal, Uncle Dennis told fun stories and Aunt Susan filled us in on the family. She has a great memory and has known my parents for 45-plus years, so I often learn something new from her.  Sunday afternoon we left for Rexburg. On the way, we made an unplanned stop at the Idaho Falls temple, which was the first temple I ever visited.  In 1988 my family stopped there when we made our trip around the US (one month, lots of KOA Kampgrounds, a few Motel 6s, and about 25-30 states. I need to blog about it!...