Photographs

July 8, 2012

Today is Kaleb's 16th birthday.  I had a desire to look at old photos, which is unusual for me because they make me so melancholy.  I meticulously kept albums for years and then carefully stowed them away in a high, deep cupboard.  When I got them out Henry asked where the heck those came from.  He can't remember seeing pictures of himself as a baby.  So out they are and they will remain out in the livingroom for a while.  Why take the pictures and catalog them if you don't look at them once in while anyway?

Yes, they did make me a bit melancholy but mostly they filled me with a new emotion: pride.  Scott and I have spent years taking care of and having fun with our kids.  We threw them birthday parties, took them camping, took them to see their extended families, swam, fished, sledded, giggled, and just plain embraced life.  It is fun to embrace life with little ones and it can be shocking and difficult to do so with teenagers.  There aren't many pictures from this past year or two in particular.  Yes, life has kicked our butts.  There have not been a whole lot of picture-taking moments.  You take pictures of things you want to remember and mostly we'd just like to forget the goings on of late.  

But looking at these pictures helps me to visualize this amazing family that we have spent years cultivating.  This foundation is not fragile and I sense that we are beginning to build on it again.  It is good for us to look at our family history in this album and to realize that we are not done yet.  I think there just might be a few more photo albums in our future.  Today Scott and my dad took the boys out to golf and I shouted to him as they left, "Take some pictures!"