This entry was posted on Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 4:40 am and is filed under Around the House, Feelings, Humor, Pictures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
While I realize that this blog is about our children, it is also about everyone that is a part of our life. Looking back I realized that is quite a few people and thought that perhaps I should share some of those photos, too. Show you how you made us smile an how much we enjoyed your company. Hopefully each of you - included in these photos and not - will know that we think of you as a part of our family and hope that you will continue to be a part of our lives and the lives of our daughters for many years to come.
For reference, all photos in this set are from the calendar year 2005.
It is probably easiest to start with family - near and far - and talk about how they have impacted our lives, but it’s difficult to put any unique order to the photos or pictures that we want to share. I hope that as we pour out these words and photos that each of you understand - their order is of no importance. The importance is what you’ve brought to our lives. The order is simply an artifact of how they came to be in the Gallery.
2005 was a great year for us - Sofi was healthy, happy and growing well, and on July 10, 2005 Natalie Faith joined our family. In the photos below you’ll see the Hildebrand family, although I can’t understand why Dianne looks like she’s never held a baby before. Her son an daughters, though, already look like old hats with children. As well they probably should.
The Gugale family was also visiting frequently in 2005 and George, Paulette, Joe, Melissa and Jack have continually brought smiles and joy to our family. They’re pictured throughout our site and will always remain an important part of our lives.
It would also be difficult to have any reference to friends and family without talking about Kuma Stella, who has the unique distinction of being present for the birth of both of our children. She was an amazing help and friend and will always be considered a part of our family. You can see here here in these photos with Ross, who is also appreciated for the amount of time that he has invested babysitting with Kuma so that mama and papa can have a few hours every now and again to go out and see how real adults live. I guess the funny note here is that neither of our children can actually say Ross and so he’ll forever be known around the house as Fross.
Another dear friend is Johanna - known around the house as Jo - who shares Gina’s career choice as a teacher and shares her love with our children in a way that is both wholesome and real. It difficult for me to say exactly, only knowing Johanna for a half dozen years, but if we talk about people that have a certain old wisdom - that’s the feeling that Jo always leaves me with. She’s great to spend time with at the Farmer’s Market, too!
Throughout the blog you will see pictures of the Shumaker family and this will be no exception. Troy, Michele, Cole and Sydney are a very important part of our family. They’re there to spend time with and enjoy company with and Troy has been a wonderful help in getting the tree-house built. It would still be a platform without his help. Not too many pictures of Troy and I around our house because Troy is always either working on the treehouse or drinking with me, and we all know evidence of that is not allowed!
Next in this list of photos is the Rothstein family - Mike, Lisa and Audrey. Sort of the “IT” family with all the toys and all the smiles, Mike and Lisa have produced one of the cutest and most even-tempered children you could possibly image. Of course, this is 2005, though and for these pictures the baby is still in Lisa’s tummy and we all know how cute that looks!
My parents were a part of 2005, too, when we visited them in the winter and my mother flew in for my birthday. Both were marvelous fun. At the same time, Babi, Gina’s mother, was and will always remain an integral part of our lives. There were almost too many photos of her in 2005, but I’ll drop one in here now and say thanks again to all parents - every one of us.
Being our blog, I dd want to include a few pictures of us in 2005, including a picture of Gina in early 2005 - pregnant, of course - and of Sofi. She is growing so quickly and as I look at these pictures it’s difficult to remember her then and even more difficult to accept that she’s growing up - becoming a person on her own.
Some of our neighbors have become a part of our extended family, and I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Jack and Jean from next door, Stacie Tamaki and Kitai, our friends from around the corner, and Rich, Khan Cairibelle and Spencer from across the street.
It was probably more than we should have asked for David, especially considering that he had to sing at our wedding, but he was also a part of our daughters christening - the Godfather (which I think in religious considerations is actually quite important, even though I just like the way it sounds.) David is now married to Alice and about to celebrate his son’s first birthday.
Other visitors in 2005 that might want to see themselves on our blog include: teacher friends of Gina, Gaye, Bev, Cathy, Julie and Megan. After that we have Stan, his son George, Jack Melissa and Sofi.
I certainly hope you’ve enjoyed this trip down memory lane and thank you all - pictured and not - for being a part of our family.
papa
