People

Rock Creek Church

It’s a pretty exciting time for us. We had a nice, relaxing week at the beach, returning yesterday. Tomorrow we leave for England. But today has excitement of its own. Our church has been without a pastor for over a year. In some ways it’s been a good year. There has been a lot of looking at and assessing needs. It’s also been a fairly hard year in a lot of ways. There has been a lot that needed doing and fewer people to do it. I was blessed to be involved in the pastoral search process. Now, I celebrate along with the rest of the church that God has brought us a new pastor and his family. This is much more of a beginning than and ending and there is plenty still needing to be done, perhaps more than ever, but this is a change I’ve been looking forward to for a good while. Welcome, Martin Family!

Dorothy and Karlee

As I mentioned when I posted the family picture from a few days ago, Karlee has been with us at the beach every time we’ve gone since 2006. Dorothy’s second cousins consider her to be an honorary relative. She’s become so much a part of the family for that week that we don’t so much ask if she can come as assume that she will.

It’s hard to know what will happen next year, as both girls will have graduated from high school. The years after that are even more uncertain, of course, when they are away at college. Time will tell, of course, and Karlee will always be invited.

This photo was one of only a few I took today. We spent the first part of the morning packing and loading the car and then spent most of the day driving home. It’s about 425 miles, including getting Karlee home, and when you add stops and heavy traffic on I95, it’s a pretty long day. I made sure to take a few, though, including this of Dorothy and Karlee, ending beach week.

Family Beach Photo

Today’s picture is of the portion of our family that was at the beach this year. We missed having Stephen, Maya, and Iris, who have come in recent years. We also missed Brady, George, and Carmela, although they haven’t been, at least not in a long while. But, we did have Karlee, Dorothy, Henry, Cathy, Albert, Dot, Ralph, and Tsai-Hong. While Karlee isn’t technically in our family, she’s been with us at the beach six of the last eight years and we didn’t go to the beach the other two, either.

Airborne

Our friend, Dave, took two other friends, Jon and James, up in his plane this afternoon. He had to return the plane to Frederick and get his car, so they flew with him, along with his oldest son, Conor. I drove them to the airport where the plane was and took some pictures of them as they took off. I underestimated how much runway this larger plane needs to take off as compared to the smaller planes that take off so very quickly and easily. They got off the ground just before they got to where I was by the runway. The picture taken right before this is a little better in terms of showing the plane. I was trying to keep up with them as they hurtled towards me and I’m afraid that the framing is a bit off. Still, I like this one because you can see James in the cockpit. Another future pilot, perhaps?

In Memoriam — Kevin Snider

February 6, 1952 – July 8, 2013

Guatemala Team

Dorothy left early this morning for Guatemala early this morning. We dropped her off at Church of Christ at Manor Woods at 2:00 AM and they were off by 2:30, heading to the airport. By the time we were home from church later in the day there was a post on Facebook saying they had arrived safely in Antigua. It’s going to be hard not being able to call and ask her how she is, but we’re looking forward to all the stories she’ll have when she gets home. This is the team, just before the piled into the bus and headed out.

Cathy and Dorothy

It was about 10:30 this evening and I hadn’t taken any pictures today. I asked the girls if I could take there picture and I took about a dozen. This one turned out quite well, I think. Others had one or both of them making silly faces, and while they are funny, it’s easy to get tired of silly faces and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of their ordinary smiles.

I love you both, girls.

Viki

As followers of this blog know, I had surgery in May and then again on June 12, just under three weeks ago. I was back in to have the staples removed last week and went in again today for what we all hope will be my last visit. I’m recovering nicely, although I’m still supposed to take it easy.

I don’t like telling people that I hope never to see them again, but when the reason you see them is that you need or are recovering from surgery, that’s a little different. Viki, the nurse at this particular doctor’s office, is very nice and cheerful and was gracious enough to let me take a couple pictures of her, after I told her why I carry my camera everywhere. Thanks, Viki, for making a bad time more pleasant.

Lilias, Michelle, Hope, Ben, and Yan

It’s hard to believe it’s been two years since we saw these lovely folks but when they were here last they were just under a month away from having their second child and now here they are with three! What a wonderful time we had catching up, hearing stories, and reconnecting. And what a beautiful family they are becoming. Lilias is becoming quite the little lady and Yan is cute, if somewhat wary of strangers. Thank you all for giving us a day of your time and God bless you as you follow him.

Dorothy, Hannah, Kendra, Emma, and Safiya

Dorothy and some of her friends left for summer camp this evening. It was a beautiful, warm afternoon and spirits were high as five buses of kids and counselors headed off for West Virginia for five fun-filled days and nights. As usual, I took a few pictures. In this one are, from left to right, Dorothy, Hannah, Kendra, Emma, and Safiya. Have a great time, guys.

Simone

I took some fern pictures this afternoon but fern pictures are pretty easy to come by. Dorothy visited with her good friend Simone this afternoon and I took some pictures of them. Pictures of Simone are considerably harder to come by because Simone lives out of town. Dorothy didn’t particularly like the pictures with both of them, so you get a picture of just Simone. Not that that’s a bad thing, just a thing. Here you are.

James Imitating Jacob

I went to pick up Dorothy this evening and ran into a few old friends, some of whom I haven’t seen in a while. James was there with his grandmother and I took a few pictures of them. She was talking about her newest grandson, Jacob, and told James to show me what Jacob looks like. This is what he did.

Apparently Jacob was a bit of a crier at first but recently he has become interested in everything. He stares around with an amazed expression on his face similar to this one.

Jean, Maria, and Buck

We went to two graduation ceremonies today. The first was in Fairfax and was for our friend Maria, shown here with her parents, Jean and Buck. It seems like only yesterday that she was just a little girl and now she’s a beautiful young lady, off to college in the fall. Congratulations, Maria, we are very proud of you, and I know your family is, too. Sorry we couldn’t stay for your party, but we had a second graduation to go to.

Hannah Blowing Bubbles

We spent an enjoyable evening having dinner in our friends’ barn. It was a really nice time of being with old friends as well as making some new. Dorothy’s friend, Hannah came with us and towards the end of the evening she enjoyed blowing bubbles. This picture has been modified slightly (but only slightly), but it’s how I saw what she was doing. So, think of this as an impressionistic view of Hannah blowing bubbles.

Piano Recital

Dorothy had her annual piano recital this afternoon and we enjoyed listening to her play. Her good friend Julia also takes piano lessons from Rhonda and she was right after Dorothy. Actually, I enjoyed all the performers. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, or what, but I find it easier and easier each year to enjoy the music of all levels and not wish it would just end. Well done, everyone. We had a special treat this year. One student, the boy on the right in this photograph, played his piano pieces and then he played a duet with his teacher with her on the piano and him on the clarinet. That was lovely.

Preston / Hoberman Sphere

We had a group of folks over this evening, including young Henry, whose photograph has been featured here a few times. We got out some toys for him and the older kids enjoyed showing him this Hoberman sphere. He wasn’t so sure he wanted anything to do with it. Preston, on the other hand, thought it was a lot of fun wearing it on his head.