People

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.

Karen, Bob, Julia, Dorothy, Maureen, Stephen, and Kadie

Two days ago I showed you Julia’s ceiling. Today, you get Julia and her family (plus a few). We enjoyed the graduation ceremony and are very proud of Julia as she moves into the next phase of her educational career. We’ll miss seeing her quite so often but swill look forward to her visits all the more for her absence.

Well done, Julia. Thanks to you and your family for your love and friendship.

Hannah Admires Julia’s Ceiling

We have some pretty artistically talented friends and Julia is one of them. She has a particularly beautiful singing voice, she plans the piano and guitar, and she is pretty handy with a pencil and paper (as well as other media). I’m not going to try to illustrate her musical ability here, but instead will pay silent homage to her drawing skills.

The ceiling over her bunk is decorated with sketches and this picture shows another talented friend, Hannah, admiring them. I have enjoyed watching her skills mature as she has grown into a beautiful young lady. I look forward to watching the next phase of her journey, as she heads off to college in the fall.

Dorothy Rose

Well, we’ve had a lot of rose pictures so to ease us back into the non-rose world, I thought I’d post a picture of Dorothy Rose. Actually, I’m mainly posting this because it is one of only six pictures I took today.

On Sunday I passed photo number 60,000 with this camera. As you probably know, I’ve been taking a picture every day since four days after I got my current camera. As of today I’ve taken 60,045 photos in 886 days and I’ve gone 882 consecutive days taking a picture. That’s an average of just about 68 photos per day. Obviously some days I take a lot more than that. Other days, like today, I take only a handful.

As you might expect, I have almost certainly taken more pictures of Dorothy than of anyone else. Dorothy and her friends are fairly common as subjects of mine.

Ellen — Grande Jeté

I took quite a few pictures this evening but most of them were sort of run of the mill. I asked a couple girls to give me some dance moves that I could photograph and this is what I ended up with. It would have been nice to have a completely blank wall (i.e., without the chair rail) and my focus isn’t perfect, but the timing of the shot turned out well (it was the third of three tries). Thanks, Ellen. Grace, beauty, brains, and heart all in one package.

Andy and Greta with Henry and Calvin

We were overjoyed to get to meet the youngest regular attender at church today. Amazingly, he’s never missed a Sunday. I took one or two pictures and this is by far my favorite. Andy and Greta with nearly-two-year-old Henry and six-day-old Calvin.

It must be nice to be able to look at your parents and not have to worry which one you’re going to look like because you’ll be good looking either way.

Anna

Ellen

Jeffrey

I didn’t get a chance to take a lot of pictures today, partly because I had to get one of my cars to the shop and I was a little worried that I wouldn’t make it. In the end, I got there without trouble.

A little while later Cathy and Dorothy picked me up and we went to an event at church. Even there, where it isn’t unusual for me to take dozens of pictures, I only took a few. I did get three pictures that I think turned out quite well. It just happens we had some new folks there, including three siblings.

They are Ellen, Anna, and Jeffrey and I won’t say any more, except to say that I hope it works out that they can join our youth group.

Letters to the Morgans

Our first activity this evening at X-Factor was for everyone to write a card to Tommy and Lauren, our dear friends whose son, Gabriel Patrick went to be with our Lord. To Lauren and Tommy, you know how we feel, but in case you are ever tempted to forget, let me say it here, in public. We love you, we love your children, and are thankful to our God for all of your lives. To anyone reading this who doesn’t know them, well, I’m sorry to say that your life is a little darker than it could be because of that lack.

Hannah

Dorothy’s good friend, Hannah, was very excited today because she had her braces taken off. She never really stopped smiling because of her braces, at least not so far as I could tell. But, she came home with Dorothy today and was in a very buoyant mood.

I asked if I could take her picture and she obliged, as you can see. Very nice smile, young lady (or “not-daughter,” as I call her).

To add to the excitement, Cathy asked me today if I could remember the name of someone who was in the school play in 2006. I could not but Dorothy remembered it right away — ah, to have a young, uncrowded brain. Before we asked Dorothy, though, and in the hope that I had labeled a photograph with the name, I went back to March 2006 and found pictures but none with the name.

Little Hannah

The exciting thing, though, was that I came across the second picture posted here. It is a picture of Hannah, taken on March 10, 2006. I frankly didn’t have any memory of taking that. Dorothy and Hannah only really became good friends in the last two years or so. I have known that she’s been at the school longer than we have, so it’s not so surprising that she’s in a picture but it’s a pretty good picture, not just a face in a crowd.

This was taken on the lower school’s History Night, sitting on the grass waiting for her mom (or whoever), with her very good friend, Michelle, of whom I also took a photograph.

She hasn’t really changed all that much. I mean, she’s seven years older. But some people when I see pictures from seven years ago I have a hard time recognizing them. Not Hannah.

Dot, Dorothy, and Margaret

The school play opened this evening and Dorothy was pretty well represented, friend and family wise, in the audience. I was there to take pictures and took just over 600 pictures during the show, as well as some before and after. This picture, taken after the show, is of Dorothy and her two grandmothers. Dorothy did well in her part as Gretel and was very glad that she didn’t have to stand in for Goldilocks, who was not feeling at all well. Special thanks to Lauren, who did take on that role and did a terrific job.

Maureen — “I could have saved how much on my car insurance?”

I picked Dorothy up this evening, as on most Tuesday’s, at Julia’s house. Also as usual, I took a few pictures. Justin was there, so I took some of him. Our favorite, though, was this picture of Maureen. I confess that this is semi-posed. One of us, Dorothy I think, said something and she made that expression. Unfortunately I wasn’t quick enough with my camera so I asked her to to it again. Normally I would not post a picture like this but I asked for permission and she gave it gladly. What a sport.

Maureen said the caption should be, “I could have saved how much on my car insurance?”