Always By Love.

July 31, 2017

Wife, mother, grandma, mother-in-law, aunt, sister, daughter, sister-in-law, and great-aunt.

What sweet titles I get to wear and what a special day of getting to be all those things to all those people at our recent family reunion.

I have to say I was thankful that I wasn’t the only one taking pictures that day. My brother, Tim, is also an avid photographer and he was shooting right along with me.

Here is Tim with his wife, Berit.

I especially love this series of photos that Tim took of Madison and her second cousin, Ephraim. Is this not so cute?(Click the arrows to advance through the photos.)

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Of course, we had another photographer on the premises: Meagan.  She hadn’t brought her own camera because of space limitations so she had fun checking out Uncle Tim’s gear.

One thing I really appreciated about Meagan was that she hijacked my camera and got several pictures of me. She said that when her grandpa recently passed away and they couldn’t find many pictures of him, she was reminded of how important it is to make sure all family members are in photos–especially the ones who usually take the pictures.

So you can thank Meagan . . .

and Tim for a couple glimpses of me.

Now I am just a little reluctant to tell you about this next thing that happened at our reunion because I don’t want to make people jealous of how fabulous and creative our family is in our entertainment choices. But hey, it happened, so I have to write about it.

Are you ready for this?

We played . . .   hopscotch.

What can I say? We are just one cool family.

In between the hopscotching, my great-nephew, Evan, cracked us all up with his funny faces.

Thankfully we also had this face to look at, for a little contrast.

Here are my two sisters and me.  I love these ladies so much; they are among my dearest friends.

I was also happy to get to hang out with that son of mine and see him interact with people he doesn’t get to see very often.

With Uncle Randy.

With his cousin, Levi.

With Uncle Arnold.

Here is my sister, Ruth, and her husband, Arnold.

My brother, Phil, our niece, Hannah, and her son, Jabin.

My sister, nieces, Mom . . .

Arnold and my nephew, Isaac. Isaac is a gifted musician who plays piano and violin. He is also studying accounting, so he has the whole right brain/left brain thing going on.  Proud of him!

Grandson Noah, pondering deep thoughts.

Before we ate, the family gathered to join hands and pray. Such a special time.

Of course, no reunion is complete without a picture of the whole gang.

It took us awhile to get settled down.

But eventually we managed to behave ourselves long enough to snap a picture.

It was this dear lady (and my late Dad) who started this whole thing sixty-one years ago.

One young couple standing in front an altar in Minneapolis has morphed into one large group of people standing under a tree in Portage, Wisconsin. And as the years go by, spouses and babies will continue to be added to this group, including (someday) Sarah’s husband and her eventual babies. (I can’t wait for that day!)

In the meantime, I’m grateful for the privilege of continuing to wear all the titles mentioned at the beginning of this post.  Each name I wear means I am connected to someone special, by marriage or by blood–but always by love.

 

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20 comments so far.

20 responses to “Always By Love.”

  1. CeCe says:

    As always love all your posts. I was wondering if you had a email address that I could send you a idea for the Church if you do not want to share and could send you a snail mail. Thank you CeCe

  2. LeeAnne says:

    What wonderful photos and a beautiful family! We used to have family reunions. Not anymore though. That makes me really sad. So many of the older ones from my side have passed on. It’s pretty much just us cousins left and a few ‘oldsters’ (like my 87-year-young dad!!). Hopefully us cousins can manage a get-together next summer. It’ll take some doing….Wyoming, Nebraska, Michigan, California, Kansas, Georgia, New York and Montana. *sigh*.

    Thanks for the reminder to include EVERYONE in the pictures. I am always the picture taker, so will be sure to ask someone else to run the camera occasionally! 🙂

    • Becky says:

      LeeAnne,

      Yes, we picture-takers sometimes get overlooked in the shuffle, don’t we? It truly is a good reminder to ALL of us photographers to hand that camera over occasionally.

      Wow, you and your cousins are really spread out! Your geographical distances would just make a reunion all that sweeter.

  3. Mel says:

    I loved this post. Pictures really are the best. On a side note, has the power outage affected your family?

    • Becky says:

      Mel,

      Glad you enjoyed seeing the pictures; we sure enjoyed taking them!

      No, thankfully, we are not affected by the outage. The areas being impacted are at least 45 minutes away. As you can imagine, it’s been a very tough time for the residents and the vacationers that have been affected. Hoping and praying for a speedy fix!

  4. Ann Martin says:

    Happy family times to remember forever. What memories in the years to come of this wonderful trip. I was wondering about the “thing” in the hopscotch, too. Glad to see pictures of you and the entire group! We always have trouble getting everyone to be included when we get together. It is difficult because almost half our family is in FL, one nephew and family in Kansas City, MO and my stepson and family in IN. The NC crowd gets together and will Sept. 9. Just praying I will be able to attend that day because prayerfully I will be taking chemo before then. Will see on August 8 when I return to Duke Cancer what the plan is. God bless.

    • Becky says:

      Ann,

      I truly hope you can be with your NC family on Sep. 9 but I know you have a “few” other things on your plate right now.

      So thankful for the reminder that God orders our steps–whether it has to do with chemo or reunions. Many hugs, brave warrior!

  5. Jodi says:

    I LOVE THIS POST, Becky. I think you can add friend to that list too.

    Meagan thank you for taking pics of Becky and making sure she always remains on both sides of the camera and that are many sweet pics of her with your BEAUTIFUL children. I’m sorry that it took the loss of you sweet Grandfather to remind you to make sure that your family took many special pics during that vacation.

    Becky, you Mom looks absolutely radiant. She surely has aged beautifully. Look what you have to look forward to and you as well, Sarah (not to mention, Sarah, you also have the genes of the beautiful Grandma Smith to “pull” from).

    Steve and Nathan you truly have beautiful families. You are truly blessed men.

    Much love,

    Jodi

    • Becky says:

      Jodi,

      What a sweet comment; thank you for your affirming, encouraging words. I agree–mom is a lovely lady, lit from within by amazing strength and beauty.

      And I am truly working very hard at being on BOTH sides of the camera from here on out. It’s a good reminder for all of us who take photos.

      Blessings to you, sweet lady!

  6. Sharyn McDonald says:

    Loved seeing all the family members. I really liked the picture of Madison and Ephraim where it looks like she is showing him, “This is the latest model of strollers – with cup holder.” It’s wonderful to have a group picture to look back on. Our last and only family reunion was in 2004 – my parents are now deceased and a few have married and more young ones have been added. I know those pictures of the family that were taken will be cherished for many years to come.

    • Becky says:

      Sharyn,

      That is so funny; I hadn’t noticed that. It really does look like she is doing a little sales pitch, doesn’t it? 🙂

      I know you are grateful for that reunion back in 2004. The pictures and the memories are priceless, especially now that your parents are gone. Time moves by so very, very quickly.

  7. Phyllis says:

    Great pictures. Noah looks like he is going to be tall like his daddy. Glad you were all able to get together this summer.

    • Becky says:

      Phyllis,

      Well, Noah would be thrilled to be tall like his daddy since he wants to be like his daddy in every other way! 🙂

  8. Wendy says:

    So enjoyed your post and all the family photos and Love that was there! our family just had a family reunion of just my siblings, and our kids and grandkids. We had 50 there but were missing about half of them yet. We have SOO much fun like you do also. Thanks for sharing.

    • Becky says:

      Wendy,

      Isn’t it amazing how families burgeon and blossom? Each time they get together, there are more people to add and the people who were already there have usually changed in some way–if nothing else, just added a few years. _)

      Having fifty people at your reunion was a big number, expecially considering that was only half of you. Wow!

  9. Lesley says:

    Very nice! Wonderful photos, time does go by so quickly and these will be treasures in a few years. I had a question what was that piece of wood(?) on the hopscotch? Are you supposed to hop over it? We always just used a rock lol. Hopping over that large item would have been tough for me hahahahahaha.
    Great post!

    • Becky says:

      Lesley,

      That is a very good question about the piece of wood on the hopscotch game. I had to call Steve into the room to answer the question since he played the game and I didn’t.

      It seems the answer is that in hopscotch, you throw a little stone into various squares–don’t ask me the signifigance of that because I don’t know. 🙂 So while the children were throwing pebbles, Steve marched to the curb and picked up a “thingie” from the curb that has Randy and Debbie’s house number printed on it. (I think it was made to look like stone, but it wasn’t) Just to be funny, he put THAT on the hopscotch game, instead of a pebble.

      So there’s the answer. Such as it is! 🙂

  10. dmantik says:

    Such a nice post! Gives us pictures to wrap around the memories! So glad for that day.

    Love, Deb

    • Becky says:

      Deb,

      We wrap the pictures around the memories and the memories around the pictures. Either way, it is the best kind of wrapping.

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