Picture This (#5) - BabyR

I said I would post about Middleton and here we are; me posting, you reading and all is right with the world. Before we get to the good stuff however - I need to share - my cats get a little nervous when I pull out a suitcase so they must inspect it to make sure I am not smuggling any tuna out of the house:

Then Mikey needs to make sure I am taking clean underwear:

So. June 2nd, 2007. A Saturday. (Tarzan and I were SUPPOSED to leave Friday night but what with weekend traffic and the things that I felt I needed to get - because we definitely needed to get all the birthday cards for the entire family for the entire year THAT NIGHT or the world would implode - we felt that it might serve us and those travelling with us better if we slept in our own bed and left for my parents' house early Saturday morning instead.) 5:00am: Not a side of the morning that I usually see you understand:

What possessed me to take shot I do not know, but it revealed to me the awesome-ness of my digital camera and made a cool picture too:

But we made it out to the desert and we all piled into the minivan. Tarzan, brilliant man that he is, brought his laptop and a power supply that plugs into the cigarette lighter. For 9.5 of the 10 hour trip the back seat looked like this:

The Star Wars Lego game was comPLETEly enthralling as we had been driving on the I-40 for probably an hour, were almost through the state and SLB looked up from the computer and said "Oh, look, forest!" (We had been in this 'forest' for nigh on to 100 miles) The front seats looked like this:And this:

The middle seat contained me and the many many boxes, bags and flasks of refreshments necessary for the drive. We made really good time (where do you think I get my need to speed from?) and arrived shortly before 7pm local time. There was much rejoicing and holding of bebes:

LittleJ was quite excited and we understand E's nickname for him - the Blur:

Three generations of men:

LittleJ showing us the soccer ball he likes to throw over the neighbor's fence and make Daddy go and fetch:

He gets to kick it around with Uncle SLB and Grandpa:

Eating part of Grandma's hamburger:

(Still REALLY weird to think of my 'little' brother with kids...) Daddy - Daughter moment:

Father-Son:

Grandpa and his first granddaughter (Grandma made the hat):

Then it was time for the kids to go to bed and since church started at 8:30 in the morning (who's the genius who decided THAT?) we all trundled off to the hotel across the way and catch some ZZZZs of our own. Well, most of us did. Cogent had come down earlier in the day so he stopped by and we talked until almost 1am about jobs and girls and school and cities and the usual stuff friends of eleven years talk about. (I blame the fact that it was way late on my not taking any picture of our Dr. Livingston) This one is from his graduation but just in case you forgot his cute face:

It was early (in ALL time zones) when we woke up but we all arrived presentable for church. She was blessed, we went to Sunday School, we learned, we read and then we went home. Much picture taking did commence then. Lunch with family, friends and many bebes:

LittleJ played cars with many people:

Then LittleJ wanted SLB to watch him play with the alphabet puzzle:

What the teenagers did while the rest of us were cooing:

BabyR sitting on Grandma's lap:

Family picture:

Which was cute but a little fuzzy. There was a quasi-professional taking pictures too but they won't capture the magic of the afternoon the way a candid can, like this one; E sneezing during a family picture (please, this is what older sisters DO) :

Three generations:

All the girls:

BabyR, who was SO tired of sitting still ALL afternoon on the slippery couch in her adorable and yet-not-too-adhesive outfit, was ready to make a statement:

But Grandma made it all better:

No one understands like Grandma does, and no one is quite as comfortable:

Then it was time to sleep for all the rest of us...and we were into the van for the trip back. We saw this balloon on our way out of town. Thank you 12x optical zoom:

We were a little more lively on the way home...which may or may not have been a good thing...the back seat was using too much power and the computer couldn't take it so we opted for other activities - much eating was done by all:

We played hearts and got slaughtered by Tarzan, who then slept for a bit:

R3 watched for planes and played cards with himself. He was kinda camera shy, so I'm not sure how I snapped this one:

SLB on the other hand:

Is quite the ham when he gets going - he's not really asleep there:

He took this one of me:

And then we were home - well my parents and brothers were home - it was another two hours for Tarzan and me back to The Jungle, but we made it and it was good to sleep in our bed again. I don't believe one can spend too much time in one's own bed.

This is me, reporting on Middleton.