Vacation Stories, pt. 2

Our Midwestern trip continued in Toledo. On Saturday morning we got up and drove over to get Maria. The three of us headed to meet up with the Loebrichs and the McEwens for the Family Photo Shoot. It had been 2 years since we last sat for a group portrait!

Mom and Debbe came up with the idea of putting the family groups in matching colored shirts so Bruce, Katy and Maria wore green, Debbe, Duncan and Derek wore blue, and Mom and Dad wore purple. The photographers loved it because they could easily tell who went with whom! And we did a lot of poses: families, cousins, grandparents with grandkids, the whole clan, and a lot more. All the more impressive considering the portrait studio was being expanded, construction debris abounded, and there were a lot of other customers doing the same thing on a Saturday morning! After the shoot was finished, the boys went to order the pizza for lunch while the girls stayed behind and picked the poses for our picture package. Eventually the girls joined up with the boys, lunch was had, and we returned to pick up our prints. Finally, the morning (now afternoon) wrapped up by our sitting down at the Loebrichs' and sorting out who got copies of which pictures.

Cute Maria story: when we picked her up, Maria presented me with a pink teddy bear that says "Step Mom" on her tummy and has a paw print on one foot and a heart print on the other. She told me she liked that one better than the "Mom" design they had, and wished me a Happy Mother's Day. This is the first time I have ever gotten a real Mother's Day present and I was (and still am) tickled pink.

Bruce and I dropped Maria off after the photo session, etc., and returned to Dad and Cindy's. My brother, Joe, and my sister-in-law, Traci, were already at the house helping prepare for the cook-out that evening. My sister, Suzanne, and her boyfriend, Tim, arrived a little while later, and then Aunt Maggie rounded out the gathering. We had a great time eating snacks and drinking wine on the sun porch while Dad started the grill.

Another family photo session ensued as Joe and I set up our tripods and then rotated out about a zillion cameras using the self-timer functions to get some group shots. Then Dad cooked dinner while everyone else ate and drank some more. We had an "indoor picnic" dinner and then the evening was capped off by a yummy cake in celebration of my 40th and Maggie's 60th birthdays. We joked that "together we're 100 and looking good!" (And we are!)