I bought a new camera last year and wanted to rigorously test it out before the Wedding Season got under way, so I brought it to my Aunt Krissie’s graduation. Krissie got her Masters degree in clinical psychology, and we all went to Boise to surprise her and support her!

My Aunt Krissie actually lived with us when I was growing up. Even though she is my mom’s sister, she is 17 years younger than Bobbie and only 8 years older than me, so really, she’s more like my big sister than my Auntie.

Krissie and her husband live in a home with tons of west facing windows, the light pours in and I was just having a ball. I was also in a really big B&W mood, and since this was all experimentation, I had a blast.

Krissie’s son Mikey has a train set.  Before we went to Krissie’s home last year, Thomas the Tank Engine has not moved into our home and parked himself in the guest room.  I blame Krissie entirely for my son’s preoccupation with trains.  This really does mark a turning point in his life.  He went from keys and empty milk cartons, to a very real preoccupation to items that had 4 wheels on them.  But Zen looks up to his older cousin Mikey, and Mikey had trains, therefore, trains must be amazing!!!

Zen and Mikey in the bath.  I was supposed to be supervising, but i felt like getting action shots instead, so I will admit now that I absolutely encouraged the two little boys to splash around as much as possible.  I did not admit this at the time the pictures were taken.  Because i am a coward.

My grandma, my mom’s mom.  She turned 80 two days ago, and is the kindest, most loving and generous person in the world.  She has tons of great-grandchildren, but when Zen was born she made a special trip to come and meet him, and that meant so much to me that she would do that.

Grandpa, at the kitchen table explaining his views on why gays and lesbians should not be granted marriage licenses.

Krissie’s husband Mike, listens respectfully, and then tells Grandpa why he thinks its wrong to deny homosexuals the right to marry.  My family has people from every side of the political spectrum, but no matter what the discussion is, everyone is loving and the conversation never degenerates into a shouting match or name-calling.

Zen is the only one who resorted to yelling, but i think it had more to do with the fact he was out of juice than it did his views on gay marriage.

So, a sad thing happened at the graduation.  Zen fell down, and bit his lip pretty severely.  He was not himself for the rest of the day and pretty much zoned out, kept pretty still, and his arms to the sides.  No jumping, no bouncing, no happy dance.  Just… there.

The next morning he was feeling better, and I took this, my favorite image of the entire trip!  The composition of him in the swing was actually quite difficult for me to catch perfectly, but after 20 shots I got it!  That is actually going to go huge on our wall, even with his bloody lip.

This is Krissie!  Amazing auntie and one of the coolest people on the planet.  [She gets all her coolness from my mom.  At least that's what my mom says.]

Grandma and Grandpa with Krissie’s other son Ryan.

Oh that’s adorable!  Remember when Zen wasn’t big enough to get out of the Pop-Up crib?  And he had to stay in it until we decided we wanted to get him out?  Ah, good times…

OK, this is really sad, my cousin Lance has 2 beautiful daughters, and every time i see them I love taking their picture, but right now I cannot remember their names.  I am a terrible cousin.  Nyah and Shayla?  Anyway, they’ve got the gorgeous family genes.

Zen and Mikey sitting down to share some goldfish crackers and compare views on gay marriage.

Thank you for a wonderful weekend, and congratulations Krissie!!!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 7:14 am and is filed under Your Moment of Zen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.