Family
Groups
The hardest pictures to get are ones of all eight of us together.
And it's getting harder for the simple reason that our four adolescents have
better things to do than hang out with the parents!
During the
nine years that
we have been eight, since Alex was born, we have had four taken successfully. We did this
one in 1999 after a late fall's Sunday morning surfing (or to be more
honest boogie boarding)
on Capitola Beach. Nick and Tom had
been living with us for only two months after the end of their judicially
enforced two-year separation. I tried to fix the red lips on this one, but
to no avail!
Of the other three of the eight of us, one is on the Home
page and the others below.
Needless to say, as the four older children
grow older (we hesitate to say "mature" as a general rule: it is a little early
for that!), we spend less time all together. It used to be that every
weekend we'd eat dinner out all together at least once, and every weeknight we'd
all sit down to dine together. Not any more. We still try to keep that
special contact that comes from breaking bread with people, even when those
people drive you crazy much of the time (we recognize that this feeling is
mutual between the parents and the older children at this point), but the
occasions are fewer and far apart: birthdays and the like.
On the right is a typical illustration of the problems that we had
obtaining photographs of all of us. The six people in that
1994 photo comprised the entire household at the
time, but only the faces of four of us are visible. There was so much
movement, so much excitement, that the amateur photographer who could keep
us all in line was almost impossible to find. We see Nick is yelling, Tom
jumping around, Alban looking at the other wall and Daphné
doing we don't know what!
For Ian's birthday in
December 2002, below, all of the children agreed to defer their pressing social
obligations and visit the local mall photographer together. Alban, on the far
right, is wearing a soccer T-shirt, which fits. We're one of the local
soccer families, with several matches a weekend each fall and spring, not to
speak of the mid-week and mid-season training!
Which leaves us looking forward to the time when we've all moved over this
hump and can look forward again to being together as a goal in and of itself.
Our friends tell us that the hump won't last forever. We believe, because we
parents remember how it was for each of us with our
respective families.
Around December
1994, when they were only four.
Charles, our first joint effort, arrived in
August 1995, and Alexander in January
1998.
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All eight skiing at Alpine meadows in Lake Tahoe in April
2002. It was 60 degrees in the sun, and the snow was still deep!!
Charlie and Alex both sulked for this picture, which made no sense because they both had the time of
their lives skiing. What can we do?
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Six of us at La Grée with Grand-père modelling T-shirts
that Tante Lucette had kindly sent us from Provence. Daphné and
Alban were with their father during this part of the
2001 summer vacation. |
Ian's birthday in 1999. The young woman in front is Amélie, who lived with us for the 1999-2000 school
year and helped with the kids' homework, etc. before moving on, first to
complete her college work in UC Berkeley and then back to France to do
graduate work. She is missed in Santa Cruz. Here's another shot of her
with her copine Camille.
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This was taken on Tom's
birthday in 2004, but if you look carefully you'll notice that Nick was
replaced here by his friend Valentin from Paris. Nick
was touring in Europe for six months, and Valentin lived in his room for a
few months.
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It's Ian's birthday in late 2005, and the heathen throngs
gather for a now rare dinner at home together. Tom is messing around with
his glass of milk (there's always someone acting up!).
Both photos on the bottom row were taken in our breakfast
nook at home, adorned with
grand-père's photos of
Bretagne. |
