happy new year! our family favs ~ fall '07

Happy new year! I LOVE this time of year . . . startin' fresh . . . gettin' caught up . . . and Amy, thanks for that (however misplaced) vote of confidence in my organizational skills (and next Christmas morning, what would it take to convince you to come to OUR house and make pictures . . . those of your family are ADORABLE!) . . .

but just so ya know, here's what I was REALLY doing when YOU thought I was being productive: I was editing family photos I'd taken since LAST AUGUST that had not yet seen the light of day! One might think, since we're photographers, that our OWN family photos would be up-to-date and beautifully organized into albums, but that would not be accurate. (I feel more like the plumber who's too busy fixing other folks' sinks to tend to his own leaky faucet).

But I was motivated to make some little albums for my kids for Christmas, so I got down to business, and here are a few favs from these past months:

~ from our trip to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in northern Michigan where we camped and hiked along Lake Superior. WOW! it was grand . . . perfect PERFECT for kids . . . here's why my kids were happy as clams to be here:

. . . soft sand and cold water

. . . the most beautifully colored smooth pebbles, perfect for stacking, throwing, adding to sand sculptures. . . and when you're standing neck-deep in the lake, the water is SO clear that you can see all the way down to your toes
. . . a lighthouse with winding staircase and a birds' eye view that leads to canada
. . . shipwrecks to explore!!!
. . . sand dunes. these take about a minute to run down, and then half an hour plus everything you've got to climb up
. . . a 3.5 mile hiking trail along wooded paths, wildflowers, waterfalls

. . . that leads to this:


I'm psyched my kids made that 7 mile roundtrip hike (in good spirits the entire way). Next summer: the mountains!

~and then, for sophie, her first day of kindergarten, walking to school with her brand new backpack:
and Kiki, who saw us off and has taken to waiting for the kids here each afternoon when they come home:
. . . and these next pictures . . . you can just see sophie's first-day-of-school nervousness, and elliot, being a sport of a big brother:



~of course, by mid-semester, it's all old hat. One of my favorite traditions at Grant Elementary School is the annual halloween parade . . . sophie as a cheerleader:
. . . elliot as a pirate:


. . . and amy's daughter, zoe, on the far right:
so here's an out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new-better-late-than-never so long to 2007 and happy new year to all!

~kim