Mary Ann's Little Gang

Did you ever read the children's book, "When the Relatives Came"? I loved reading this book to my kids when they were little. It showed a picture of a car piled high with people and luggage flying everywhere, crossing the country, to go visit the relatives. For years,Doug and I used to take our children off to Chicago at Christmas, and stay with Mary Ann and Bill.

And then we started getting stuck in snowstorms, my kids grew up and couldn't be torn away from their peer groups/school/work, and we stopped visiting. The book showed a visit that seemed like an "invasion", generating chaos and exhaustion, but cherished. Mary Ann and Bill always made us feel cherished. . . and Mary Ann would promptly mail back to Grand Forks all the stuff that my kids would forget and leave at their house.

Now, Doug and I can visit them, without kids, and are discovering the delights of playing with little kids that aren't your own. Here's Andy demonstrating self-protection while sliding down the steps.



And here's Joy, turning into an incredibly gorgeous little beauty.

My sweet, sweet sister. (Sorry, Mary Ann, about the flash going off in your face.)

And this is Bill, who has mastered photo-bombing with aplomb!

And as an aside. I can't believe I finally figured this out! I've been grousing about how much better my photos look in Bridge, than when I post them. Finally, I realized that something I read in a book about CS3 is just not the truth! The book said that CS3 automatically converted to sRGB in the save for web process. IT DOES NOT!!! So at least one of my miseries re: color angst has been solved! Today's photos are the first in months and months that are correctly in sRGB instead of RGB.