Is this the little girl I carried?

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset
Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears

We have been going to Family Week in Saugatuck, MI since Anna was born (see previous post for details). This year we headed west with both Anna and Eli and took in what we could of the week with our limited time with Eli and my summer teaching schedule. We packed up and left on Sunday morning and met up with our friends Eric and Kent and their lovely daughter Lauren. We shared a house with them and did what we could with the week’s activities. I love Family Week and consider it our family vacation each year, but I will admit that they are rather older kid focused. Those of us with younger kids are kind of left standing by the sidelines watching it all take place between naps and meltdowns. But I am not one to bitch about stuff like this, so I won’t. We had a great few days there and did some great things with all the kids and the Family Week crew as well. Our annual tradition is to take a picture of Anna at the Dunes Resort each year. They have a rainbow assortment of Adirondack chairs on their massive front porch (that we love and hope that they will never remove). I snapped a picture of the chairs sans child the year before Anna was born (after an afternoon of sun and cocktails) and the MEA (Michigan Education Association) bought it for their annual purchase prize. Damn. I guess I need to hang out at the pool more! You'll notice that in the first picture, Anna is wearing a shirt with that image on the front thanks to Tod!

For those of you who aren’t our Flickr friends, I thought I would share the pictures of Anna as she has grown through the years, including this year with her new little brother Eli. I will admit, as I was downloading these images, I got a little choked up as each year showed up.
I am a big softy, I will admit it. And as my family grows, my soft spot for shit like this will only grow bigger.

Year two...
Year three

And this year...