My dad has a tendency - like any grandfather - to foist pictures of his grandchildren upon anyone who will humor him. I used to make it easy: when Oliver was born, I created a Shutterfly account and every month without fail, posted twenty or thirty or a hundred new pictures. Last October, though, as my business was getting busier and I was blogging twice a week or more, I had to give myself a break somewhere, so after almost five years' worth of photos, I stopped posting to Shutterfly. All of a sudden, my dad didn't have his online version of a photo wallet, and I heard about it. I promised him I'd have Ollie & Judah on the blog regularly, but as the months have gone on, even that has fallen off. This is a classic case of the cobbler's kids having no shoes, but I'm determined not to let it go entirely. So this post's for you, dad (and mom and Suzy and Neil and Ben and Andy and Evan, etc., etc.)... here's a bit of what we've been up to this summer:

Pizza on the grill with Evan and friends:

Wait... didn't I say these were going to be pictures of the kids? They were off having their own fun:

The Fourth of July:

The Farmer's Market:

Dinner in Saxapahaw (Oliver was in a terrible mood that afternoon, despite the root beer sitting in front of him):

Playin' around at the house:

Oliver, not to be outdone:

Then Oliver asked if he could use my camera to take some pictures. I'm usually pretty hesitant to hand over my camera - it's heavy and hard for little hands to hold, and dropping it isn't really an option. He plead his case well, though, and so we let him take a few family photos. The lens I had on that night is a manual focus lens with a very shallow depth of field, so instead of trying to explain how to get the lens to work, I had him focus with his feet - i.e., I told him to move forward or backward until someone's eyes looked perfectly sharp. I love these and am super-proud of my little photographer... a rock star in front of and behind the camera!

A few more of my little one... who is quickly rounding the bend toward two :(

I hope you've enjoyed these... even those of you forced to look against your will :D Have a great weekend!

xox,

annemie