For Thanksgiving this year we were in Dillon, Colorado with Sean, Kathy, Dillon and Connor.  The last time the cousins were together was at Rehoboth Beach over the summer.  Connor is six months younger and Dillon is about a year older than Everett, and at this age a lot can happen in six months.  At the beach Connor and Everett were both crawling and seemed to spend a lot of time sharing the baby pool.  This time Everett was walking and seemed to interact more with Dillon; the two of them wrestling was the first time I have seen him really play with another child.  The trip was as relaxing as we could hope for with three children in the house under three years old.  All of the boys are being introduced to the concept of sharing, although this did not always go smoothly – Everett developed a new habit that is best described as defensive eating, in particular saying “No No Noooooo!” when either of the other boys got anywhere near his snack cup.  Dillon and Everett discovered that they both like jumping on the bed. Connor took a few steps every now and then and demonstrated his rather amazing climbing ability.  During the times when the boys were awake, the quietest moments were when the boys had yogurt drinks or were watching Elmo.  One unanticipated side effect was that by the end of the week all four adults were unconsciously humming The Elmo Song.

The adults spent most of their time relaxing or taking care of the children.  One day Chris and Sean went skiing, the next day Melissa and Kathy went.  Other than that there were long stretches of time that I can’t really account for with any particular activity.  It is amazing how often this happens since Everett arrived.

Photography is a relatively new hobby of mine and this visit was my most difficult assignment so far for two reasons.  First, the dry air and bright sunshine created conditions that were a combination of too bright in the sun and too dark in the shade.  Second, it was amazingly impossibly difficult to get pictures of the four adults and three children together.  During the entire week I only had two such photos.  Of them, one is completely overexposed and in the other some people are looking at the camera while others aren’t quite there yet.  I suspect this problem will only get worse as the boys get faster and more mobile.  I note that the instruction manual for my camera has a section about difficult shooting conditions but has nothing to say about the latter problem.  I am open to suggestions on how to address either.  Photos of the trip are here.