Family reunion, part 3

As the reunion came to a close, we gathered together for some photos. Some gathered a little easier than others.

 Luke managed to stay in the vicinity of his cousins for long enough to snap a picture or two.

The grandkids were able to hold a little more still.

But my grandparents were happy to surround themselves with the great-grandkids, too.

We also got all of us together in the meadow - one big, happy family.

Luke had a blast with Gramma Anna and Grampa Ed. He got to spend a lot of time running and climbing and getting dirty and chasing his cousins around. I'm so glad he had the chance to visit my grandparents at their wonderful home.

Luke and his grandpa

Luke got to spend some quality time with Grandpa John while Sarah's parents were in town for portraits. Grandpa reminded everyone why they call them "bouncing baby boys."

Family portraits

Two weeks before Luke's first birthday, we had some family portraits taken with Luke's grandparents, great-grandmother, and godparents.

This was the first picture that was taken - he looks great in front of the quit Grandma made for him!

Here's our little family.

Luke had some great poses!

And here is everyone together. We're so glad some of Luke's big family got to come to Austin to take pictures with us!

Easter 2010

For Easter, we went down to San Antonio and visited with Nanny, Aunt Robin, and Meme. Luke got to eat ham, and wear shoes! No Easter egg hunt this year, though... maybe next year.

Visiting Sherman

We went up to Sherman recently to visit Gramma Mary and Grampa John, and see everybody at the church where Sarah grew up. We went out to lunch at Firehouse Subs and Luke got to try on a fireman's hat (well, a fire-kid's hat, anyway).

From Hanging out with Gramma Mary

Luke's Baptism

 

Luke was baptized on September 27, 2009 at St. Martin's Lutheran Church. We were proud to have lots of family and friends present with us at church! Grandma Mary made Luke a special romper from the fabric of her wedding dress. Luke's godparents are Janette Klein and Todd and Rachel Wright.

The church gave Luke an engraved medallion to remember the day, and a special book called "Water Come Down" that we read to him before bed that night.

It was wonderful to have so many of our loved ones with us as we celebrated Luke's new birthday in the church!

Grandparenting in the digital age

We live about five or six hours from my hometown, where my parents still live, and as such it's really difficult for us to make the trip up there in a weekend when you consider that Ryan doesn't get home from work until 11:30pm on a good night, and I have to be at work at 9am. So we've been chatting with my mom from time to time via Google Talk. Really, we're chatting from within Gmail, which has a simple, straightforward video chat function built right in.

It's funny to think that even five years ago, this functionality was available but would have been difficult and expensive for us to set up. And ten years ago, we probably wouldn't have been able to get our hands on what we needed to do it, let alone have enough bandwidth to see one another. It's nice that my folks can see Luke via webcam, even if we aren't close enough for frequent visits.

My mom went up to Oklahoma City this weekend to visit some of her family, and we were able to show off Luke over many miles just by clicking a button. It's no substitute for hands-on grandparenting, of course, but it's a nice way to use the technology we have now.