Horn Weekend

Last month Eli's parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary!  As part of the celebration, we enjoyed a "Horn Weekend" here in Duluth.  Tim and Sandi, as well as Luke and Heather and their girls, all came to Duluth for an extended weekend so we could enjoy time together.  Caleb had a fabulous time playing with his cousin Faith, and seeing the two babies together is always a treat!  We played at the park, went to the zoo, swam at the pool in the hotel, and ate lots of good food (including a delicious anniversary cake made by our sister-in-law's parents, who own a bakery and make delectable baked goods).

We also had professional family photos taken to mark the occasion!  The photographer (of Anne Victoria Photography) met us at Brighton Beach on Lake Superior and we had a great time wrangling the kids for family photos.  The photographer was fabulous with the kids.  She wasn't impatient or frustrated with them at all. She rather enjoyed watching the kids be kids and followed them around to take lots of candid shots (which was often all she could get, particularly with Caleb).  Let me tell you, it is not easy to get four little kids in one shot!  Well, let me rephrase: it is not easy to get Caleb to cooperate for anything when rocks and water are nearby.  In hindsight, we kinda set him up for failure.  We did the best we could, but Caleb blatantly refused to sit still or pose or anything relatively normal for a photo because he desperately wanted to throw rocks in the water.  So that's what he did.  He ran away from us repeatedly, squirmed and writhed in our arms if we caught him and brought him back, then promptly ran away again when we put him down and proceeded to throw rocks in the water.  He's a toddler.  And a boy.  What did we really expect?  He did much better when we moved across the way to the wooded area, but it was a fun and funny experience all around :)

The photographer posted some of the photos on her blog.  Here are some of my favorites.

We're so glad we could celebrate this milestone with Eli's parents!  They have a healthy, happy marriage that we admire and respect and are soooooo thankful for.  They are an incredible example to us and we look forward to the many more years ahead of them!