“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” – Henry Thoreau

One of the big challenges when it comes to family photography this week has been getting great shots that do not include Mr. T.’s face. His parents (Andrew and Alicia, a.k.a. The A-Team) have chosen – as is their prerogative – to keep his face and his name off the internet at least until he has the opportunity to make his own decisions about that. Fair enough.

I have all sorts of great photos, of course, that we will be storing on my phone, using at home, making prints from, hanging on the wall, putting into photo books etc. But I just can’t share them on line.

So Tuesday morning I drove them over to Rocky Mount where they picked up a car for their long drive to Michigan. As of this morning, then, the A-Team are on the road to Michigan and – meanwhile – our daughter Naomi and her husband, Craig, are floating somewhere on a Royal Caribbean vessel celebrating their 18th anniversary.

As for us it is time to kick back and relax, staying as cool as possible before we are invaded by the Orlando grandchildren in just a couple of weeks.

We love our children so very much, we pray for them all the time, they bring us such joy and – yes – sometimes they still manage to keep us awake at night… and we wish we could be more involved in our grandchildren’s lives from day to day.

But we will take these short visits with gratitude and we are grateful for the connections made possible via technology.

So Godspeed on your travels, Andrew and Alicia, Naomi and Craig – and take good care of our beautiful grandchildren – DEREK