Florida Family Vacation Photos

The Maycock family portrait, 2011

Sabbath was about pictures.  Late in the afternoon, we headed out to a small lakeside park in the tony neighborhood of Winter Park, FL to take our annual family photos.  Dawn, the designated family photographer, decreed the year's color scheme, chose the location, and set up the shots.  Some of the photos (and candids) from that session are posted here.

But my favorite pictures of the day, were the ones I painted in my imagination earlier that afternoon as I listened to the stories of my family.  Uncle Roland and Aunt Colleen came over for lunch and during the meal and in the lazy hours after they regaled us with tales of  adventures scuba diving, sailing, and traveling in Europe.  We compared notes on island living and they recounted funny stories of their time in places as diverse as St. Croix and Oregon, Trinidad and Ohio. 

One of life's great joys is to hear the stories of your family--to see the past through their eyes, to walk in their shoes, to have vague childhood memories fleshed out into rich, colorful detail, to see the things from years before you were born.  And it's up to the younger members of the family to seek out these stories; most older family members may reticient to share if we don't ask, perhaps unsure of our interest.  So, whenever I get the chance, I'm asking. Family photos are valuable, but there are photo albums that can only be seen with a listening heart, and these are priceless.

The Men

Muscles

My Generation

Mom and her brood.

Mom and Dawn

Corny + Classy

Check out more pictures of the family here.  Also, look for the Florida Family Vacation at Disney on the Feller's blog.  I realized that the trip really was all about him, so it would be more appropriate to post it there.  It should be up in a few days.