I Was Away...

Well, it's been a little while since my last post. In between then and now, I hopped on over to Israel for a few days to celebrate my nephew's bar mitzvah. I was feeling self-conscious and decadent for taking off work, and traveling overseas again after having spent the summer there. But, now that I've been there and back, and have recovered from jet lag, I don't regret one minute or penny.

It was just me and Max, and it's not often that it's just the two of us. And it turns out, he is an extremely nice, easy going person when he doesn't have a little brother around.

I spent some time with my siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, parents, and cousins who I don't get to see very often. Certainly not all in one place.

And, I always enjoy the change from my city scenery.

When I returned I was anxious to get my hands busy again, and I managed to make these two layouts since my return:

This one was inspired by these photos of Dave and Sam, on the bus, and I just love the way Sam is leaning into Dave. I really loved the photos, but I wasn't sure what story to tell with them. I did consider the possibility that they are just sweet photos without a story, but that left me wanting. So, I wrote about how these two used to have a much more complicated relationship. 

When Sam was younger he always preferred me, and while Dave didn't take it personally, and it never affected how he cared for Sam, it certainly feels better now that they talk and play more, and now that Sam is just as likely to hug and kiss and say I love you to Dave, as he is to me. And, Dave used to get into big power struggles with Sam (so did I, but less so), which was another glitch in their earlier relationship. Dave managed (with the help/nagging of his lovely wife) to learn to avoid the power struggles, and with Sam just being older and more affectionate, we can barely remember the days when they weren't as close.

I was a little hesitant to scrap this story-it seems a little negative- but it's still our story, and it's real and true, and perhaps the take away is that families and relationships are dynamic. There are times in our lives when we connect better or worse to the people around us. And some relationships take more work than others, but relationships can change for the better.

On a completely different note, this layout is chock full of pictures that my niece in Israel took, mostly of herself. Every time I took out my camera, she asked for it, and she just kept snapping away. She happened to catch some pictures with us together, and I indulged my narcissism, and made those the biggest pictures in the layout.