Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Time Goes Round and Round

My favorite poem is Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Thomas Dylan - a Welsh poet/essayist during the early 20th century. I was first exposed to Mr. Dylan when my 8th grade English teacher began class by playing his recording of this poem dedicated to his dying father.

The last stanza ends with,

"And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

These words had a profound effect on me and to this day I can still recite the poem word for word. I think that everyone has a point in their life when we are forced to rage against the dying of the light, to fight for something we believe in, or to endure.

Our family is doing great, but as I listened to some Bob Dylan this evening I was reminded of this fierce little Welsh man with a pug nose and his tough pauper lyrics.

If you have never read the poem in its entirety, I have quoted it below...Enjoy.

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Monday, July 27, 2009

True Love Knows No Bounds

While in Idaho, Amber and I used Micah and Nichole (Amber's sister and brother-in-law) to goof around with a portrait technique called "Frame within Frame." Unfortunately we did not have a lot of time and although almost none of the images turned out nice, Micah and Nichole were hilarious. Thanks for the fun.
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Wedding Bells...and lots of family fun!

Following a fun two weeks in New York with my parents, the family headed out to Idaho where we enjoyed Amber's younger sister's wedding. Before I dive into the pictures, I would just like to vent a little about how annoying it is to travel cross country with a child. It is long, cramped, and crazy. My sympathy for families with multiple children has increased 10 fold.

However, we arrived safely in Idaho with Greg only slightly out of wack. The following images are a collection of pictures from Carrie's wedding.

Below: Carrie and Mitchell's rings
Below: Mitch's younger brother with the wedding colors accented
Below: The Bouquet
Below: Cake (awesome cupcake cake...all of my daughters are going to have one of these!)
Below: Outside Twin Falls Temple...not the easiest place to take nice pictures. The grounds are rather sparse with ugly neighborhood backgrounds. Photographer's worst nightmare = horrible background distractions...YUCK!
Below: Coming out of temple
Below: Do I really need to say they are kissing? Really?
Below: Future Bonnie and Clyde...watch your money:)
Below: Chillin in Rupert's town square.
Below: ?
Below: Outside the reception place...an old converted play/movie theater.
Below: All the sisters...lots of crazy estrogen buzzing around on wedding day :)
Below: The couple with the Aston grandchildren. Greg decided to cry Amber and I a river right before the picture...gotta love it!
Below: Cool new toys = Plastic Cups
Below: Beckett wondering who what his crazy cousin is doing
Below: Mitchell - Really cool guy and great addition to the family...Good Luck!

Now that the wedding has come and gone, I am back home in Kentucky finishing up my thesis. I defend July 28th at 10am and am excited to finish and move onto dental school! YAHOO!! No more school for two days (I start dental school on the 30th) Being home alone has been relatively tough. I enjoy the freedom to exercise and go wherever I need to without coordinating schedules, but it has been lonely; it is an abrupt change from being home with Greg for 21 hours a day to not seeing him at all.

Countdown = 12 more days.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Crazy Fun Utah Days

This week is Amber's sister's wedding and as such we are enjoying a wonderful week in Idaho. Our flight into Salt Lake was rather late - 1:30am - so we spent the night in Lehi with LesliAnn and Mike before heading north. Greg had not seen his cousins since Christmas and enjoyed playing with them in morning.
Above: Julia - 3 yrs and already a future Track and Field/Gymnastic Olympian

Above: Luke - 18 months and pre-NBA major.

Above: Future Shriner of America

Thank you LesliAnn and Mike for having us.
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Sunday, July 5, 2009

July 4th and Vacation!...Finally


Happy July 4th!
As most of you have noticed, it has been a long time between posts. Normally, Amber and I would apologize for this long gap in posting, but we having been enjoying vacation time so much we really don't feel guilty about being blog-free.
Below are a series of pictures from our vacation, starting in reverse chronological order.
Above: Greg enjoying the Fairport Parade and the 4 fire departments that participated.

Above: If only he was like this during evening prayer time.
Above: The local fife marching band.
Above: Amber was quite sad that the Fairport parade involved a lot of marching bands, local company floats and historic tributes. But as luck would have it, Mr. John Deere and his loyal tractor crew made a guest appearance and Amber's Burley cravings were satisfied.

Below: Rachel, a family friend, will be married in August and as a family pro-bono gift Maren, Hayley, and I combined to do Rachel's hair, make-up, and Bridal pictures. Below are the results. I am tempted to put some of the pictures on the website as they turned out really well.


Below: The 15 years of near continual Dicken's presence at Fairport High School has ended. Hayley GRADUATED!!!! After lots of tears, crying, and hormonal teenage drama the parents are excited to have finished the teenage years and can now focus on the grandchildren.
Below: Grandma and Grandpa Minick (Lynne's parents). Looking spectacular at 80+.
Below: Last but not least, Amber being Amber.