Year End Family Photos

It's been too long since we've posted here -- but the holiday season gives us a moment to reflect on the year past. One way of reflecting is looking at the pictures we've snapped. Here's an excessively indulgent look at the things we thought were picture-worthy. Friends, family, trips, meals, work, play -- these things gave our year the happy textures. It's hard to take pictures of the things that make a year difficult, and if you've spent time with us this year, you know that this year brought its share of darkness. But the trouble of the year makes all of these memories of happiness even more heartening.

If you're here at all, reading this blog, there's a significant chance that you're one of the great reasons for happiness in our life. Thanks! Hope we can see you and spend time together in the new year!

We Made Pasta Together!

Tons of fun. So delicious.

Summer Memories

While we've already posted our most recent, fun-filled trip to Nashville, we neglected to include many memories from earlier this summer.

We began the summer by running away from Canton to Northern MI where we spent over two weeks with just us, other Rudd family members, and the Livermore gang. Such an amazing time!  We visited the cabin, Traverse City, Sutton's Bay, and of course, Muskegon.

We were also able to celebrate cousin Shea's wedding in Fresno on July 4th. Great fun and memories were created...especially after the first generation of Leindeckers retired for the evening.

There have also been overnights with the Biss kids, multiple other playdates with friends, VBS at First Friends (?!), Boy Scout camp (!?!), and lots of lazy morning cuddling.

Craig, Deb, Shea, and company transform the old church/warehouse/barn/scary-dark-place into a beautiful home for the wedding.  (Fresno Bible Church began in this very building...with much less tule...)

Keith gets down with his bad self while Jaelyn dances with Marcus.   Either Addison is developing a new move or he has something in his eye.

17 years and counting since our Fresno nuptials.

Kristy and Cathy pose for the camera.  Fun conversations and laughter reign throughout the evening!

Greg and Shea cut their cake.  (Always my favorite part of any wedding celebration!)

In Muskegon with the annual summer cousin picture.  There are always various degrees of success with this endeavor.  Emma and Liam are to be super-imposed into this picture at a later date.

Will takes off for the water slide.

Addison grills with Grandpa.

Emily and Jaelyn cook breakfast pancakes on their own for both families while Lynn vainly tries too keep up with the racer Linda Livermore on the backroads of Suttons Bay.

The Livermore family smiles after a much-needed ice cream.

A magical walk with the Livermores at Christmas Cove.  The kids played and discovered Petosky stones while the adults talked deeply and analytically about life, faith, and books.

Jaelyn finds her favorite habitat at Century Farm where we stayed with the Livermores.

Still the Livermore family.

One of the cabins at the Century Farm.  This was a wonderfully quiet and perfect get-away for our families.  There was hiking, fishing, frog-catching, and much more.  The kids had their own cabin for some Lord-of-the-Flies type of adventures, while the adults stayed in another cabin and talked long into the night.

Addison reads on a rock at the cabin.

Jaelyn's feelings toward being at the cabin and free from societal constraints.

This year Addison learned how to build his own fire while at the cabin.

One of the many family walks down the cabin road.  This was after we ran from a flock of mosquitos but before the influx of tics.

Jaelyn and Addison enter the absolutely frigid waters of Lake Huron.

I think Heaven might look a little bit like this for some people I know and love...

Visiting Nashville

Our last road trip of the summer was a trip to see our friends Cliff & Mary. While the Cliff & Mary franchise has always been one of our favorites -- the two new features -- Jack and Maddie -- only added to our delight.

We talked and laughed and shared and parented and trekked and ate and talked and laughed and shared.

Pure magic.



Maddie on the Capitol Steps. We bussed down to the capitol, the library and a great Mexican feast.



Waiting at the bus stop. Mary busses to work every day. Cliff & Mary always inspire us to simplify and clarify our lives. From transportation - to Mary's thoughtful & incisive clarity of direction - to Cliff's documentary Immaterial John (some of you have seen it) -- to two of his new documentaries that we got to watch -- about interfaith and interracial dialogue and cooperation.



Jack and Addison at the Zoo. Despite their angelic qualities, the boys were masterful at mixing things up a bit together.



Jaelyn at the Zoo. Her whole weekend was animal-loving: capturing butterflies and moths, visiting the zoo, watching Spongebob. (Sponges are animals, right?)



While Cliff & I spent hours sitting together talking -- we were rarely as...close...as we were when we visited the children's department of the Nashville Public Library (which is *amazing* BTW!)

Days of Dogwood

We've spent many of our afternoons at the community pool. The kids play with friends or with each other. Sometimes Lynn and I join in a game of ball tag, catch or marco polo. Other times we read and work through our to-do lists in the mass of other suburban middle aged parents.

A Well Dressed Up & Coming Attorney

Addison announced last week on the way home from church that he was planning on becoming a lawyer -- mostly to avoid becoming homeless.



After his recent trip to the thrift store , he's looking more up to the task...

Can all the king's horses and all the king's men put it back together again?

Wind wrecked great havoc on the Leindecker farm this past week. A barn that has stood for almost 100 years had a wall torn away and 'Grandpa's Covered Bridge' was destroyed. Technically, it can all be fixed, but the emotional loss looms large right now.

This bridge was the last thing my dad and Uncle Larry built together. We all feel a heavy sadness at its destruction, only two months after my dad's death.

Detroit Get-a-Away: Livermore/Rudd Reunion Part II

We tried to do our part for Detroit.   We stayed, we rode the PeopleMover (the highlight for the kids), and we talked A LOT.  While the talking didn't do much to bailout GM, it was wonderfully refreshing to reconnect with dear friends.  

We rode in circles around Detroit while our kids marveled at the sights.  

As she always does, Linda asks penetrating questions and then listens hard to the responses.

Dave gives thought-provoking insights while photographer Andrew plays with the far-too-infrequent sunlight.
Lynn basks in the conversation and friendship.

The newest superhero franchise...

They've already been contracted for breakfast cereal and a movie deal.

Snow Daze

We were just checking to see if there was life on the other side of our window.
"My kids won't have video games when they are young," says oblivious-Lynn-without -children.
Everybody has jobs to do, even on a snow day.  The kids love this idea.

Being the outdoor-lover that she is, snow days below zero are hard on Jaelyn, even with the fun job lists created by mom and dad.

We have had some fun days and nights together with all the snow and cold weather.  We've had family movies and eaten lots of popcorn.   We've also read books and baked cookies.  It's been delightful, but I'm done now.  Spring can come at any time.

Yes We Can!!

I've never shed a tear over any political speech, until Obama's. I've never felt so much hope in what Americans can actually achieve when we finally put our tattered history behind us and try to move forward together, until this election. I've never hoped so hard for truth to come from rhetoric, until this beginning.

I don't know what the next four years will bring, but I do know that my children can look at the leader of this nation and see someone who looks more like them than he does me. That makes me extremely proud, happy, and overwhelmed with gratitude for the opportunities granted in a democracy. May God direct this man as he attempts to refresh this nation that has been so stripped of positive leadership for so long.

Thoughts from the journey.

I've been reflecting on a vast number of ideas since my dad's death. Here are a few quotes from two books that have been helpful to me. These authors have given words to the emotions that I've been processing, although I still fear the level of sorrow both of these men have had to pass through in their own faith journeys.

Thanks to Marcia Everett for sharing these books and authors with me.

"Our sense of personal identity depends largely on the roles we play and the relationships we have. What we do and who we know contributes significantly to how we understand ourselves....Loss is like undergoing an amputation of our identity....Loss thus leads to a confusion of identity. Since we understand ourselves in large measure by the roles we play and the relationships we have, we find ourselves in a vertigo when these are changed or lost....

This crisis of identity, however, can lead to the formation of a new identity that integrates the loss into it....We need someone greater than ourselves to help us forge a new identity. God is able to guide us on this quest, to help us become persons whose worth is based on grace and not on performance, accomplishments, and power." (from Sitter, A Grace Disguised)

"It is said of God that no one can behold his face and live. I always thought this meant that no one could see his slendor and live. A friend said perhaps it meant that no one could see his sorrow and live. Or perhaps his sorrow is splendor.

And great mystery: to redeem our brokenness and lovelessness the God who suffers with us did not strike some might blow of power but sent his beloved son to suffer like us, through his suffering to redeem us from suffering and evil.

Instead of explaining our suffering, God shares it." (from Wolterstorff, Lament for a Son)