~ Joe
The best parts of our trip were definitely the moments that I had to spend with Ida, Anna, and Emmett, my brother Mike’s three children. The wonder inside a child’s heart is such a beautiful thing; it captivated me and I tried very hard to capture it. These three were the life of the party. They constantly had everyone’s attention. Ann and I had carefully bought presents for each of them and seeing them open their gifts made our day! My parents are crazy about these three! And my mom was on cloud nine to be able to baby sit while the rest of us went out in search of some mountain powder. I love seeing how much my parents love Ida, Ana, and Emmett.
Ana, Edna, Ida, Emmett and Mike. I think Mike is showing off some snowmobile footage from the day.
Ana is the sweetest, cuddliest, funniest little thing. Everyone loved seeing her expressions as she opened her gifts. Since everyone had to drive hundreds, and even thousands, of miles to get to West Yellowstone there was not a lot of space for presents, but everyone got a few gifts.
My Dad and Ana wearing the neck cushions we had picked out for Ana and Ida’s long road trip back to Illinois after our excursion.
We let Ida plan all of the events on Christmas day. She was a great program director and she was even able to get all the grown ups to join her in some crazy kid games. I was commissioned by her to read the Christmas Story and Grandpa won her block tower contest! A great highlight of the day was getting to hear her sing for us. She was quite the little star. It was a little scary empowering a seven year old with our Christmas itinerary, especially since my in-laws were involved, but she did a wonderful job and we were all blessed.
Ana delivered everyones presents! Christmas is way more fun when a 3 year old hands you your gift 🙂
Experiencing Christmas with my brother’s children made me want to have a few of my own. The more that our love story develops the greater our desire grows to bring others into it. The idea of coming together with my lover to bring forth a child to love is an extraordinary one. God loves us so much. The Trinity wants us to join His wild love story just like we image bearers of the Great Lover want children to join ours. Ann and I don’t have any children on the way, but for now I am having a ball playing with my brother’s children.
Here is a little video that I shot entirely on my GoPro of the children on Christmas day. I hope you all enjoy it!
