Digression

Allow me, if you will,
a moment of digression—

on digression, of all things, as I
would like to take at least one moment
to defend my own propensity—admittedly
extensive, my tendency toward Latinate
structures with
a half-dozen clauses dangling
subordinate to my point, but really,
one point is never actually enough—as I

was saying, defending that
thrill I get (because I do, really, I do) from
drawing out the entrails of a sentence
line after line, dash after dash,
comma after comma,
semicolon after colon after
semicolon in true
eighteenth-century fashion, since there is always

more to say, always that necesity
of interjection (in the absence of footnotes) to indicate
the complexity of the matter, to note
a historical context, or to suggest
another potentially brilliant
but discardable path (since if it were
truly brilliant, it would deserve
its very own sentence, its own sequence
of asides), which, to be

entirely honest, is
what I thought I’d met that day
when I heard as I walked
to my Latin midterm
your voice asking me
on a date: I thought,

ah, an aside to the sentence of my
semester (or perhaps a mere
minor digression from the aside which
that particular week
was certainly doomed to be); of course

then you went
and became a full-fledged sentence all your own, and then
a paragraph, a chapter
heading toward a tome that with each passing page
delightedly relegated Latin and exams to a state
beyond digression—they (them, theirs, and every antecedent
to every pronoun not “you” or “I” or “we”) became mere

endnotes, marked with a smallish symbol
only vaguely attached to the “s”
in “us”


—because I feel one coming on. 


 (Charisse Stephens in My Best Friend: The Long-Distance Courtship of Cory and Charisse Stephens or, An Autobiography of Us, pg 145-146.)

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Henry on Halloween

Petty Family Reunion

While we were in Utah this summer we got to spend time with the Pettys celebrating Cory's grandpa's 80th birthday. There was a week-long reunion with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, nieces, nephews, lots of fun, and quite a few pictures. :)

Henry and Daddy on the swings (more at the bottom)

Family!

Henry! I love the way he folds his hands. That's what he does for prayers, too. :)

Henry, Daddy, and Grandpa Petty's (in)famous truck

Cory's mom and dad, happy grandparents with all their happy grandbabies (Maeve, Tripton, Henry, Rudy, and Bella)

Henry's face is cute. Daddy's face is priceless. :)

Henry, not too interested in sitting with his great-grandpa Petty

Henry? Where'd you go?

I love these ones of Henry and Daddy.

...and the horse. Henry LOVED the horses that belong to Grandma and Grandpa Petty's neighbors. (They also have a zebra. No kidding. And no explanation. Also, peacocks!)

Henry with Granny Stephens

Fourth of July

This fourth of July our friends called and invited us to walk up (literally--two miles of mostly up) to a parade with them. We're so glad we said yes! It was a great parade, tons of candy thrown to the kids, cool old cars, plenty of bagpipes, guys in fat pants dancing with mops, etc. So much fun. And here's the picture proof:

It was a lovely sunny day. Sadly, Henry was very tired (it interfered with naptime).

Guys in fat pants dancing with mops

Bagpipes (there were no less than two bagpipe groups)

And a group celebrating 100 years since California gave women the vote. :)

She was my favorite. And her sign. And her hat.

And then there was this guy at the back of the group. We couldn't decide whether the missing "R" was intentional, but I still lean toward not.

How can you not love a parade that has a Miss Art Deco?

Henry's friends Zoe and Amara ready to run into the street for candy...

And here's what Henry's doing while all this is going on. He's sitting on Dad's lap. Looking tired.

And maybe a little bit confused.

But he got a stuffed shark, so... great? Oh, and his onesie does say "My First 4th of July." (Thanks, Grandma Johnson!)

And most of the time he was shoving Cheerios in his mouth, because the parade also interfered with lunch time. All in all, though, it was so good to be out and about in the sun, and the parade was excellent. There's really nothing like a good parade. :)