I opened my email yesterday to find this heart-crushingly beautiful photo staring back at me.
These adorable babies were MINE. And they seemed so old at the time compared to a few years before. I’m going to look back at photos from these days in Bahrain and think the same thing, aren’t I?
I’m trying to figure out what year this is. My guess is Fall of 2007? That would make Calvin 8, Carter 6, and Caleb 3. They could also be a year younger since my boys all started losing teeth at 4 years old and Carter is definitely toothless. Caleb is wearing a size 4T Lands End jacket that was passed down through all 3 boys, making the crazy $100 price tag when I bought it in 2002 seem like a bargain by the time we passed it on to another family in 2009. Carter is wearing a T-shirt from a Thanksgiving trip to Arizona to meet up with the Chartier side of the family and went to an Old West town for the day (and rode a camel for the very first time — well before camels were even a glimpse on our horizon). Calvin’s hair is still short and I don’t see a mohawk so it’s either the very beginning of Josh’s deployment (2007) or the year before.
29 Palms was the perfect place to homeschool these boys. Non-stop running around outside, fabulous friends and church community, the great desert outdoors . . . if only I had kept a blog then.