The Tanager Blog

This post is a bit more personal, as its of my immediate family during a recent visit from Omi, my beloved grandmother. I won’t go too much into detail, but thought I’d post these images because they have so much joy in them.

These are two of my favorites above. My mom and Omi are more than just daughter and mother, they are very close friends, and there’s just something in their smiles here that resonates with how I see their friendship.

Below is a sequence of my nephew, Jeremiah, riding horseback on my Mom’s shin. Mom’s family is German (“Omi” is German for grandma), so she sang a little Deutsch ditty to accompany the rhythm of the “horse.”

Jer’ loved it.

Jeremiah (below right) has a twin brother named Isaiah (below left). While the two of them are inseparable buddies, their personalities and looks couldn’t be any more different.

They have an older brother named Andrew (below, top), who is five years old and infamously crashed our wedding by, um… being born that day. True story: Amy (hugging him in the towel) went into labor at the rehearsal dinner.

Speaking of birthdays, we have a flood of them in the summer, so this little get together ended up being a birthday party for Mom, Hailey, Ben, Amy and Omi. Still, the twins were allowed to blow out the candles. And that’s Ben (above) giving me his “what a family” look.
Omi draws energy from her “kinder.” Literally. The presence of her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids fills her up like a balloon and she just floats for the rest of the day. Here, the twins and Andrew surround her to get a peek at the musical birthday card Ben and Amy gave to her.

After dinner, we went for a walk and encountered a pack of red foxes…

…and then spent the evening in the front yard watching the wildlife pass through the yard. Good times.