HOLIDAYS ARE MEANT to be celebrated with family. I know that’s not always possible as distance separates many of us from loved ones.
But this Easter my husband and I spent the weekend with our three grown children at our second daughter’s Appleton, Wisconsin, apartment, a five-plus hour drive from our southeastern Minnesota home.
It was, as the four of us traveling there in our family van would conclude, “a long, weary journey,” made longer by the beginning of road construction season.
But it was worth the detour, the traffic, the $3.939/gallon gas in Appleton, the fierce wind, the dust storm in potato land near Coloma, the tumbleweeds and small branches flying across the interstate at Tomah…. so worth the drive for all five of us to be together.
We laughed and teased. Dined and worshiped together. We built family memories.
I could write hundreds of words to sum up the weekend. But the image below, although technically of low quality, best tells it all. This single, blurred shot captures what only minutes earlier I had attempted to get in posed pictures. The three are viewing those posed frames on my oldest daughter’s camera. Just look at the trio with my husband in the background. You can almost feel the love, can’t you?
I had no time to adjust my camera or frame this image. I saw the moment and snapped the shutter button. Perfect.
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
Perfect ! Dont you just love being together!!! Our three children are grown as well, I love it when we are all in one place…like yesterday!
Yes, I love being together. It’s becoming more and more of a challenge with distance and work schedules, etc., to factor into gatherings.
That is a precious picture! It appears God had a hand it getting the “right” picture for you : ) My brother lived in Underwood,MN which was a long ride too, but it was SO worth it and I wish I had done it more often..
Thank you, Linda. I do love this photo and I love seeing all three of my children together like this. So rare that we have these moments as a family of five anymore. I didn’t even realize Randy was in the image until I got the pix into my computer.
You look like a very beautiful family that gets along together so well. What a precious time you must have had. Good on you for snapping an image that captures a moment in time but speaks volumes. xx
We do get along great and like to have fun together. I’ll be posting soon about one of our Easter weekend outings in Appleton.