Heidi's Dallas Visit, II

Edstrom Family Dinner

On Friday night, Mom and Dad hosted a big family dinner as a sort of family good-bye party for Carrie's leaving for India.

 (This is the point at which I switched back over to taking RAW photos, hence, all of the following photos combined took nearly 16 hours to process.  Kimie, you are my camera roll model.)

(...and I think you're probably Carrie's, too.)

 (Though, of course, Carrie was the first of us all to get an SLR.  It was film at the time.)

So as Kimie, Carrie, and I worked on fixing our cameras' settings, we used poor Thomas as a subject.  Three cameras focused at him, minding his own business, on the opposite couch.  But he took it good-naturedly.

We had delicious tacos.

 And Carrie worked on something special for later in the evening.

 Of course a summertime family dinner wouldn't be quite right without a little time in the swimming pool.

Papa commanded the diving "competition," with various specialty dives required.  Like the "Pencil":

 

It was a pretty entertaining show for a very appreciative audience.

And even those of us without so-called 'diving skills' still had a good time making big leaps into the water.

 

 What fun!!

In the front yard, Carrie brought out her big surprise.

 A-DOR-able!!  A reversible princess dress!

 But I don't think our little princess loved being the center of attention.

 So Aunt Carrie pulled her out of this mini-funk:

 ...and sparked a whole movement!  Literally!

 Oh so cute!

 It makes Aunt Heidi wish (again) for more time, more time, and more time.

My favorite photo of this little Snow White:

 Since this was Carrie's going-away party, we wanted to give her a going-away present.

 Ah, Carrie, I know the Dallas family misses you, but I miss you in Cleveland, too!

*****

Oh yes, even more photos coming!  Love to you all!