On the Saturday of our trip to Connecticut, a party was held at Castle Hubert, to celebrate the birthdays of Missy McDonnell and my mother, Pat, who defected from the Clan McDonnell to Clan Gorman some years ago. It was good of them to still allow her access to the ceremonial birthday tent.

The short version is that Abigail took my phone while we were at this party. What follows is a photographic journey through the aspects of the get together she found most important.

First, what she saw on the drive there.

Mind you, we had just parked the car at this point, making this the most stable shot of the drive there.

Second, she was quite taken with this cat.

And who wouldn’t be?

Third, Papa Mike.

How can you say no to a greeting like that?

Fourth, feet.

Sure, there are a couple heads in there, around pool level, but feet, legs, butts all featured prominently in Abigail’s photographic adventure.

Fifth, photos of family, taken with only a modest amount of suggestion as to where she should direct the camera lens.

I hope in vain that this photo will forestall any complaints about content coming from an Isabellian direction.

Sixth, Gabe. You know what? I’m just going to dispense with the numbering. You all know how to count.

Gabe.

This image captures the essence of what it’s like to watch Gabe run down a hill better than any picture I’ve ever taken. It also captures Abigail’s finger, which would be the most common tag used in this photoset, were we tagging by contents.

More Gabe.

Seriously, she took a lot of pictures of Gabe. He was only there for half the party, but next to her finger, Gabe would be the next most common tag.

Relatives with goofy expressions. This one will go on for a bit.

And to round things out, here’s Gruncle Dick (Don’t correct me, spellcheck. I know what I’m doing.) coming back for another round of goofiness.

Abigail also managed to use her fingers to create this skillful soft lighting effect, creating the perfect birthday picture of my mother.

And finally we have the overhead shots, in which I lifted Abigail up on my shoulders so she could take a more wide angle view of the family, including this one of her Gruncle Mike and Missy, the other birthday honoree.

People really enjoyed a lofty five-year old.

And I’ll leave off with a picture of the photographer herself, who enjoyed this party as much as she has every enjoyed anything. Here she is showing off the proper photo taking technique.

We had a wonderful time seeing everyone back east. I’m sure the next time we get together, instead of me marveling over the size of my cousins, it will be all of you oohing and ahhing over the size of Gabe and Abigail.