not quite what the doctor ordered

my dad has been a neonatologist for my whole life. if you don't know what that means, i will tell you. he has been in the trenches, saving lives, being a hero to new moms and dads and sick sick babies for over thirty years. he is incredible. he has worked with integrity and great skill and compassion and he was and is beloved by his patients and colleagues alike.

he has provided for us generously. he has put three children through private school and college and cared dearly for his wife. he has used his income to support people and causes, both here and abroad, that would have been hard pressed without his generosity. he has used his medical skills on the mission field in the most needy countries. and now, after thirty plus years, his time as an practicing

neonatologist has come to its end.

i am sure there are many of you out there whose babies were saved because of my father. i remember watching countless times when i was a child as someone would approach us at the hardware store or at a restaurant and say 'im sure you don't remember me, but you saved my baby'. maybe he helped saved yours. maybe he helped save you. maybe you were just more at peace knowing he was down the hall in case you needed him. i know i was at peace knowing he was down the hall for me when eden was born.

ok so anyways my dad declared that he should be allowed to retire with no hoopla or celebration. and, while we try to respect him as often as we can, we nixed that idea.
we celebrated hard and with lots of family over labor day weekend.

oh yeah, and it was a surprise. there will be a video of the arrivals coming later. this will be a proper photo dump because i could not stop myself with so much family in one place.

these two were up to no good all weekend, and matching to boot

who, me?

part of his weekend was a good long dose of eden time

the above scenes just melted me like butter to the floor

then people started arriving and before you know it, surprise full house

uncle bob and aunt gretchen came up for the weekend. uncle bob gives everyone nick names. i was laura loosky broosky. still loosky to him till this day. he nicknamed eden 'garden o'. he is very clever.

my mothers and her two brothers are a riot together. we are not all together as much as we should be, but it is so fantastic when we are

watching something early season football

ok so we all chipped in to get my dad a gift to commemorate his retirement. his whole professional life began at duke university and if you know us, you know that our whole family revolves around duke basketball. my brother graduated a year ago and got a really handsome ring to wear as a graduate. my father, however, had never invested in a ring, as they are ~~crazy~~ rather costly and he tends to spend his money on other people, namely his family. so we all chipped in and got him a ring, just like his son's, so that they could match. he was really surprised and really overwhelmed at the gift. the last picture in the first sequence is him shaking my brothers hand. man to man, duke grad to duke grad.