As usual, it’s been a long time between updates but hopefully the three hours I just spent organizing and uploading photos will make up for it. First, there is the trip to beautiful Bok Tower Gardens with Kelly’s parents.

Second, there’s Sophie’s eleventh month photos.

And finally, the main event: Sophie’s first birthday party photos!

Kelly, Sophie and I would like to say a big thanks to everyone who called with well-wishes or attended Sophie’s first birthday party. It was a blast and Sophie had a wonderful time. (She slept like a rock that night.) Thank you for making the day special.

The only hard part was not having enough time to spend with everyone. It’s amazing how easy it is to take quality time with friends and family for granted. When you are young, you can’t seem to get away from your family and vacations to relatives are frequent and mandatory. Eventually, you go to college, get a job, have children, and you realize that you can’t find enough time to spend with the people who matter most. It’s an odd society we’ve created for ourselves.

I think that is one of the reasons things like social networking sites like Facebook have attracted so many people beyond the young and trendy. With Facebook, I communicate with friends and family around the world in small spurts throughout the day. Just like I did throughout childhood and school; before a job demanded my social times to be segmented into breaks, weekends, and vacations. We’re social creatures by design and we do more than enjoy regular human interaction, we require it.
I recently saw a new scientific study that discovered getting together with friends to chat about your problems actually causes your body to release a chemical that strengthens and repairs your DNA structure. Think about that the next time you “waste time” chatting around the water cooler or take a long lunch.