Saturday Photo Hunt - Beautiful

There is nothing more beautiful to me than family. I've been blessed with two beautiful daughters, a handsome son-in-law, an adorable grandson, and a precious granddaughter. They all may be "beautiful" by the standard definition, but I know their beauty goes deep inside to their souls. I am so proud of them all, as my regular readers already know from the multitude of posts about them.

As my first-born, here is my daughter Jamie in a few stages of her life. She was blessed with an ability to ice-skate as we soon found out after her first foray onto the ice at the age of 3. We put her into figure skating lessons which improved on her talents in precision and artistic impression. She won many medals and trophies before she finally hung up her skates. Jamie was always a happy little girl who loved her dog Star (below with the white nose) and Star's sister Kaycee. Her very first paid job was cleaning up our back yard and we always laughed that she could actually say that she'd "shovelled sh*t" for money. Jamie has always had a totally offbeat sense of humour and would always regale us with laughter as she put on little plays or had her sister videotape her making a commercial for ladies' laxatives.

Jaclyn is my "baby" and she could not be more different from her sister. She has been blessed with a very creative soul and it shows in her writing of prose, poetry, and song lyrics; her paintings; her beautiful singing voice; her photography; and her jewellry designs. She was also blessed with an incredible mind and even when she was still very young, I'd buy her Mensa puzzle books that she'd whip through at an unbelieveable rate. She also went into figure skating and at her first ice show at the age of 3, actually stole the show. When her sister was in high school taking a photography course, the two girls went down to one of our local parks and had a great day taking photographs. One such photo turned out so well that I had it enlarged and framed after Jamie had signed it. When Jaclyn reached high school, she also took courses in photography and has taken many fine shots herself. This is one of the other photos that Jamie took of Jaclyn that day at the park. I really like this one, almost better than the one we had framed because it shows her as she truly is, a free spirit.

Jamie grew up to be a beautiful young woman who has worked hard to help her husband as they saved for their first home. They are very happy with their two little ones and now, although she'd rather stay home to be a Mom, she's preparing to return to the work environment to continue her role as co-breadwinner. Jaclyn, also grew up to be a beautiful young woman, and although she has been blessed with many gifts, she's also struggled with health issues over the years. She is doing well now and I'm so proud that she has hung onto her inner strength to overcome some extremely difficult obstacles.

The latest additions to my family are my son-in-law Jason and my two gorgeous grandchildren. As Jason likes to joke, he's really "IN" with me now having given me one of each sex. Jason is a fantastic father and loves my daughter and his two children more than anyone can imagine. After a hard day's work, he's down on the floor playing with Noah or holding his precious little princess. He's definitely proven himself to be a worthy son, let alone son-in-law. Here he is having ice-cream with Noah this summer at Splashdown Park and holding his darling daughter at his own younger sister's wedding this month.

So this is my idea of the word "beautiful" and I'm looking forward to seeing other participants' ideas. See tnchick for more photos on this week's theme but wait until tomorrow as I'm posting early.