After a couple posts’ worth of recent pictures, today we have a set of photos from long ago: October 2015. In many ways, these pictures aren’t very different from the ones we’re taking today: like current collections, they cover school, extracurriculars, sports, and holiday celebrations. They’re eerily similar, except we’re all quite a bit older now, and the kids’ roles have changed dramatically. These echos are all the more poignant because the next set of photos I’m working on covers roughly the same time of year, but for 2023. They both feature soccer, Booksin, and trick-or-treating, but through a radically different lens. Sometimes, it’s hard to comprehend how we got from there to here.

William is omnipresent in this collection. We have pictures of him doing dishes, shopping with Julie, trick-or-treating, and—reflecting how he spent much of his time that fall—lots of photos of him playing in the park at the older kids’ soccer games. A particular favorite is a picture of him helping to collect drinks for the Booksin Walkathon.

Julia and Joe aren’t neglected, however. The gallery includes Julia’s Girl Scout troop making SWAPS to exchange with other scouts, pumpkin carving, Halloween hamminess, and numerous action shots from soccer games.

There is also a smattering of pictures from a sailing excursion on Monterey Bay that Julie set up for our anniversary. Neither of us had any previous experience sailing, and we were probably more hindrance than help to the captain of the ship who took us out, but it was a unique and fun experience that I’m grateful to have had.

Gallery: October 2015