remembering bright days in this gloomy weather

this is my favorite among the latest family pictures. a picture of our backs -- except one sister's, maita in the upper right hand corner. but then she is sort of semi-crouching, not looking directly at the cam. i have no idea who took this picture, maybe one of the spouses. but this was definitely taken from the tree house above us.

that group there is the biggest latest gathering to date of my brothers and sisters. yep. all the siblings present except one, anna, who was in manila at the time. this was taken may 2009, in a beach in labason. that little girl in pajamas in the picture is not my sister, that is my niece bea. she is there because her father, ryan, our youngest, is there. bea only ever does one of two things: run away from his father, or run towards his father. in this photo, she is running TO ryan.

what are we doing here? well, aside from showcasing our huge backs, we are plotting how sister girlie should develop her little beach side property. that property is, by the way, not the the property we were currently enjoying at that time. we are a beach-going family: we go to a beach to plan how to develop another beach.

clockwise, from top left: blanca in floral shorts, maita the crouching doctor, sporty girlie in bullcap and crossback suit, monching looking like a frog, ryan with his bea, and me with my ehrm...huge back. i love my swimsuit here. got it from ukay-ukay for 50 pesos. dunno whose shorts i am wearing. during reunions, our wardrobes tend to get mixed up. understatement.

looking forward to another family meeting like this. we just had a good lunch. there was so much food but i can remember there was cassava boiled in coconut milk and sugar. the music playing then was good. of course i would say that. that was my ipod on. the san mig light was icy cold. the kids were blissfully charring themselves black under the sun, with constant basting in seawater and sun block. the spouses were elsewhere, glad to be rid, even for a brief moment only, of the crazy blancos and their spawn.



this is another picture from the may 2009 reunion, in my sister maita's house in liloy. that there is my son gabriel and my niece juliana. a mattress underneath, a mattress overhead, and another mattress rolled up and ready to tow, their noah's ark is good to go.