a family barbecue

We go to my sister Valerie’s for a Father’s Day dinner of grilled chicken, steak, caesar salad, and asparagus. Valerie is the quintessential hostess.  The food is always outstanding and she always has enough of it.  The place settings and serving pieces look like they walked off a cover of Town and Country. The house is exquisite.  And the company is always great. 

Before leaving for my sister’s, my son reluctantly agrees to be in some pictures.

Today there are only seven of us, including my son and two of his older cousins, Adam and Jason.  These two, along with their younger brother Michael who lives in LA, are as perfect as one can get.  Humble, kind, smart, athletic, successful at everything they do, funny, thoughtful, and all, drop dead gorgeous. I can’t imagine anyone knowing any of them and not liking them.  Now that they are adults, (Adam is 31, Jason will be 30 next month, and Michael will be 26 next month), I enjoy them all in a different way.  And Alexander, understandably, adores them.

I’m lucky to have a family I sincerely like.  Conversations are never flat with them, and I seem to be, more often than not, the one with the differing opinion. We don’t talk politics today so there isn’t much controversy, though we do get on the topic of privacy in social media. 

Jason recently heard Mark Sanchez say that whenever he’s photographed off the field, he tries to keep his hands below his waist.  That way, he can never be misconstrued as touching someone inappropriately or drinking when he shouldn’t be.  I think that’s great advice, though unnecessary for this photo I took of my two nephews and my son.