It Really Does Run in the Family

I called my niece, Ashton yesterday afternoon to wish her a happy tenth birthday. I am amazed that she is ten. Like "WOW! She's ten already" sort of amazed. I told her that she is growing up way to fast and that she needs to slow down.
She replied, "I don't want to grow old uncle Will. I want to stop getting older, but I can't."
I told her that she can always stay young at heart and be a kid inside like her uncle. She said she would.
As we continued our talk - she was more talkative than she has ever been - she told me about school, her soccer team, that her cat Pumpkin had three kittens, and then she caught me by surprise with her announcment that she had not only entered a photography contest, but that four of her five photos placed!! She place third with photos of her cat and the neighbors barn (two separate categories), second with another barn photo (she was excited to tell me it was B&W) and FIRST PLACE - my tn year old niece won FIRST PLACE - with a color photo of her cat. As she told me this the biggest smile spread across my face. At that moment it didn't matter to me the smallest bit that I was crawling in traffic. Nothing really mattered at that moment. My neice had not only entered a photo contest SHE SWEPT A PHOTO CONTEST!! And at the age of ten! TEN! I asked about getting signed prints and of course I will pay for them. With her permission I will post them on this web site when I get them. Her mom and dad (my brother Tommy) let her run around with the camera and photograph whatever she wants and as much as she wants. My sister-in-law Lisa was telling me that Ashton has really taken off with digital cameras because she can see the photos right away and reshoot them to make corrections. Ashton also enjoys going to the camera store and having prints made and doing all of her own cropping. ALL THIS AT TEN!!! She even said she wants to go shoot photos with me! OH MY GOD, my award winning neice and me out making photographs together! WOW! You have to pardon me for having watery eyes over this. I am so happy and excited and so very very proud of her and her creativity. I am proud of all my neices and nephews. They all have creative and artistic talents and I am so happy and proud to have been an influence to all of them. It really does run in the family.