“The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another’s desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together.” – Erma Bombeck
The Sheffield family gathers to make a family portrait on Tybee Island
Today I’d like to introduce you to some very important people. Meet the Sheffield Family. When I was a motorcycle riding, nose-ring wearing, angst ridden art student in college, the Sheffields were my family away from home. That’s right, these people are kinda crazy. But in the really good, keep them close forever kind of way. We’ve been trying to make their family portrait forever. But a funny thing happens when kids get to a certain age. They tend to get scattered all over the place. They go to college and get jobs and make families and generally just become uncooperative. But after several attempts at scheduling this big family outing, only to be thwarted by annoying things like college finals or broken bones, everyone was finally in the same town at the same time and no rain was gonna … uh… dampen our spirits? So, we gathered on the beach on Tybee Island and tried to herd the cats… er, I mean kids.. into a few group shots. But mostly we just let them run around and play and have fun. Keep an eye out for photo bombs from my trusty assistant… heh heh… he’s still in training. 
Also, while I have your attention, I’d like to especially introduce you to Aidan. He is a remarkable young man and the story of his struggle with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and his path to recovery is very inspiring. You can read all about it on his mom’s blog called Aidan’s Brain Balance Journey. 
And that, interwebz, was the Sheffield family portrait in Savannah, Georgia! Wow, what an awesome morning. We laughed. We cried. They had mimosas. Everybody looked at the camera at least once. So thanks Donna and Mike and Allie and Andy and Cassie and Erik and Kyle! We did it! Now it’s time to tackle the marsh bunnies (don’t ask…. you don’t want to know).
