I started giving workshop (carbon printing) and things were picking up photographically when my wife and I had triplets. After the boys were home a couple months from the hospital, my wife had to go back to work (maternity RN) or lose her seniority at the hospital. No family around, so I was an almost-fulltime-dad, with no time for much darkroom work for a couple years -- although I worked half-time, 10-months/year, taking care of the university darkroom, so still engulfed in photography.
I grew up photographically in a university setting, so had to over-come a relunctance to share my work. Working in a large darkroom with people doing the same, especially people one has been working next to over several years can create some honest feed-back and appreciation for others' work. I was not an art major (worked summers for the US Forest Service) but was spending too much of my time in the darkroom.
As my boys grew, I brought them into my photography. The jeep image was the first 8x10 (2001, 4 yrs old, half-second exposure) -- not quite sure of the strange contraption dad has. In the redwoods was New Years 2008, they were almost 11 yrs old and by this time they could hold still quite well. This was a two minute exposure. 8x10, carbon print.