Family Pictures

This weekend we attempted to take family pictures.
Here are just a few of the obstacles we encountered...

Before Pictures:
We didn't have enough similar clothes for pictures, so I borrowed clothes from three different people.
We had a hard time figuring out schedules. We put pictures off for days and days until we finally squeezed it in between church and an evening meeting Rex had. This was none too soon, as all the fall leaves fell of the trees over night due to strong winds.
Another dilemma was trying to decide on a photographer. Professional? Neighbor? Extended family? We decided on a tripod.

During pictures:
Megan burst into tears and lamented that she looked fat in her outfit.
When I was doing last-minute touches on Andrew, I accidentally poked him in the eye and he was bawling and rubbing his eyes while trying to say, "It's all right. I'm fine. I'm okay..."
Rachel kept saying, "I don't know how to smile. How should I smile?"
Alicia's blouse was too big, so we put a hair clip on the back to keep it tighter. The hair clip kept popping off and Megan kept saying, "Why does she get to have a clip? My blouse makes me look fat. I need a clip on mine. How come I don't get one?"
After a few shots in clothes that didn't end up matching, Rex announced it was time for his meeting. The rest of us changed our clothes and took pictures focused on the kids. (We were still taking pictures when he got back).
I tucked in Andrew's shirt at least 25 times, but I don't think it stayed tucked for a single picture. (Maybe it's because it's two sizes too small? )
Since Andrew is a boy and we were outside, his knees became covered in grass stains.
At one point when Andrew tried to run off and play, I pulled him back and said, "We're not here to have fun. We're here for the pain and suffering of family pictures." Suddenly he punched me then innocently explained, "You said pain!"

After pictures:
When we were all finished, I noticed that the camera was on the wrong setting and all the pictures turned out blurry.
Upon looking at the 250 pictures we took, I chose about 4 that would have worked out--if not blurry. The others either had too harsh of lighting, bad color combinations, or someone was making a face. ("Boastful" has some of the blurry favorites if you'd like to pop over and see.)

Craters of the Moon

Some people like to take their kids on sissy vacations.
Not us.
We prefer camping in freezing weather and then playing in caves full of jagged rocks.
Here are some pictures of our weekend trip to Craters of the Moon...

Here is how our tent (the only tent at the campground) looked when we woke up:

Scraping off a little frost before breakfast never hurt anyone.
(But those sissy kids ate in the car):

After breakfast, we headed off to Craters of the Moon where we saw this beautiful scenery:

And we got to climb over these piles of loose, jagged boulders:

Deep pits added to the danger:

Following the sign's precautions, we "watched our children carefully" as I instructed them to stand closer to the edge so I could get a better shot:

Their caves aren't even domesticated:

The park's suggestion for cave exploration was to take three sources of light. They added that "you never know how long it will be before someone comes looking for you."

One cave was called "Beauty Cave". I think it was a joke:

We drove back home during this...

...which caused us to do a 180 and slide off the road into the mountain before getting back on track and finally making it home.

Yeah, no sissy beach resorts for us.

Family Night

Tonight, like every Monday night, we attempted to gather as a family and enjoy each other's company. The problem was that everyone had a different idea of what we should do, so we tried to do them all. Andrew wanted to read children's books, Megan wanted to do a family relay race, Rachel wanted to complete her online registration for school, Alicia wanted to bake a cake, Rex didn't want to move, and I wanted to watch a movie.

We started with the relay race. We all followed Megan outside to listen to her indecisive instructions:
"First we'll skip to that tree--no, that one. Then we'll. Wait, first we'll hop to the tree then we'll skip back. No, we'll skip half way and then hop the rest of the way."
Rex wondered, "How will we know when we're halfway?"
Megan: "I don't know. I guess we'll just skip the whole way there and then hop the whole way back."

Andrew was the first skipper on his team and Alicia started the skipping on ours. When Alicia started winning, Andrew stopped and stormed away decrying skipping in general and competition and life itself. And he was never going to skip again or try to win ever again and this was all so stupid!

I took him by the hand and made him do it again anyway. He was happy with being given a bit of a head start as he had only learned how to skip a few minutes before. Alicia, of course, still won and Andrew became a bit sullen again. I didn't have time to talk to him, though, because I was suddenly I getting in trouble for aiding the other team instead of being in place to take my turn in the relay. I headed out and did my best, but once Rex was tagged by Rachel on the other team, he skipped and hopped like he was never gonna get a chance to hop and skip again. And their team won.

When I got back to Andrew, I congratulated him on trying and told him that it was more important to be involved than it was to win. Rex chimed in and said, "That's right, Andrew, winning's not important, but we did win. Now let's get out there and win again!"

Megan concocted two more silly relays including things like, sideways grape-vine running, running backwards, and touching one foot to the other as we walked. And the other team won all of them.

After exercising, we sat and watched the movie while Andrew read his children's books and Rachel and Megan made brownies to replace the calories we had expended.

Now all we have to do is register online and everyone will be happy.