Last week Don received his Christmas present. A 2005 silver Land Rover. And I, of course, got my present a month ago so we wanted to try them both out. We decided to take a little trip to one of our favorite places, Hot Springs AR. It was a perfect destination. An hour and 1/2 away and a beautiful place to take pictures. I had heard that they had trees lite up in the park so I was excited to try it out. The kids like going there because I think, to them, it's a fun place that we go as a family. There really isn't much for them to do there but walk around. But I wasn't concerned about them. They would find some fun. And lets face it...... This was about me and the photo shot I was imagining in my head.
After we parked the "new ride" and headed out to find something to eat it was clear to me that this wasn't going to be the night I envisioned. The boys were CRAZY! We even had a couple walking past us laugh sympathetically while giving us a good luck before exiting our lives forever. That is never a good sign. Nobody wanted to pose for pictures. And nobody wanted to listen. Don was getting frustrated with them and I was getting frustrated with my camera. I'm still trying to figure out low light or night photo taking. Don, I think, was convinced that I was doing it wrong and thought he would have a crack at it. but same results with even more frustration added. Well, I thought we just have to keep trying, but I think this was getting old for Don and he was starting to wrap it up so to speak. And I'm leaving pretty disappointed thinking, out of ALL the pictures I took I don't even have one that I am excited about. And it didn't fit the expectations for the evening events.
We left around 10:00 and I couldn't wait to see if I had at least one good picture that was worth all the yelling and crying and frustration for the night. What I saw when I pulled them out to edit was amazing to me. The night that I had remembered was not the night that I had captured. The running, the jumping, the playing around with each other. The laughing, the smiling. The happy children. And all I could think of was "Where was I?" When I looked back on the night I realized the yelling was from the parents. And the crying was because of the parents. And the frustration was not present on the faces of my kids. But on the faces of us, the parents. So who needs to learn a lesson? That's right, The parents! And even though I still never found that perfect picture, I will treasure these photos forever. Because their life is to short to always try to make it perfect. It's never perfect! And it NEVER WILL be perfect. So take this little life lesson taught by children and apply it to your life. And I promise, you will not regret it!
In this series all I wanted was to get a cute store front picture with them all smiling, of course. But they were having to much fun playing with there hats and just being silly to pay attention. This is were the couple passed us with their words of encouragement. AS IF WE NEED IT! RIGHT BOYS?!!!
OK, a bit of a warning: There are a lot of pictures. I just couldn't stop myself. I guess there were more pictures that I liked then I thought.
Go Figure!!!
I think I was saying "Please just stand still and look at the camera!" Just wasted effort. But look how happy they are. Me? Not so much.
Brotherly love. It melts my heart!
That would have been perfect if it wasn't blurry darn it.
This is were the Parents were being not so good Parents. And look how unhappy they are. Man, a picture never lies.
Boys are so funny. They see a big rock in front of them and they just have to climb. They all wanted too. And Brig especially. He never wants to be left out. Layton and Jaren made it up on there own and daddy helped the other two. Mommy was on the ground barking orders on where to sit and how to stand and really being nervous about the whole thing. Don acted like I was being silly but I was just sure something was going to happen. Boys will be boys. And apparently they don't grow out of it :)
I will be missing the blogger world for a few weeks. I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday. And I hope you remember to enjoy it. This is my motto for the new year. I don't want to be left out of the fun any longer. Life can be crazy but what's wrong with crazy. As long as nobody gets hurt and everybody is happy, I'm all for it. Crazy is the new sane. WOW! I like that!
Merry Christmas Everybody!!
Isn't she beautiful?! We do wonderful things together. The life that we capture is beautiful and fun and I'm addicted. These are some of my favorite times that we have spent together. 
