We all know that getting family pictures taken is everyone's favorite activity, right? Right? Normally our photo shoots are preceded by at least an hour of grumpiness and arguing about having to get dressed up and look nice or about how much some people in the family really DON'T want to have their picture taken. Sometimes it makes me laugh to see the smiles on everyone's faces in the final picture when I know that virtually nobody was smiling just a few seconds before the shot.
This time I thought we had it made. Everyone was amazingly cooperative during the getting-ready-to-go phase. It may or may not have helped that I bribed them with the promise of a trip to Coldstone (an ice cream shop) if they all behaved themselves. Everything looked really good to go.
Then we got there. It never even occured to me that choosing a lake as our setting would be a problem. All I was thinking about was having beautiful background scenery. But when Sariah saw water--and ducks--all of a sudden she completely forgot that we were there for another purpose. We spent most of the evening chasing her down. She was like a ping pong ball, literally bouncing off the walls... only there weren't any walls, just wide open space and lots and lots of water. It was an ADHD moment, literally. But she has a beautiful smile in most every picture, so all can be forgiven.
I thought I had it made with Preston. I had carefully planned to give him a late afternoon nap so he'd be in a great mood for evening pictures. But he wasn't too thrilled about being held or about having to smile. In most of the pictures he was fussing.
And Dallin, who was amazingly cooperative, considering just how much he detests having his picture taken... well, he had some interesting grins on his face that nobody knew about until the pictures came back.
But you know what? This is our family. I'm not doing this again for at least another two years or so. And there are no guarantees that another two hour torture photo session would turn out any different.
Besides, I look great! That sounds like bragging, but honestly I usually hate the way I look in pictures, and I don't hate these.
So, enjoy! These are the best of the crop. Except a few that for some reason won't upload to this blog.
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