Family portraits gone bad

Let me tell you about our family portrait session from you-know-where. We've been on the coast for almost a year, so I thought, "OK! This will be the year for a family portrait on the beach!" Easier said than done, with a 5, 3 and 1 year old. Wow. What we really needed, which I did try for and failed, was a second person to be there jumping around behind the camera to get the kids to LOOK AT THE CAMERA. Why is that so difficult to do? By the time the photographer would finally get Mary to look, the boys had lost interest again. Then the boys would look and she'd set the camera aside to tell Ivan to smile "normally." Ivan is going through that fake-smile phase which drives me crazy - sticking his chin way out, showing all his teeth, squinting... you know how it goes. Anything abnormal or forced looking works for him right now. At one point, the photographer finally said, "Ivan, just don't even smile, honey. Just look natural. Look at that bridge out there." Then there was sand... everywhere (my van is still has a layer inside!)... and water. "Don't go into the ocean guys, it's too cold." Oh, yeah right. We ended up with two wet, freezing, sandy, crying boys - sitting in the van, in their underwear with the heat blasting on the ride home. The photographer even said, "Wow. I'm sorry." Then she said, "Well, I do think we got one that might be promising.... let's look real quick." We peeked at the screen on the back of her camera, and she said, "There - all three kids look pretty good." Then I noticed that my blouse had BLOWN OPEN. Great. Can anyone say "ELAINE?" - Seinfeld episode with the Christmas cards???

So, if we do get a Christmas card out of a well-photo shopped picture, I'll be happy. As for a wall portrait? Maybe next year.

Anyway... so I was happy to see that their school portraits turned out pretty well. They even let Mary take one!

Ivan - 5 yearsGrant - 3 and a half years Mary - 13 and a half months