As the kids get older, it gets harder and harder to get everyone together for a Christmas card. This year I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted everyone to hike into Aliso Woods for a picture at that corral, the one at the top of my Blog. So I put the message out. On Thanksgiving we would hike in and take some pictures. Of course, on Thanksgiving there was rain. Then Bob and I were on a bike ride and he measured how far it was from the parking lot to the corral. 3 miles. NO WAY!!! He definately was not going to hike in and the girls would be hot and tired and ... NO WAY!!! Okay, plan B. I looked and looked keeping my eyes open for the long grass I wanted in the card. I had visions of the kids in waist high grass, maybe done in sepia tone or black and white. Where, where, where? Hello! right at the entrance to the trail there were some hills and they were covered in the long dry grass. PERFECT. No hiking involved. Okay, on my birthday we are taking pictures. It is going to be a beautiful weekend! I can't wait. Alyssa calls on Thursday, she is sick, wants to stay home over the weekend so she can get some rest. What can I say? Okay next weekend, Sunday, 11:00, wear white shirts and jeans. Sunday morning arrives, Katie arrives, 9:30, white shirts?, I thought you said black (we did discussed black, but I don't remember saying black). I didn't bring a white shirt. WHAT???? White doesn't photograph well Katie says. Delaney also mentions that she can't find her white shirt. I call Alyssa and Greg, we didn't bring black shirts, we are wearing white. OH NO, THINK FAST!!!! okay, Alyssa can you stop by old navy and buy some black shirts? (Now that Katie has mentioned it, black would be better.) 11:30 Greg and Alyssa arrive. 12:00 Katie is finally ready. We head out to the picture spot. We arrive and are on the single road with no parking signs all up and down the street heading to the trail entrance. Oh look, there's an ambulance. It's right behind us, let it pass. As we get closer, we see a fire truck, a ranger truck and the ambulance right where we were planning on taking the pictures. Great...Bob remarks that this is not going to happen. First of all, we are not allowed to park on the street and he is certainly not going to park there in front of the Ranger. We pull over. But the rule breaker in Bob pops out and sits on Bob's left shoulder and whispers in his ear, "The authorities are busy, some idiot fell off his bike and broke his collarbone. We'll just hop out and take some quick pictures. They've got more important things on their mind". While we wait for the fire engine to leave, I snap 3 quick pictures of the kids in front of the trees just in case we get busted and asked to leave. We walk into the grass and Bob takes 6 pictures. He declares he has enough. We usually take about 50 because it is so hard to get everyone looking good at the same time. Okay, I say, not wanting to argue because the rule follower that I am is under extreme stress and I want to get out of there!!!
We got 3 of these! Alyssa with her eyes closed, that only leaves 3 others.Alyssa's eyes are closed again. Why does she do that? Katie asked. I don't know, when she hears the word cheese, to her, it means close your eyes!
Katie doesn't like the way she is standing in these. Absolutely not!
The day is saved! We have a winner! Thank goodness I snapped these shots before our outright defiance of the law right in front of their faces. 
3 comments:
Hillarious! The surfing dogs were much easier to shoot.
Wow, you had a lot of obstacles. Despite all those, it is definitely hard to get a great picture when your family is expanding. We're up to 9 adults now, plus the three little ones. You sort of have to get over the kiddies never looking that great because they don't want to pose. It's usually 4 year old Ryan looking pretty good, 2 year old Megan screaming bloddy murder, and baby Maddie looking at all of us.
Then there's all the picking apart because there's always someone who doesn't like how they look.
It comes down to my mom having to make an executive decision (usually the one she looks best in) because we'll never all agree.
Merry Christmas! :)
PS I think the Monday after Christmas I'm going to try to swing by TieCare, you should come too!
PS The eye closing thing is an actual real "problem", for lack of a better term. My brother-in-law really has a hard time with it (try picking out good wedding photos, my poor sister.) And it's hereditary. Half his siblings have it too. So weird. We're waiting to see if either of the kids get it...
My mom has tried a million different things to "trick" him into keeping his eyes open, but at 34 years old it's pretty much stuck.
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