My favorite kind of photo moments...

…are the ones when I wasn't planning.

This morning, as the kids and I were heading to the zoo to meet our old neighbors, I told Kevin, "I guess I will bring my camera." He said something the effect of "might as well". I went with the kit lens- good outdoor light and we had a group of four kids so I knew I might want a wider frame. Also, it was already on the camera, which often guides my decision making process.
The zoo is regularly shifting and changing some of the extra activities, and there was a brand new live bird show I was excited about. When the man asked for volunteers, Gwen's hand shot up, so he picked her. Then she quickly put her hand down. He thought this meant she didn't want to volunteer and chose another child, but she was on her way up to the stage. He told her she could be a volunteer for the next thing. Then he asked for a volunteer with a camera. So I volunteered. He had a giant owl fly at me, which I was supposed to take a picture of. I did, and the owl, not surprisingly, is totally out of focus. I struggle with focus on a moving object under ideal conditions. In the sun, in front of a crowd, with a bird flying at me does not qualify as ideal conditions.

That is the owl, now in focus. 

Finally, Gwen got called back up on stage (I was so worried he wouldn't bring her back up- she would have melted). Look at that happy volunteer!

First she gets a hat, and the trainer put seeds in the brim of the hat.

Then he called out the birds.

And they hustled on over to get their seed.

She was such a trooper. That bird laden hat had to be heavy. Also, I can't believe she didn't panic. I don't mind birds, but I feel like I might have panicked. At the end of the show, the trainer brought seed around to let people feed Gwen's birds. Stephanie said the claws hurt a little. 

We had a really nice trip with our old neighbors. We spent nearly everyday with their kids and nanny last summer, so it was really good to have all of the kids back together, and I certainly enjoy having another adult with me when I do these things. I am hoping we will be having a few more day trips of this variety before we have to wave goodbye to the summer...

The Beach, part deux

The kids and I met up with Alaina this week at Busch Gardens, where we had a chance to exchange SD cards for beach pictures. I realize in ten years this will likely be a hysterical way to exchange pictures (just like my first 256MB flash drive at $40 was once a life changing investment and is now comically useless), but it is what works the best for us currently. Side note: Unlike myself, that won't even bring my junky cell phone into Busch Gardens, Alaina was totally willing and happy to bring her camera, so there will be a Busch Gardens post (as soon as we can exchange memory cards again), but, spoiler alert- we crushed it. 

Anyway, back to the second half of the beach vacay. I was excited to see these photos today, as it is the first that I have seen them, and I got to relive the trip a bit.

Look at that pricey Jekyll Island souvenir getting a good workout!

I know this is how the beach makes some people feel. I am not one of those people. Give me a cup of coffee and an oceanside balcony and I am good. Alternatively, I will happily take a beach walk to look for shells. I can take or leave the sun and water. Sadly, the prime season is a bit wasted on me, but everyone else loves the full beach experience and I am certainly not against it.

Thanks to Tasha and Whitney, we had a fresh kite selection! Stephanie had a really cute Bee kite, but that one took some serious adult attention to get in the air, and we apparently missed getting photos of that one!

I do love to make a drip castle though...

I forgot to pack sunhats for the kids, so all of the adults randomly put their own hats on the kids when the sun was beating down. It was less than ideal, but did spark one of my favorite amazon purchases ever- bright pink sun hats that have already appeared on the blog in the fourth of July post. 

Gwen's swimsuit here is SO cute, but also a horrible sunburn waiting to happen. I agreed for her to wear it only after Alaina did both lotion and spray sunscreen and we covered her with a rash guard a few hours in. 

After all of the Stephanie cartwheel photos, I was happy to see a Gwen "handstand" shot.

These two pictures accurately illustrate that my hair and Alaina's hair have two very different salt water experiences...

I realize, especially at the beach when I see lots of swim wear, that my swim gear is a little off the beaten path- but I haven't had a sunburn since I started dressing like this and my kids can find that candy cane hat in a heartbeat! Stephanie has recently observed how "peach" my back is, since it now never sees the light of day, but I will take that over the inevitable sunburn I seem to manage without the rash guard.  

It was a great few beach days, and these photos make me wish we had another planned! Maybe we can go back during my October break- for premium kite flying, shell hunting and balcony coffee drinking!

Fourth of July- the Jersey Edition

This year we traveled to NJ for the 4th. Kevin's brother's family was there at the same time, so it was a good opportunity to gather the troops. No one dreads the 10 hour car ride more than me, but at least this time it meant that we could see our friend Mary, whom we miss on most of our trips since we visit on major holidays and she leaves town to visit her family on those same holidays.

Plus, Granny has a pool. It was a really nice change from the freezing Christmas weather that we are used to!

Also Granny has parades. For realsies parades. A street away. And it was a long event with lots of candy. 

If they were giving awards out for the cutest and most dedicated flag waving, this girl would have won. I believe that she believed that they threw her candy when she waved her flag. The kids got piles of candy, so maybe she was right.

 I stepped into parade traffic multiple times to get group photos. Totally worth it, and since all of the ambulances and fire trucks in the area were in the parade, I felt safe. As Kevin said, it wasn't a good time to have a heart attack across town. 

After the parade, we walked to the local park for free hotdogs and soda plus kiddie rides. No photos, as it was too hot to even hang a camera around my neck. It wasn't even sunny- just sweltering humidity. However, Mary and Kevin both ended up with at least some evidence that the UV rays were out. Not bad at all, but Kevin's was particularly comical- a tiny triangle in the triangle of his neck not covered by his collared shirt. 

In a MAJOR disappointment, the town fireworks show was canceled at the last minute due to vendor problems. Devastation was the first emotion, then anger that we enforced naps at 4:00 for the big night. Finally, we settled on the fun of sparklers and running around the yard to see what the various neighbors were shooting off. 

Same picture as above, just not cropped. I kind of like the blurry family in the background.

Gwen spent the most time in front of me, and since I was using my knees as a tripod, she ended up with the only focused photos. 

Safety first. I enforced the life jacket, which she did not object to. In fact, she added the ring and arm bands for good measure, and spent most of her time floating around like this. Fine by this mama. 

Our last little adventure was to visit Grams. We had all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren together (Kevin's cousin and his family also were visiting from NC). We did get some nice large family photos. I set my camera up on a chair and a flip flop and set it to take 10 photos on timer and ran into the picture. I do think that this ultimately led to what might be my favorite photo of the trip. Gwen decided that she would take the next photo, pressed the shutter button and bolted into the frame. Look at my tiny photographers joy!

And one last update, which feels moderately related to this trip, as I saw our access to a pool as a key part in pushing the current mission forward. This summer has been our first major effort to build swim skills for the kids. We both think swimming is important and want the girls to be good, strong swimmers. My skills in the water are limited, and I really want more for them. Stephanie started a pre-swim team lesson group in May, and as of a day ago "graduated" to the swim team. She was so excited she was shaking when she told me, and I was just so happy for her. Fast forward 18 hours to the first 8am swim team practice (and these kids have been doing swim team for 2 months, so the swim team is in full swing)- She was wide awake an hour before practice and full go. 8-10 full pool laps of freestyle wore her completely down and she spent 20 minutes wrapped in a towel, fighting tears on the side of the pool. Kevin and I were both there, and worked so hard to convince her to get back in. She delayed and delayed and kept asking how much longer practice was. The worst part for us was knowing that they had moved onto far easier things but she had just spent everything she had in the first 20 minutes. In the end, she rejoined the practice with about 15 minutes left and miraculously emerged from the pool smiling and acting like we were crazy when we asked her later if she was going back to swim team tomorrow. Hopefully she gets the part where it is okay to pace herself a bit and gets the hang of this before swim team wraps up for the summer- which is pretty soon! In the meantime, Gwendolyn "I'd rather not get my face wet, in fact I feel pretty good in multiple flotation devices because I am so my Mama's swimmer" started swim lessons on Monday. After two days of struggling to keep her face dry at all costs at lessons, I convinced her to go under during Stephanie's swim lessons, and it took! She isn't the fish that Stephanie is, but she is now willing and able to go under the water AND if there is something to get from the bottom of the pool, she is shockingly persistent at being willing to go under to try to get it. Her swim teacher was shocked at the difference and I think she is now in the right place to actually pick up some pool skills, plus she seems to be enjoying it! 

That's it! A summer well in progress with swimming updates looming in our future!