Dallas

I can't believe my mom went back and forth, back and forth to Houston -- it was at least 2 or 3 trips last week.  Crazy for her, but it was WONDERFUL to have her on the ride to and from Dallas to spend a long weekend with my parents, Daniel and Kimie, Lucy and Elliot.  Having mom along for the ride meant plenty of stories, snacks, and help for the multitude of dropped items in the back seat.  We arrived in Dallas all relatively sane and had a really fun weekend.

 

Seeing Joshua with Nonnie and Papa was so fun.  He so thoroughly enjoyed them and is increasingly independent.  Well, independent for him.  Meaning, he explores around the house, willingly leaving my side to play on his own or with family a while.  It's wonderful to see him more confident, and to have a hand free :)

Saturday we went to the Arboretum with Daniel, Kimie, Lucy and Elliot.  I would dearly love to see more of them and live more of life together. 

It was fun to see the kids play together, especially running around playing "steal the hat from Papa," which they thought was HYSTERICAL.

The vision for this shot was awesome.  It didn't involve the big black pipe on the ground that I clearly didn't see in the middle of the chaos.  In my head, Jonathan was in the center, holding hands with the two little boys, and the big girls were on the ends helping, and they were toddling through the doorway together.  In fact, in my vision they were laughing and looking right at us like, "aren't we silly!?"   

This is EXACTLY why I don't take posed photos (almost ever, ever, ever).  Trying to accomplish a vision I have in advance routinely results in futility and frustration if I keep trying.  In fact, I always end up just keeping the "out takes."  I find them funny.  In this series, my favorite shot is the one with Daniel peeking out -- he was back there trying to wrangle kids.  I seriously don't know how Kimie shoots family sessions, or even gets so many awesome shots of their two munchkins.  It's a gift I don't have, but I enjoy the photos she gets!  

So... on to flowers for me. They hold still.

I love (seriously, I'm obsessed with) photos of my kids holding hands.  I must have a jillion versions of these photos, but I still scramble to sneak up behind them and shoot it, again and again.  

The kids weren't grumpy, at least to my knowledge.  They were a bit cold, but I think at this moment they were just waiting for me to catch up.  Even so, the back-to-back arms crossed seemed so moody it made me laugh.  Had to keep it anyways.

I'm SOOOO glad I caught this.  He makes this face all the time.  It totally cracks me up. 

What's more fun than playing "ut oh" ?

Monday we played at Daniel and Kimie's place, and the kids had a great time together while Kimie and I were able to visit more extensively.  It was so nice.

That afternoon we were back at Nonnie and Papa's and headed out with Lucy to feed the ducks.

Watching the kids feed the ducks was so funny.  Joshua squealed away from the safety of the stroller. Lucy alternately threw and snacked on the pieces of bread.  Jonathan insisted that his bread was ONLY for the mallards and fled the hungry geese.

We had brought along a book from one of our favorite series, One Small Square: Pond.  After feeding the ducks Abby announced that it was time to read the pond book and pulled out her reading for a while.  She's just flipping through the pictures, but she was quite studious! 

Abby was also very dedicated to her job of helping push the wagon on the return trip :)

 Thank you, Nonnie, for the fun trip and for making the long drive a pleasant one!