Family Picture in the Poo-ah

This morning, Jim and I made a big breakfast for our family, and then we all "hanged around" the house and visited (that's a Joshuaism).

There's this place in town called Arkansas Pineapple Whip. It's just one of those trailer things that pops up in the summertime...similar to a sno-cone shack or a food truck. The "Whip Wagon" serves this delicious concoction of pineappley, ice-creamy, custardy, yogurty, frozen goodness.

We all went the other night, but Logan and Morgan weren't here. They heard us talking about it, and they wanted to go today. They loved it.

Around lunch, we all went outside to swim in the pool. Or, as Joshua calls it, the "poo-ah." I wanted to get a family picture of everyone before everyone went their separate ways. Imagine 9 people. Yeah. It was like corralling cats.

Photographers are expensive...I get it. Jim always complains about the cost any time I hire one to get a "good" family picture. But after this weekend, I am even more convinced that they are worth every penny.

Hear that Kimberly Brackins?

I mean, they see the height of people, what they're wearing, they're facial expressions, the shadows. They can tell people to MOVE and NO ONE GETS UPSET. They just DO it.

(sigh)

I had gone in our coat closet...all the way to the back...and dug out this box of "props" that were left-over from the photo booth at Holly and Aaron's wedding. I thought it might be fun, but I didn't care if we used them or not.

Holly thought we should all get in the pooah for the picture, and she would use her tripod and set the timer.

So, there we were...all in the pooah...in front of a camera...all wearing various head-pieces.

Side note: At this point, I need to share that I bought all of the props in the photo-booth box that I have at home. And that my sister hired the photo-booth lady for Holly's wedding, and the photo-booth lady had props of her own. At some point during our little family photo shoot in the pooah, I realized that some of our stuff had gotten mixed up with the photo-lady stuff.

That point would be when I looked over at Joshua and realized he is wearing a police hat that says "Hottie Police" on it.

OH. MY. WORD.

I tried not to make a huge deal out of it, but we did encourage him to change into a cowboy hat or something. Nope. He said, AND I QUOTE: "I like the police."

So, back to the-taking-of-the-picture...

Right as the camera starts clicking, the dogs come over and get right in front of the camera. We all start laughing...and we miss that whole session of pictures. It's probably for the best, because our big, black Lab, Maggie...AND Holly's little halfadog, Marley...ended up blocking all 7 pictures.

Take 2.

Same thing happens.

I'm thinking, "what in the world?" because Maggie typically just lays/lies around and is not too interested in what we have going on.

Unless we have food.

Then JIM fesses up that HE is the one secretly calling her over and messing everything up.

That explains his big, goofy grin in the pictures.

Take 3.

Aaron-the-son-in-law gets out of the pooah. He decided that he's going to try and have an "action shot" by running and JUMPING into the pooah as the camera is clicking. And I look back at Jim. He is standing tall in the pooah. He is wearing some sort of goofy straw hat, and he's waving the American flag like he's the Statue of Liberty.

Good grief.

Who ARE these people?

Oh, yeah. My family.

Speaking of...does anyone remember the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where the twins are playing basketball? One twin doesn't want to play because he overheard Ray say that he wasn't that good. But during half-time of the game, that twin decides he wants to play after-all, and so Ray wayyyyy overcompensates by cheering loudly and excessively for him. At one point, Frank...the grumpy grandfather...gets up from where he is sitting, says, and goes to sit by someone else. I think he says, "new family," or something like that.

Even tho sometimes, like yesterday, I am tempted to try and find a large family that actually cooperates during family pictures and say, "NEW FAMILY," I would not trade mine for the world. I am thankful for each member and thankful for the memories we are making...even during the crazy times!

I don't even know if any of the pictures will turn out, but it was such a fun day!

I'll be posting them over the next couple of days on my Facebook page: Marty Logan Garland.

"Children born to a young man are like arrows in a warrior's hands." Psalm 127:4