Build a Bigger Iceberg

I took some of the kids camping this weekend (mom stayed home with a sick child and a homebody). We go camping around this time most years. It's freezing cold outside and it's my favorite time to camp. It's the kind of camping where a fire isn't just for looks or roasting marshmallows -- it's for keeping your toes from going numb. The campground is mostly empty and there isn't a bug to be found. It feels just a bit more survivalist and that makes it all the more invigorating.

This was a fairly cold one. The low was 26º and the high was 40º. The kids were completely unfazed and hats and coats somehow managed to become optional. (How do such little bodies with so little insulating fat maintain so much heat?) We were well fed with food and drink that warmed from the inside. The peacefulness of it all was amplified by the cool air and nearly bare trees. We had no choice but to unwind. And, the best part, there was no talk of movies, video games and cell phones.

The water couldn't have been more than 35 degrees.

My grandfather built this killer campfire rig in his shop.
My kids never met him, but they're impressed with his work.

While this may look like chopping firewood, in reality it was
getting the splitter caught in a log. Repeatedly.

The cold was for real.

Cold weather camping bonus: No need for ice!

Junior sausage chef.

Biker heaven.

Before the Last Leaf Falls

Every year, when the leaves begin their color change, we head off to Caesar's Creek Lake for a hike through woods. Thank god. At this time of year it's about the only thing for which we slow down. It's always therapeutic. I've got dozens of pictures I've wanted to post for the last two months, but these were my top priority. Looking back at them again is a small dose of much needed medicine.

"I'm free to roam? Really?"

"I'm an old pro."

"Maybe Mom will walk faster if I shove a leaf in her ear."

Sprouted acorns. I don't think I had ever seen one before.

Sprouted acorn. Again. For effect.

All orangey and stuff.

Leaf hunters.

Group shot.

"Thanks for including me in the group shot. Dicks."

Definitely a fall girl.

Teaching? Protecting? Threatening?

Our fearless leader.

And now back to your regularly scheduled madness...

Stop the Ride, I Want to Get Off

Wow, look at all the blogging I've been doing lately. Yikes.

(The Catch-22 of parent blogging: the more things to blog about, the less time to blog them.)

What's been going down around here? Well, in the last eight weeks we've celebrated four birthdays, two baptisms, one anniversary, we've gone camping, started school, ran a half marathon, attended twenty soccer games, sold a car, gotten a dental crown put in, fixed a washing machine and visited emergency rooms and urgent care centers.

Throw in an uptick in my photography business and the ol' blog here loses out to face planting into my pillow almost every single night.

It's a good kind of busy. Really.

If I can keep my eyelids in the upright position for a few more minutes, I'll post some pictures I've been meaning to upload. In the meantime, some tuneage.

Fall Fail

My children are my worst clients. I wanted to scope out a location for an upcoming photo shoot, so I thought I would take my own kids there and get some nice fall pictures of them. It was disasterific. I managed one useable shot of the four bigs.

Jameson was really my only willing model.

Jameson wanted to do this pose. Because in movies, "people sometimes sleep on benches."

Jameson's two modeling looks are "serious" and "crazy."

This one is my favorite.

No wait, maybe this is my favorite.

Despite Jameson's serious modeling, sometimes ol' dad can pull out a smile...

Tried shooting Amelia, too. That didn't last long.

Not the Whole Gang

Got a decent shot of the kids... except that these aren't all of our kids anymore. 

Pumpkin Patch

Guess what.  Kids like buying pumpkins.  We went to a local farm to select some primo jack-o-lantern gourds and the kids just kept loading more and more pumpkins into the shopping wagon.  They were dropping them in faster than we could take them out.

There was one exception.  Truman, once again showed his nonconformist side.  As soon as we hopped out of the car, he made a beeline for a huge pile of small pumpkins.  He immediately started lining them up.  He was entranced.  His focus, planning and determination are sometimes such a contrast to his ants-in-the-pants brothers and sister.  It's so interesting and strangely delightful to watch him go to work.

Truman didn't say a word.  He just got to work on his project.

"I <3 pumpkins."

"Let's get this one, too."

"And these."

Contrary to popular belief, not all kids are sprouted in cabbage patches.

Everyone smiling and looking at the camera.  So close, yet so far away.

I Went a Little Camera Crazy

I'm quickly realizing that rule number one of successful parenting is wear out your kids. Send them outside and run them like sled dogs. It solves so many problems. It takes the fight out of them. It makes dinner and bedtime a breeze. It fights boredom. It makes the time fly.

One of the greatest satisfactions of parenting is pouring an exhausted toddler into bed at night a half an hour early without so much as a whimper of protest. Bam. They're out cold for the night. I took my own advice the other day, taking advantage of unbelievably warm weather, and carted the kids over to my parents' tree covered, oversized backyard.

Have I mentioned that I think Fall is the bestest time of the year? As if my season crush wasn't strong enough, you can add to it one more thing: the simple fact that there are leaves on the ground will give small children hours of no-mess, enough-to-go-around-for-everyone entertainment.

I also took advantage of the warmer weather by going a little camera crazy on the kids while they played in the leaves. I hadn't gone full on photo shoot with them in awhile so I was a little trigger happy. Sorry if I just like totally killed your bandwidth.

This was earlier in the morning before it warmed up.
Not sure why Truman is hamming it up all of a sudden.


Yeah, I'm watching you boys.



Yes, Andersen, I will be taking your picture all day.


Run, son, RUN! Keep running! Are you tired? Run some more!


Maverick and Goose


Leaves! Hell yeah!




You get buried in the leaves, you jump out of the leaves.
You get buried in the leaves, you jump...


Truman likes to make rapid messes. Legos, leaves, macaroni and cheese... whatever.


I'm on a leaf pile, motherf#%er!


Still getting buried in the leaves. Still jumping out of the leaves.


I'm buried, right? No one can see me, right? Hello?


I been goin' so leaf crazy my hat's all crooked. Damn!


Leaves. Are. So. Awesome.


If you gots to get leaves out of your pants, you gots to get leaves out of your pants.


We play hard, we eat ice cream hard.


This may look like an upset child.
What you're actually viewing is a child that is exhausted and all in favor of an early bedtime. Success!


Spaghetti for dinner. Gotta carbo-load for the next day.


Take me to bed!