The Old College Try

We gave family pictures the old college try one Sunday evening after church. We met my mom at the ranch (she was going to be our photographer), the light was dreamy that night, but the children were not.

Owen tried really hard to give his best "cheese" face, while Lily kept doing a weird chin down, creepy eye pose.

We tried a different location, but Ava wasn't a fan of it and Lila barged in.

The next spot we tried was on the bridge.

By this time, Owen was getting a wee-bit antsy....

We decided this was the best shot of the night. Chris is squinting, but Owen and Emma are holding hands and Lily isn't making creepy eyes so it's a keeper. I think at this season in life, we should go for casual, candid family pictures because "1-2-3 smile" is far more complicated than it sounds.

After the the bridge pictures, we took a break to pass around a toad Lily found.

Everyone liked the toad, except Ava. She was not impressed.

We tried one last spot for pictures, but Owen picked his nose.

And apparently, we all thought it was pretty funny because we got some genuine smiles in this shot.

From the looks of this picture, it appears as though he proceeded to eat it after he picked it. Oh, lovely.

We gave up after the nose picking and let the big kids float the creek.

Ava jumped on the trampoline, and then it was time to head for home.

I took this picture as we were loading up to leave. The sun setting over the mountains was breathtaking.