When silly meets the surf

I knew I wanted to get some family pictures on the beach this summer when we traveled to Galveston.  I even planned the clothes before we left on family vacation and endured the eye rolls from Gregory as he expressed his annoyance at my clothes coordinating obsession! And then of course when we were in the Bass Pro Shop in Houston, their $2.99 trucker hats just screamed 'pick me, pick me, this will make for a FUN photo'. So I scooped up 7 of them in different colors....and Gregory didn't mind this time. The hats had fish on them and they looked cheesy enough.  He was happy!

We picked late afternoon/early evening as the setting, picked a day in the middle of the week so if our opportunity was cancelled due to weather we still had some extra days to make it happen.  Then we hoped and prayed that the mosquitoes would leave us alone for just 30 minutes to get the job done....the mosquitoes were TERRIBLE in Galveston while we were there.  Like, run from the condo at full speed down 3 flights of stairs swinging our arms wildly and launching ourselves into the van screaming SHUT THE DOORS, SHUT THE DOORS kind of terrible!!  Yes, that bad.

It was humid, but the sunset was perfect, giving us perfect light.  The beach was empty and we got our serious, give us your best smiles photos taken and then it was on to silliness.  I think, as parents, Bill and I can be pretty serious and expect a lot of the kids, but on the flip side, we can be pretty goofy too when the mood strikes.  Even Bill.  He can be down right hilarious.  These goofball photos will forever put a grin on my face.  Especially when recalling the point at which we thought we spotted someone on the balcony of their beachfront house taking in our nutty photo session.  We ran shrieking and then figured out it was just a big empty pot on the porch!  Hah!

Silly Jacob...that kid is a ham!

 We don't catch this kind of a smile from Gregory often, so it is a keeper when we do!

This first one is our most 'normal' trucker hat photo...where I think we look the dorkiest because let's face it, trucker hats are not flattering when worn, well, the normal way!

We were warming up the goof........this was the 'do your own thing' pose

Yeah, umm, I'm not sure this one is much better.  Still trying!

OK, now we're getting our swagger goin'......this is our 'wassup homie' pose.  I love Luke's stank face!

Now there will be no messin' with us.......

 It all went downhill from there.  We had to embrace some redneckish-ness.  Just had to......yes, yes I did marry that tall guy in the back.

And if we had to 'PICK A WINNER', this might just be it!  Please take note...the girls have their fingers NEXT to their nose.  The boys have their fingers IN their nose.  Boys.....

Yep, it's a good thing it was only an empty pot on that porch.  Had it been a person they'd probably still be having nightmares!!

I love my family.  We have plenty of days when getting along is just out of the question, when being a parent just stinks to high heaven and our kids would like to disown us.  But these kind of moments are golden. Treasures of the heart of happy fun times as a family! 

Look out beach, we'll be back again some day!