Caleb was given a camera to use for one of his classes at school. He had the assignment to take photos that were framed and in focus. So, the past two nights we have taken photo walks together. He was suppose to take 15-20 by Friday. He is up to about 200 now. That is my style though. Many many photos, and a few of them will be great.

We have had fun though. Bonding. We also discovered that our cat, Harry, loves to join us on walks. He sprints down the path, jumps into the soybeans and waits. As we walk by, he jumps out and pounces on us, then sprints down the path again. Over and over. He also loved climbing on hay bales. Both Caleb and the cat enjoyed that.

Nice memories.

Thinking
We are lucky to have three healthy boys. I take it for granted.

Wanting
Our house to sell. Please buy our house.

Listening
I am too lazy to put in a cd, or listen to my ipod. I pretty much listen to the 101.1. Daily.

*Idea for this post was obtained from kristyk.org.

I have been slacking on taking photos. I haven't gotten out my camera since the first day of school. Before that, it was vacation. I use to take tons of random, day to day photos. I uploaded them to the internet, and blogged about them. Now, with dial up, I cannot upload. Therefore, I have stopped taking photos.

I am living in a beautiful location. I should photograph it more. I am constantly admiring the contrast of the green grass, with the brown bales of hay, the green soybeans, the yellowing corn, the blue sky, and the cows. But, I don't photograph them. I really should. I should also document our fascinating lives. We play badminton in the evening. We sometimes play cards, after everyone is ready for bed. The boys build amazing things out of legos, and have battles involving lego roller coasters versus catapults. I can't claim to understand it, but I should photograph it. The teenager might scowl at me, but I should do it anyway. The boys practice music daily. I should document this.

I get caught up in being busy though. Getting ready for work, getting three tired boys ready for school. Breakfast, packing lunches, driving to school, turning around halfway there, because someone forgot their homework. Coming home, cooking dinner, taking care of the trash. Sitting down for five minutes, then gladly getting up to go play the before mentioned badminton. Always moving.

I get caught up worrying about money, houses selling, making sure the boys have a solid, worry free childhood. Band instruments needing purchased, birthdays coming up. But, in the grand scheme of things, we have it pretty good. We have our health. We have a house to live in. We have food to eat. We have family. We are pretty lucky.

Why should I worry about petty things. I should enjoy the beauty of life, and take more photos instead.

How amazing is it, that we can climb into a metal box with wheels, sit in comfy seats, and a couple hours later be in a different state visiting family. Really, no time at all. We are there. Visiting. Enjoying.

We spent the weekend in Manhattan, because the boys cannot get enough grandparent time. We are beyond blessed with the relationship these boys have with all of their grandparents. I know not every kid is this lucky.

I intended to write this two weeks ago. But, dial up causes brilliant blogging ideas to be ignored.

So, on the first day of school, not only am I trying to wake myself up, I am trying to wake up three tired boys, and motivate them for 148 days of fun filled school. I am also trying to convince them to smile for photos. Smile. Is that too much for a mom to ask?

So, the above... Caleb. This was only like the 10th photo I took. Just waiting for that smile. I tell jokes. Nothing. Finally, he pities me.

Really, I think it was me saying... "you can leave, if you smile."

Next up, Jonas. He is a difficult kid sometimes. He refuses to smile, covers his eyes like he's in pain, and just can't wait to get away.

Although, today, he was quite polite, he was EXCITED about school. He was excited about his teacher, excited about math. So, he was a smiley boy this morning.

Then Alex. My sixth grader. He was nervous to start middle school. New building. New teachers. A locker. Band. Walking across the street to art. It was a lot to take in. But, Alex can't NOT smile. It isn't in him.

Then, I wanted a group shot. For facebook. For this blog. Of course, they were a bit tired of photos at this point.

There is a little glimpse of that difficult side of Jonas. This however, is my favorite. All in their own world. All oblivious to the fact I want that perfect photo. All with food in their bellies, so I can't even motivate them with food. It turned out good though.

Then, the smiling photo. The one for the record.

Ok. You can go to school now boys.

We have been playing badminton again, now that the evenings are a bit cooler, and the AC is fixed, so we can cool off after a game. The hardest part about playing is this trusting cat. He walks out in the middle of the court and just flops himself down. Everyone (except maybe Jared) would gladly miss a hit, if it means scaring the cat. Sometimes Harry moves to the post, where there is a dangling string. He bats at the string, and we all laugh and marvel at his cuteness. Except Jared, who takes advantage of the moment and serves the birdie, which I miss, because my kitty is being so gosh darn cute.

We then drove to St. Louis, to visit the friend I have had the longest. A lifetime friend. It is hard to top that. We don't get together often enough.

I should of taken more photos of her adorable kids. My kids and her kids got along great. We ate pizza, which pleased Jared. Two meals worth of pizza. His kind of people.

Again, what this made me feel, is we really do need to get together more often. It only took us five hours to get home. That is proof to me. We must not wait so long to see each other.

11 states. 3500 miles. 13 days. Many, many memories.

Next year? We're heading west. Glacier National Park. Yellowstone. Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Grand Tetons.

Yesterday was the first day of school. That means we get up much too early, and the boys grumble as I take them outside for photos. I have every first day of school, starting with preschool. This was my favorite of the 80 some photos I took.

Our original plan was to stay two nights, camping, in the park. However, the weather forecast was predicting a downpour for those three days we were planning on camping. We'd been on the road for almost two weeks, we were tired. Did we really want to camp, in the rain? No. So, we canceled those reservations, and got a hotel room for one night instead.

It turned out not to rain as much as was predicted, but did rain some.

We did some hiking above the cave.

Then we went into the cave.

We went on a two hour, two mile historical tour. All five of us found it very interesting. Photos were pretty much impossible to take in the cave. Although many people took photos, flashing their flashes and blinding us, I chose not to. It was a very good tour. We had a great tour guide.

While at Mammoth Cave, we tried Cracker Barrel for the first time. The next day we ate there for the second time. It is a new vacation favorite.

We bought the peg game to have at the house. We're all genius, how could we not buy it?

So, on this day, we drove 10 hours. We should of stayed more than one night here. There was much more to this park than we expected. We arrived, just shortly before park closing, to be told by the ranger, that the boys would NOT be able to do the junior ranger program. They have done probably 20 junior ranger programs. This was the first time any ranger had discouraged them. I bought them patches, and we moved on. We did some hikes. We were pretty tired by this point.

We then started awarding "points" to the boys for good attitude. They just needed 20 points to go swimming when we got to the hotel. They chippered up fast!

It was a lovely park, we just didn't have the time or energy for it.

It was on this day, that Alex saw the world's funniest bumper sticker.