Picture Taking at the Beach

Christmas is right around the corner and that's all I can think about these days. In fact, everything I do or think about has something Christmas thought to it...I don't know why that is but seems like I'm more excited about Christmas this year than I was any other Christmas. And not because I'm getting loads of presents or anything like that...heck, I haven't even started shopping for my kids yet. It's just the feeling about Christmas and I can feel it in the air. And I kind of feel a little guilty that I am not even thinking about Thanksgiving at all...don't get me wrong, I will have my Thanksgiving get-together and I have loads of things I'm grateful for.

Like everyone else around the holidays...family picture becomes a must on my list. But to cut down on the cost, I take our family pictures(have a friend do it or whoever was available at the time we needed the picture taken) instead of going to a photo studio to have it done. I'd rather spend the money on something else than have it spend on pictures...of course, if I have a professional photographer as a friend, I would pay her to take my family photos. And since I make my own Christmas cards, I think it only fitting that the pictures that go with it be also made(taken) by me.

Anyways, for every year since we started doing this and the kids were old enough to actually cooperate with a smile on their faces, we've been going over the Laie Temple (for those non-Mormon readers, this is the Mormon Temple) to have our pictures taken there. The Temple itself is beautiful and the landscape is absolutely breathtaking. Unfortunately this year, we are unable to do that because the temple is closed for renovation. So, I decided that we will have our pictures taken at the beach. I love the idea of sending our Christmas cards to our family on the mainland with a picture of us at the beach(a kind of a joke strategy my hub and I have started to share to torture our family on the mainland to get them to come visit us..naughty uh? LOL).

So yesterday, after weeks of planning, color outfit to match, I made a deal with a friend of mine to bring her family and we can each take each other's family pictures. Everything worked out pretty smoothly until we got to the beach. Trying to control the little kids to stay away from the water long enough to take pictures was a bit of a struggle. I have to keep explaining to them that it's still Sunday and we still need to keep the Sabbath day holy and that we weren't there to swim which was really something else. We took tons of pictures since everytime most of the family is ready with a pose, one of the kids would move or blink. And I want to say that my hubby and my friend's hubby were real troopers, they didn't complain once and went along with both of our whims. When we say, stand a certain way or look a certain way...they did, which helped because when the kids see how patient the dads were to the mom, they couldn't help but follow suit. I am happy to report that I got what I needed out of our little photo session and didn't lose anyone to the temptation of those beautiful rolling waves. Oh but how the kids were so tempted to jump in the water full suit.

I was going to wait til closer to Christmas to show off the result our photo shoot but I am so excited about how these ones turned out. My friend took these and just emailed them to me so I thought I'd post them. We decided to do a walk on the beach and have her take different take on it. As you see the number of people in the pictures, you can give me virtual high five for tackling this task and managing to get away with everyone's cooperation. Enjoy.

(From left to right: Steph, Jon, Jen, Chris, Kat, me, Kev, Dan, & Joe)



Oh by the way...my give-away is still on...if interested, go here to enter. You still have til this Sunday.